Roman Hladik, Lead Artist at 2K Czech discusses how the team goes from quick sketch to a final, more polished piece of art.

Here is an example of how we realise our concept art by Mikulas Podprocky, another of our character artists. First we make quick sketches to capture the mood and composition. Then we select some to work up to ingame quality – not everyone can relate to rough drafts so easily, so by creating these dramatic images we tell a story that everyone who has ever seen a crime movie can understand (plus we set a benchmark for the art quality of the final game!). Working from the sketch Mikulas poses models using our ingame editing tool then touches up the details using Photoshop to create the final look.

In the picture Vito is taking cover in a side street. As you can see Vito has a tough job and sometimes he takes a hit, he is angry to be injured and hiding. He could choose to be a dock worker of course, but I’m sure you don't want to play game where the only gameplay is to carry crates! ;) So Vito has to sometimes endure a little pain for you…

Source: 2k Games