After years of working as a concept artist and illustrator in the entertainment industry, Alexander Minze Thümler has embarked on a new creative journey by focusing on his own graphic novel project. This transition from commercial work to personal artistic expression has provided him with unique opportunities to experiment with different visual approaches and push beyond his established artistic boundaries.
The shift to working on his own project has presented Thümler with both new challenges and creative freedoms that weren't available when creating digital art for clients. Unlike commissioned work, where artistic decisions are often influenced by client requirements and brand guidelines, his graphic novel allows for complete creative control and the opportunity to explore unconventional techniques.
When discussing a particular experimental piece he created while developing ideas for his graphic novel, Thümler explained his methodical approach to the artwork. "This piece is an experiment – I wanted to explore an art style for my graphic novel," he said. "I started with a thumbnail sketch to capture the idea and quickly establish the composition and lighting."
His creative process involves multiple distinct phases, each building upon the previous work. After completing the initial thumbnail sketch, Thümler refined the drawing and established the basic color palette by blocking in local colors. He then added depth and dimension to the piece by incorporating cast shadows and ambient occlusion using Multiply layers, a common digital art technique that creates realistic shadow effects.
For the lighter areas of the composition, Thümler employed Color layers and Adjustment curves, carefully separating these elements from the shadows using digital masks. This technical approach allowed him to maintain precise control over the lighting throughout the piece. Additional Normal layers enabled him to paint realistic reflections on various surfaces including metal and skin, as well as to add subtle indirect lighting effects within the shadowed areas.
One of the most significant decisions in his experimental approach was to retain the line art rather than fully rendering every detail. "To avoid time-consuming rendering, I decided to keep the line art," Thümler noted. This choice not only saved considerable time but also contributed to a distinctive visual style that balances detailed digital painting techniques with the clarity and impact of traditional illustration methods.
The decision to maintain visible line work represents a departure from fully painted digital art styles commonly seen in commercial entertainment industry work. This hybrid approach creates a unique aesthetic that combines the precision of digital painting with the expressive quality of traditional drawing techniques, making it particularly well-suited for graphic novel storytelling.
Thümler's artistic evolution can be explored further through his comprehensive ArtStation profile, where he showcases a diverse portfolio spanning his commercial and personal work. His experimental graphic novel piece demonstrates how personal projects can serve as valuable testing grounds for artistic growth and style development, offering artists the freedom to take creative risks that might not be possible in commercial contexts.
