PROCESS: Nahum // nsfw

alrighty, look below to download the attached .zip and get the process pack for this painting of nahum! 

this process is partly business as usual, but it was also a sort of experimental piece; if you look at steps 11-16, you can see where i'm experimenting a bit with shadows and lighting. i kind of want to explore cel shading more. it would be a useful, simple-but-effectual shading method to be able to resort to when i don't want to leave a picture with plain flat colours but also can't be bothered to do the more time-consuming and complex gradient type of shading i often do. but tbh i find cel shading really challenging, for some reason? i don't have much experience of cel shading things, and when i try my hand at it, i tend to overdo it. i really need to do some research and studies instead of just winging it lol.

in this picture, anyway, i did a sort of mixture between semi-cel shading (for the darkest shadows) and gradient shadows. i used several new layers for my shadows, had the layers set to 'multiply,' and lowered the transparency until it looked good. at first i used a warm yellow for the shadows, but then i changed it to a colder hue, altering the whole vibe of the picture in the process. the same can be said for when i decided to change the background colour. other than the semi-experimental way of shading i coloured it in much my usual way: working my way from the basic flat colours to smaller and smaller details;  working both below and on top of the lineart layer;  colouring parts of the lineart; refining and polishing stuff as i went and especially at the last few stages (+ last-minute fixed his neck since i realised it looked p wonky). 

the whole thing didn't quite turn out like i envisioned, but hey, it's a learning experience. this is what experimental pieces are for: experimenting. i'm happy with the picture all in all, and i've got some ideas for shading techniques to try in the future. 

(also, unrelated to the process itself, but as i was drawing this i realised that 1) nahum is basically like a mix between a dog and a shark?? a sharkhound? and 2) his skin probably feels like the rough backside of leather/suede, like that kind of texture (and it's thick and tough and serves as a natural armour). also ngl, the main reason i painted this was that i wanted to draw his teef/mouf. rn i'm just really really into designs where the inside of the mouth/gums/teeth/tongue/etc has weird colours?)

 // art + character © me.