**"Blinded at birth, two serpents were slowly starving, on a path to certain death. Until a demon witch came along binding herself to them to save their lives. Now through her many eyes they can forever see the world around them. They are inseparable.. deadly, and always hungry, but she may grant your desires for a price... Approach with this warning ( though you may be tempted ), you may never return..." **
Hope you all had a WONDERFUL summer!!! I had a great vacation visiting friends and family! Tons of outdoor play, and too much sun.. but Im back!! And I Have SOOO much art to share with you all!!
The last big piece I shared was one that was made as a study via photo reference. I come to you today with a complete original! I love testing my limits and seeing what I can come up with after doing so many studies from reference. I get to test my mental library and see what I am capable of! I come to you today with not only a brand new piece but also a start to a new series! Maidens and Monsters.
I used to only draw monsters when I was younger. I was damn near obsessed with them.. but well as I got older my likes shifted to the female figure and well there you have all my current work.
But its time to bring the 2 world together! Beast and womensss timessss XD. DELICIOUSSSS
OK NOW ITS TIME TO SHOW YOU THE STEPS!!! I will try and add some notes here and there!
1 - The SKETCH
Not too much to say here. I had an image in mind and I just started going at it. I wanted her to have two serpent buddies!! I had the thought about them being blind and they see through her many eyes on her arms.
2- more SKETCH
Extended the canvas and added a couple little highlights. Just feeling out the character a bit.
3 - Figuring out my lighting!
Alright so here is a good sketch phase that I generally share on my socials. I usually add some quick tonal color and here I have a pretty simple start to my lighting scheme!
4 - BEGGINNN COLORRR
Here you can see that I have begun bringing in some color to the piece while still keeping the green undertones as my base!
5 - The SHIFT
As you can see Ive added quite allot of warm tones while keeping very little of the green undertones! I liked it at first but it seemed to be kinda blah after a while... you can also see me still working my line work and slowly adding details.
6 - Details and sparkles and shades oh my!!
Now the eyes on her arms are taking life along with the serpents as well!! Just slowly working at it.
7 - The hair as a frame...
Here you can see that I decided to make her inner hair brighter and of a different shade! Ive seen it done before and really wanted to try it out. Also I added some new dimension by including some beams of light!
8 - Its coming.. to LIFEEE
By adding more contrast and painting in more skin and focusing on facial details the whole piece is really just coming to life!!
9 - Sometimes you gotta follow your mind.. not your heart
I came to realization that it would be impossible for her upper body to be in shadow BUT her face be all perfectly lighted. In order to give it a good realistic effect her face also needed to be in shadow. Sometimes our eyes get adjusted and fall in love with what we are doing and it best to take a step back and use your mind as well as your heart when creating something from scratch. How will the light interact with the character, what will be in shadow, what parts should stick out most... what should stay stylized. Art is such an amazing process and I'm truly lucky to be able to do this for a living. :) And one last step....
All I can say is sometimes you need...
- 9 - MOOOOOAARREE
Ended up adjusting the colors a little bit more to match with her skin tones, kept some strong lines but also some smooth rendered skin. Overall im really happy with how it turned out!! =D
AND HERE IS THE MAGICCC
And if you read this far I wanted to thank you for taking a look at my art!! And my process!!
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I hope you all enjoy and stay tuned for lots more art! ;) AND I APPRECIATE ALL YOUR COMMENTS AND LOVEEE!! - Nycto
my artstation - www.artstation.com/nyctoinc
my facebook page - www.facebook.com/nyctoinc
my deviantart - www.deviantart.com/theviljackass
my instagram - www.instagram.com/nyctoinc