This is a quick sketch that I recorded for a feature on Angry Zen Master called Super Geek Wars where I pit characters from different franchises against each other in singles combat. Readers vote on who they think would win in a no holds barred fight. This particular sketch features Logan, Wolverine, from the X-Men comics and Manji from Blade of the Immortal.

The sketch starts out very loose. I use a combination of brushes to build up texture all in gray scale. When I’ve worked the sketch to decent enough state, color is added on layers above the gray scale sketch. This workflow is similar to traditional water color and acrylic painters who use thin layers of color to build up their forms. To finish everything off, the sketch is flattened and color corrected. Highlights are worked in with the dodge tool. Color gradients are overlaid to tone the entire composition. That image gets flattened again and duplicated for the blur effect.