Cicero- Fool of Hearts (April Print of the Month)

"I took a stroll, and spied a maid, but Matron's duty stayed my blade. So busy now, I miss the thrill, if only I had time to kill."

Behold, Cicero- Fool of hearts! I think I can say that upon a replay of Skyrim, Cicero is my favorite NPC. (I love you too, Serana) Here is my take on him, I really feel he is lacking face paint in vanilla Skyrim. I was going to splatter him with blood but it would go against canon so I stayed my greedy hands. :(
This is the 8"x10" print for this month's print club!!

I do have one WIP snapshot of while I was working on this piece below. Typically face is most important, then I block out details. I did a quick Zbrush sculpt for his face based on a few of my favorite replacer mods for him (sorry default Cicero, I tried to leave a ghost of you in there somewhere, but the male NPC's faces are potatoes at best in Skyrim) I usually use some very simple assets on the model for a base (his hat was a black beanie at first, lol) but I don't like to linger too long in the 3D phase. Here is a look at how I block out clothing before I get down to details. This piece was done almost exclusively with one brush, my favorite slightly textured soft round. Only a few touches on the background and clothing with some concept art texture brushes.

Oh, and as you can see I had the piece tilted quite significantly at the start. I realized that I was having to keep the canvas perpetually rotated to wok on it, and when I put it right I kept tilting my head to the side automatically. I wanted kind of a warped/unpleasant angle but one must sacrifice such things for comfort of viewing.

Anyways, I hope you all are doing well!! I'm not sure yet what I'm going to go with for the mini print, I'm considering doing a faux stained glass similar to the one in the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary:

Or I might paint the Night Mother's coffin with the stained glass behind it

We shall see!!! Let me know what you guys think. Are we excited for the Oblivion remaster or what? Love you all, and I hope from the bottom of my heart that you are able to do what makes you happy. Thank you so much for your support. ♥

~Lily