Artist Feature: Lutfi Herdiansyah (Lysergic44)

Lutfi Herdiansyah, also known as Lysergic44, is a student and freelance illustrator based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He is known for drawing Power Rangers and Super Sentai fan art. His love for the series inspired him to create his own team of rangers named Astro Warriors.

Would you like to give a little introduction of yourself to the readers?

Hi! My name is Lutfi Herdiansyah, a.k.a Lysergic44, but you can call me Lutfi. I’m a student and freelance illustrator based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Can you tell us about your personal background and what drove you to become an artist?

I grew up in a small city called Wonosobo, Central Java, Indonesia, and I pretty much got into this because of Digimon Adventure. I woke up every Sunday morning to watch it and got so bummed when it’s over, so my father would try to draw the characters to cheer me up. Until at one point I think his drawing is too realistic and different from what I saw on the TV so I tried to draw it myself.

I’ve never felt confident about my ability, but my parents keep encouraging me to draw more. There was one time when I got really sick of drawing and just wanted to stop because my teacher keeps pushing me to attend a lot of drawing competition, but then I realize that drawing is the thing that keeps me going.

Did you grow up watching any kind of tokusatsu shows or movies? Do you have a favorite?

Basically, I’m a sucker for a show about a group of friends trying to save the world from destruction. I love every season of Power Rangers, oh and Beetleborgs, but I guess the one that really hooked me into it was Lost Galaxy. If I have to choose a favourite, that might be Ninja Storm and Dino Charge. It has a lot of rangers, a lot of colors, and there are so many lovable characters, even the villains ☺.

I’m not a big fan of Ultraman and Kamen Rider series, but I love Kamen Rider Ryuki because the rider’s design is really amazing.

What is it about the show(s) that inspire your works?

I really love colourful superheroes! lol. If we’re talking about Sentai, then I’d say that their suit is hella amazing. I mostly work on Power Rangers / Sentai fanarts, I love designing my own sentai suit and I enjoy another artist’s original designs too.

What special tools do you use for art / what is your favorite medium?

I mostly work on digital and pencil. I’ve never really tried another medium like watercolour or oil paints. Working digitally is way cheaper, easier, and more convenient for me, haha.

I mostly use SAI for the lineart, the color, shading, etc, and Photoshop for the effects and color correction if necessary.

How did you develop your particular art style and what influences it the most?

Honestly, I’m still trying to figure out what kind of style I’m comfortable with. My style has been changing so much that it’s kinda hard to say what exactly influences it the most. I guess I can say that I was inspired by a lot of 90’s anime like digimon, pokemon, sailormoon etc I also enjoy a lot of style from bunch of different artists; like Chinatsu Kurahana, @666pigeon and @Tsulala on twitter, Kevin Wada, Dan Mora, Jorge Jimenez, I can go on and on. The thing is, I always draw characters with cartoonish features, and I’m currently exploring my ability to draw with more realistic features as in western comic style, so I hope I can have my really own unique style by somehow merging them together ☺.

Rolling Flash (Commission)

Can you walk us through the process of creating a new piece of art?

I always start with a rough sketch, sometimes with pencil and paper, sometimes I do it directly on the computer. After that, I go to the lineart, and then the flat color on a separate layer. After this step, I do the shading. I tend to use a dark blue or purple for the shade in a separate layer with multiply mode and 30%-50% opacity. I will always change the shade color later either by painting over it or changing it’s hue and saturation, since using monotone color for the shade tends to make the drawing less appealing to my eyes haha. The last one is the finishing touch, adding highlights, effects, and stuff.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fanart you would like to share?

I’m still struggling to finish my study but I also been doing some personal project. Other than commissions, I’m working on my own story called Astrowarriors, basically group of superheroes trying to save the world with a touch of some greek mythology. You can check it out on my deviantart page. Other than that, expect some power rangers related content in the future! xD

You can find more of Lutfi’s works on his Instagram, Twitter, Deviantart and Tumblr.