“Kylo Ren” Artwork and Complete Step-By-Step Process

I’ve become obsessed with creating long ink strokes and intricate shadows lately, and I knew I could get both of those with Kylo Ren.

A few years ago I took a shot at Kylo Ren and I wasn’t really happy with how he turned out. This is my shot at personal redemption.

As usual, I started out with a pencil sketch in Clip Studio Paint.

Pencils

It’s also the part where I have the most fun.

My next step was to do inks over the piece. This is a lengthy process and where I do most of my work. While I might suggest things with my pencils, it’s the inking stage where I do much of my creative work.

Inks

I knew that the lightsaber was going to be complicated. I wanted to render it as line art, but I also needed it to “blow out” everything behind it.

So, what I did was create a layer on top of the inked layer and just drew it exactly like my black ink layer… but this time I used white(ish) ink, then red ink on top.

I like how it turned out. If Disney wants to hire me to do some comic work, this is how I would do lightsabers from now on! (I’m not holding my breath for the call from Disney.)

Inks with Saber

That’s pretty cool as just a black and white piece, but I wanted it to be in full-color so I laid down some flat color in the background and on the figure.

Final with Color

I looked for my old piece of Kylo Ren and apparently, I don’t have a scan of it.

That was back when I was doing art with a real pencil and a real brush and you’ll have to take my word for it… this is much better. And a lot more fun!

I can’t wait to make some more long ink strokes and intricate shadows, but that will have to wait until tomorrow because I’m getting sleepy and I need to go to bed.

But the obsession will carry on tomorrow!

If you have questions for me, I’m glad to answer them in the comments below.