Edit 12/20/23

Culinarypunk is getting a new style of art in 2024, moving away from AI art as a tool in the process. As Culinarypunk shifts towards a professional product, I’ll be switching out the concept art that was created using the old style to a new one.
I’ve worked on my art to find a style I can accomplish without hurting my hands, doesn't require that much cleanup from the sketching process, won’t take me weeks to complete, and lets me get across the silly ideas in my mind. It’s a little more serious looking than you may be used to but Culinarypunk’s original concept was and always will be mixing the serious with the silly, and I think the new art style will reflect this. I hope you like it, let me know what you think!

The New Process

Step One

Circles and Ovals

When I start a sketch, I pull up real world references and start to break them down into shapes. First, I mark out the cross on the face and where the neck connects to the head. I then fit as many mushy circles and ovals in as I can to build out the general shape of what I want.

Step Two

The Sketch

This is the longest stage of the process and involves a lot of command+z. This could be split into two steps, the messy sketch and the clean sketch, but I'm just showing the clean sketch to save your eyes from a million little sketch marks hahahah.

Step Three

The Base

I use the lasso tool on a new layer to get a base. I try to keep this all the brightest color, but sometimes hair works out better when you base it in the darker color and paint in the lighter ones. I also change up the edges of the base here and there, like shrinking the jaw or slightly changing the hair/clothing flow.

Step Four

Deep Shadows

Grab that lasso tool again, it's time to bring some shape into this blob. I keep my outline up and start blocking in the darkest areas, beginning with the largest and working my way down to the finer details. I can fill in a blob, like around the eye area, and carve away bits of the shadow until it looks how I want.

Step Five

Midtones and Finishing Touches

Finally, I come back in with a color between the two and fill in some midtone shadows. I could stop at Step Four but I think this step adds a lot of life and personality to the art. I also pop back into the dark shadows to add any details I feel are missing if needed. I use the same carving technique with the lasso, which lets me easily add or remove areas on the layer. This is how I get sharp linework on the shadows.
With that, the art is complete! Sometimes it's difficult to decide when it's too much or not enough, but if I find myself searching for more areas to add stuff, I make myself stop. At some point in the future I might bring more color into the art, but for now I'm going to keep it purple.
This art style takes inspiration from old school TTRPGs, concept/character artists like Scott Flanders and Thiago Lehmann, and golden age comic books.

by Emily Armstrong, Photoshop

The Old Process

There has been a ton of discourse about the use of AI art. I thought I'd showcase how I use AI like Wombo/Dream and Leonardo as tools to create my art. As somebody who is physically unable to draw anymore and having to rely on digital tools, AI has been such a savior for my hands. It's a shortcut that lets me add depth and create art in ways I didn't think was possible anymore. I understand why some people may still have hangups about AI art, but I hope this articles helps others understand why I continue to use AI art for concept art.

Step One

Crappy Photoshop Painting

First, I start with a quick sketch in Photoshop. I use super broad strokes to get the general shape and idea for the image I want. It's difficult for me to get fine details without having to redo them many times, and AI tends to pop that stuff in for me, so I can save my hands a quite a bit during this step.

Step Two

First AI Run

Next, I run that basic version through Wombo/Dream to change it up a bit with prompts. In this case, it put orange slices under the ears which I never would have thought of. Unfortunately, the chest is a little weird. We're going to need to fix a few things, but that's no problem because this has already saved me so much time and pain.

Step Three

Back to Photoshop

Time to fix things up a bit. Things aren't quite where I'd like them yet but we're getting closer. Our little pup is getting really cute! This is where I would add any new ideas and clean up anything that I don't love.

Step Four

Style Run

Finally, it's a run through a model I've trained solely on my own work through Leonardo to bring it closer to the style I use for Culinarypunk. This process can go on for hours going back and forth, but I think we've hit the right vibe already. Welcome to Culinaria, Citrus Lollie Collie!