Master Chief (Halo) Minimalist

Minimalism is a term referring to those movements or styles in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work of art is reduced to its necessary elements. This artstyle is almost always done on a digital editing software. For the aspiring digital artist, Peter Lourekas included a segment about this very style in his Visual Quickstart Guide for Photoshop CC.

x

Without going into terms most won't understand, minimalist art is made of outlines and flat colors. Most minimalist art is based off existing character designs or stances. The art is made by outlining the entire subject and including only vital details- essentially, you make it as simple as possible. Now that the concept is explained, lets try to make some art of our own.   

For this project, we'll be creating a minimalist design of Master Chief using Photoshop. The plan is simple- make the outlines, color it, and then polish. 

First, we need a photo to base our work off of. While just about anything works, I'd recommend using photos with a higher resolution. The photo we'll use is the cover art for Halo 4. 

Now that we have a base, we'll need to decide what we'll want to use in the minimalist design. For now, we'll just stick with the foreground and a lightly detailed backdrop. In order to accomplish this, we'll need to get a background going. Adding some simple details in a moderately flat color works best for the style we're going for. Make sure to patch up the white, then lock the layer.

Now that we have the background, all we'll need to do is replace the silhouette with black. After doing so, we'll just need to smooth the texture and do a bit of polish. You may decide to add some lighting if your pose allows it. Once you're done, lock the layer. 

Next, we'll combine the two layers. Simple enough. After that, we'll include a basic border for presentation's sake. 

Looks nice! However, some people may prefer little something to give the eye to look at, especially when it comes to character portraits. The best thing to give your picture some focus with is some text. For this, we'll just add the Chief's name & designation.  

And we're finished! Some people may prefer the version without text, but both work. Now that you have the completed design, simply export into your desired file type and resolution. I'd advise that you export both the text-less and final versions to appease both preferences. You can do what you please with your art afterwards.