Creating a Teen Titans Illustration Mixing the 2000s TV Show-Style with a Realistic Look

Introduction

Greetings, readers! My name is Aziz Mbye, also known as AzizDraws. I have been drawing for as long as I can remember (my mother says I was two years old when I started drawing on the walls and couches), and up until now, I have kept up with my desire to draw, steadily getting better with each passing year. Currently, I am 28 years old, so it has been some time since I began drawing.

I can't really say what compelled me to start drawing all those years back, but all I know is that when I saw something that grabbed my attention, whether it be a person, a cartoon, or a movie, I felt the need to draw it soon afterwards.

Because drawing is an activity I enjoy doing during my free time, my skills naturally improved as I gained better hand control, muscle memory, and a more in-depth understanding of what I observed from the world as I got older. I believe growing up with the internet also helped significantly, for it allowed me to see more art and even see the process of how it is done by other artists. 

Many of the projects and pieces I've done in recent years have been mostly personal work, inspired by the various forms of media I enjoy, past and present. There was, however, one time I did work on a movie poster for The Last Blockbuster documentary. Despite my small contribution, it was cool getting to see my name in the credits of a movie.

Now and then, I will get commissioned by people to draw personal work for them, and I have even done a few comic covers for an up-and-coming indie project known as Knight of Abyss by Quintin Dorsey.

Teen Titans Project

Between the years 2020 and 2022, I made it a goal to draw and post on a daily basis. This constant work on my craft helped me grow in skill, but to help me stay engaged and not burn out from the challenge, I would assign a subject to draw each day ahead of time, with each month having a certain theme.

For the month of June in 2022, the theme was groups/squads, as I wanted to improve my compositional skills when involving multiple people. During this month, I illustrated pieces inspired by The Guardians of the Galaxy, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Teen Titans. In addition to these pieces, I also illustrated my original characters cosplaying for a convention.

Teen Titans was one of my favorite shows growing up, and it had a wonderful mix of Western and Japanese culture on display. For a while, I desired to draw the five main members together as a group, and the drawing theme I had for June was appropriate at the time. For the Teen Titans illustration, I wanted to render the characters with a more semi-realistic style, while still maintaining the show's distinct look and art direction.

Working with References

The references I worked with were mainly the character designs from the show, and for the poses, I took into consideration the personalities and behavior of each of the characters. I find it an important element in my drawings to have recognizable characters show their established personalities through their body language.

Starfire, for example, has a more gentle, curious personality, but is still confident in her ability to battle her opponents. Raven is more reserved, so she is further behind in the composition. Robin naturally is closest to the enemy, for he is the leader of the group and is typically the first one to approach the enemy.

From the sketch phase all the way to the final, I used a Wacom Intuos Pro Medium to draw this piece. I bought my Intuos tablet about 8 years ago, and I still use it to this day. Even though I have considered upgrading to a screen tablet, the benefit of using the Intuos is that I can draw with my arm relaxed while looking ahead and not straining my neck. Making sure your body is comfortable while drawing is crucial if an artist plans on drawing for several hours.

The program I used to draw my Teen Titans piece, as well as most of my digital art, is Clip Studio Paint. Over the years, I have grown to truly enjoy this software, and because of how long I have used it, my productivity and efficiency in creating art with the program have only improved.

Sketching Phase

Before every illustration, I apply a rule of thirds grid onto my digital canvas for two purposes: 1. To plan out the composition of the illustration with the grid lines as a guide, and 2. To use the sections of the grid for thumbnail sketches. I sketch 9 or more smaller thumbnail sketches to explore different ideas, placements of subjects, actions, and angles of the viewer's perspective.

Drawing thumbnail-sized sketches allows for faster iteration of ideas while still providing enough info for what the core concept of the illustration will be. Many of the sketches for my Teen Titans drawing revolved around the team attacking or getting ready to face off against the main villain of the show, Slade. Because my initial idea was to have all of the main Titans present, I felt it made sense for their joint effort to be focused towards an enemy that has consistently antagonized them throughout the show.

Once these thumbnail sketches are complete, I like to have friends and people who follow my work on social media vote for their favorite sketch. This gives those who like my work a chance to participate in the process of making these drawings, and it also provides me with more info on what concepts people would like to see fully illustrated. Whichever thumbnail has the most votes is usually the composition I end up choosing, but sometimes I will incorporate elements from the other sketches into the chosen one.

Coloring

Once I complete the line art for my subjects, I proceed to the coloring phase of my illustration, and will either apply the flat colors to my subjects first or apply one solid color to all the subjects and begin shading/rendering. I started with the flat colors first for the subjects in the Teen Titans piece. This part of the process is typically when I decide the direction of my light source.

The material surface was one element taken into account when rendering this piece. For cloth materials, such as the jeans on Raven, softer shadows and fewer highlights are applied to imply diffused lighting. Hard surface glossy materials, like Cyborg's cybernetic parts, are rendered with sharper highlights and made transparent so that the inner components are viewable. Other materials, like the metal plating on Slade, have scratches highlighted by the light source to simulate the material's appearance.

Assembling and Lighting the Scene

Once the coloring and rendering were complete, I decided to add small details such as noise/grain for the background and faint halftones on top of the composition. These are textures reminiscent of the show as well as comics in general, so I felt adding them could give this piece that final boost in visual intrigue.

In this piece, there are two sources. The brightest light source is in front of the Titans, and that helps separate the values used between them and Slade, for Slade is behind that same light. The second light is in front of the Titans, and it helps illuminate areas that would have been in shadow if the light source weren't present. Overall, I wanted the lighting tone to be on the warmer side, as I felt the colors appeared more natural if they were less cold, especially for the skin tones.

Conclusion

I finished this project during the span of about a week. I believe it took 27+ hours of work time to complete this piece. Some of the artwork I currently make balloons up to much longer work times due to the complexity and detail of the pieces, but perhaps I will find ways to streamline my process to be more time-efficient.

I would say the biggest challenge in illustrating this piece was making sure all the subjects were placed properly in the composition and making sure they were easily readable. If there was a lesson to be learned from this process, it would be that adding subtle details truly can finalize the piece you're working on.

Most of my work is done with the intent to convey depth and perspective for the viewer looking at the artwork. Along with sketching multi-point perspectives, I've dabbled in 3D programs throughout my life, and even more so when studying Industrial Design back in college. Over the years, my understanding of 3D space improved. I like to apply my understanding of 3D onto my illustrations, so I utilize techniques such as 3-point and sometimes 4-point perspective.

To any beginner artist reading this, thank you for taking the time to do so. If there's anything you gain from this, know that drawing is a rewarding but time-consuming activity. Be prepared to spend years of your life improving, and choose to draw things that interest you. It's harder to get better if you don't have a genuine interest in what you're doing. Also, draw with proper posture. Trust me on this.

Aziz Mbye, Artist

Interview conducted by Stephanie Almogabar