DiabloFans

DiabloFans: What was your inspiration for this piece?

Umpa: 1 word: Glowei!
Ever since we were introduced to this guy, I've been head over heels with his work. When I see his work I think to myself: If I'm going to make digital paintings, I want them to be at the level of this guy because nobody is his equal right now.

DiabloFans: Why the Witch Doctor?

Umpa: I stayed up until 4am to see the announcement of Diablo3. On that fateful night I was instantly drawn(pun) to the Witch Doctor. Everything about him captivated me; from his unique appearance to odd abilities that summoned creatures and spells that are very out of the box from your normal caster.

DiabloFans: Why did you choose this specific take on the WD?

Umpa: At first I was going to depict the Witch Doctor in a similar manner to the concept work and illustrations we have seen of him. But, I wanted to change things up a bit. I saw that most fan pieces have been of the WD with essentially the same gear. So, I did some research on potential gear for him and found that epic bird mask. There isn't a detailed image but the thumbnail was enough of a map for me to go off of.

I kept his gear relatively bare because I think the light cloth look really suites his nature. As far as everything else in the piece goes, I wanted the real Diablo fans to really get a kick out of it because they would be able to look at the piece and say "Oh look! He's summoning his Zombies...Oh wow, check out the poison toad! e.t.c."

DiabloFans: How many hours did this take you to complete?

Umpa: An embarrassing 30 hours(roughly) from the very beginning to end due to the fact that I'm still learning how to paint digitally and develop an effective process that doesn't end with me backtracking so much.

DiabloFans: What program did you use? And what tools, brushes, and technique did you use?

Umpa: I worked in photoshop after I hand drew out several thumbnails of what I wanted.
My workflow is pretty straight forward. I doodle out a few things that I would like to see. Then I narrow those ideas down to thumbnails. Once I'm satisfied with one, I begin to paint digitally. First with an outline(not always) in one layer of PS. Then I paint with the largest brush I can for as long as I can. In other words I lay down the large shapes and colors of the entire piece early on.

For this piece I stuck with the a few basic brushes. I went back and forth with the no opacity round brush(paint bucket style), opacity pressure sensitive round brush, and the charcoal brush(initial size 63, one of my fav's). I usually work with very low opacity(if any) for a large portion of the painting to work as quickly as possible. Blending is more difficult but the colors get laid down very quickly.

DiabloFans: What are you plans for future art work?

Umpa: In terms of Diablo, my only planned painting for the future is for Blizzcon. Of course that doesn't mean I won't do more. However, most of my digital painting for now will be confined to developing my personal work at school.

I recently purchased the Book of Cain. I can die a happy man. I will be spending most of my non school related time doing studies of the work within that book and doing drawings of my own.

I definitely enjoy painting but nothing will ever compare to good old paper and pencil. I'm a draftsman first!

DiabloFans: What was your favorite part about this painting?

Umpa: My favorite part of this painting had to definitely be painting the cloth on the WD. I went into it without too much of an idea of what I wanted and somehow that awesome ripped fabric appeared! Don't ask me how lol.

Behind that is the groundwork and horizon line. I was able to leave that stuff a bit more "loose" and "painterly" which is what I enjoy most. But I definitely wanted the WD to be rendered to a higher degree.

DiabloFans: And your least favorite?

Umpa: Painting that dang castle/gothic church building. That was so hard lol. I've only recently started to draw architecture. And...architecture from 500 years ago in 3 point perspective for a newbie like me is well..a pain!

DiabloFans: What did you learn from this piece that you will take with you on other projects?

Umpa: PLAN OUT EVERYTHING! At least when it comes to a high render illustration like this.
Unfortunately I relearned this rule the hard way. The lengthy duration spent on the painting is 100% due to my poor planning. I initially wanted this to be a submission to Blizzcon. Unfortunately I didn't plan well enough so I ended up getting to a certain place in the painting with no direction and hating what I had already done. So, I ended up COMPLETELY repainting this one...more than once.

Thanks for the interview guys! If you enjoy my work you can follow me: