PROCESS PACK: Unlikely love // nsfw

access the process pack for this image of tha'ra and soha by downloading the attached .zip below - contains 24 pngs and 1 gif!

soha (aka mezfirah) and tha'ra (aka khuthlya) is one of our oldest character pairings, i've drawn a few smutty doodles and half-finished pictures of them before, but this is really the first time i've completed a coloured image of them. and i'm incredibly happy with the result! the main challenges of this painting was 1) to render tha'ra's bone white colouration in a way that looked neither too pale or over-exposed, nor too dark; 2) to render tha'ras scales in just the right amount of detail; and 3) to figured out how to paint the vibrant-green-scales-merging-into-skin thing that soha has going on.

as for tha'ras pale colour scheme, i started out with grey-brown-beige base colours that were darker than the intended end result, and then painted with gradually lighter and lighter colours on top of that. this is my favourite way to paint pale colours in general; of course, darker shadows and details can be added along the way as well. i used mostly a textured square brush, because he shouldn't look too smooth and that brush helped bring some texture across... which brings me to the question of rendering his scales. the idea is that he's got plate-like, relatively big scales along his head, back, and tail, which merge into smaller and smoother scales along his underside. his scales serve as natural armour, but they're not big and chunky enough to hinder his movements or make him slow and lumbering; tha'ra is way more quick and agile than you'd guess from his impressive size. however, rendering every single scale on his body could easily have come out looking too busy, messy, even confusing. it's partly a matter of taste, sure, but i prefer when the amount of details is spread across a picture in a balanced way, if that makes sense? i focused my attentions on the bigger, bone-like 'plates,' leaving his belly and extremities shaded and highlighted but with less details and texture. detailing some areas more than others also helps guide the viewer, telling them where to look, which parts of an image are most important.

many of the bigger scales appeared already at the lineart stage, while others were added later (either by adding to the lineart or by painting them in). i lowered the transparency of the lineart pretty early on, painting both beneath and on top of it as i worked on his scales. at step 14 i played around with the levels, brightness, and contrasts, which dramatically changed the colouring so far from something rather dull-looking to something more vivid and interesting. i kept working on smaller and smaller details, and ended up increasing the brightness a bit more, once i realised he wasn't looking pale enough (step 18). by then i had also coloured parts of the lineart, with pale colours where the lines were less important, and darker colours where i wanted to emphasize the outline. throughout the process i made sure that the hues i used were reminiscent of whitened bones, with both warm and cold undertones; i used grey-ish and ochre browns both for the shading and to add some interesting gradients and colour shifts (without which his colouring might have looked very flat). even then you get the impression he's ivory-coloured, so mission accomplished (moral of the story: don't be afraid to shade white with way darker hues). i hope the last two paragraphs make sense; it's a bit difficult to explain with words only, so i've included quite a few steps showing how i painted tha'ra's scales.

as for soha's scale/skin situation, i started out colouring his skin as usual and then added his scales in layers, painting gradually smaller and smaller scales and applying my favourite layer effect along the way. the bottom layers of bigger scales were painted with relatively dark colours, with the layer set to 'overlay'. for the middle layers i used medium-dark colours and kept the layer setting to 'normal'; and for the small scales on top i set the layers to 'overlay' again, creating the shiny highlights. i also picked a bright green colour, set a new layer to 'overlay' at a low transparency, and used an airbrush pen to add even more vibrance to the centers of his green patches. i also used the same method but a rose colour to add a subtle flush to his face, hands, elbows, knees, and da booty.

in general, this image benefitted a bunch from a variety of photoshop tricks, such as playing around with the levels, brightness, and contrast; it completely transformed the look of thara's scales and soha's skin, both at step 13 to 14 and step 17 to 18. without utilising those tools, the image would probably have looked much more flat and dull. i hiiighly encourage experimenting with photoshop effects and tools a lot, but also not to be discouraged if you can't figure it out all at once; it's taken me 10 years to get where i'm at now and i still have so much to learn about digital art programs. 

another favourite trick of mine is to use the overlay layer setting to add some warmth to the parts of the characters that are closest to the viewer or to areas where i want to draw attention (tha'ra's head and arm/hand, soha's hand on his chest). i created a new layer, coloured these areas with a yellow/orange hue, set the layer to 'overlay,' and then lowered the transparency until just a subtle hint of warmth remained. for the parts that are furthest away (their tails, arms, and soha's leg) i did the same but with a cool blue hue, making them look a bit more faded and pushed into the background and out of importance. it helps bring some subtle depth to the picture, and makes it easier to tell body parts apart where they overlap.  

the final touches consisted of changing my mind about the background, changing it from minty green it'd been throughout the process and instead just keeping it white, since i felt like that emphasized the crispness of the colouring of the characters. i finished off by adding tha'ra's scars (including the peculiar gold scar on his chest) aaand last-minute added some things i had forgotten about: soha's little antlers, nose-scales, and some red flowers that have a rather important significance for these two characters... but that's another story entirely.

// art + tha'ra © me; soha © kubi.