Conquistador Illustration, how I drew it and a brief history of the Age of Exploration.

The Age of Exploration

Hello to all of the #steemit community I just wanted to share my rough illustration of the classic Spanish/Portuguese soldier since I am fan of history. I was watching documentaries of the age of exploration since I'm really fond of it and grew fonder ever since watching some videos online I had a great time drawing with this so I'll be showing you how I did this in my own method since there are numerous methods that are used to illustrate out there and I'm not an expert or anything about illustrations in fact I am new to it, so if my methods doesn't work then you can always try a different way, the sky is the limit. First I have to put a brief history in to it just to remind ourselves of our past and how we inherited some of their cultures.

History

The so-called Age of Exploration was a period from the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century, during which European ships were traveled around the world to search for new trading routes and partners to feed burgeoning capitalism in Europe. In the process, Europeans encountered peoples and mapped lands previously unknown to them. Among the most famous explorers of the period were Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Pedro Álvares Cabral, John Cabot, Juan Ponce de León, and Ferdinand Magellan.

The Age of Exploration was rooted in new technologies and ideas growing out of the Renaissance, these included advances in cartography, navigation, and shipbuilding. The most important development was the invention of first the Carrack and then caravel in Iberia. These that were a combination of traditional European and Arab designs were the first ships that could leave the relatively passive Mediterranean and sail safely on the open Atlantic.
(more info http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Europeweb/factfile/Unique-facts-Europe7.htm)

Process

Software and equipment

The software I used in this particular art is Medibang pro (download link: https://medibangpaint.com/en/app-download/ ) it is a really great software and its free there are also great alternatives for illustration like Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Sketchpad just to name a few. The tablet I used is the Wacom's Intuos Draw
If you are somehow interested in the tablet you can check my review or thoughts here : https://steemit.com/unboxing/@sirwayneweezy/unboxing-the-wacom-intuos-draw-and-my-thoughts-on-it-so-far

References

Now that is out of the way I usually do reference since I rarely draw out of the head so I looked up online and do the Magellan drawing since I used to live in Lapu Lapu and I had great memories with that city and I love and miss that place.

Sketching

First I do sketch loosely and do whatever I want since It is just the sketch part you can do trial and error find poses online that you can emulate.

Inking and adding another layer

Then you will add another layer so that you will not mess up your guide (sketch) you can also lower the opacity of the first sketch by just clicking the sketch layer then dragging the opacity to your satisfaction.

Coloring

After doing the inking I removed the sketch layer and added the color layer to the background since doing Medibang the default background is white or no background whatever you may call it.

Then I added another layer for the body part when coloring so it wouldn't disrupt the color background or vice versa.

And that's it I know my illustration is kinda shabby at this point but I'm still looking forward for your advises or comments It would help me a lot to improve in the future also I hope this article helps this is just my experience in doing digital art so far. Thank you for reading and have great day or evening.