April MOTM: Snow & ice monster painting process // nsfw

download the attached .zip to get the process pack (20 pngs + 1 gif) for april's monster of the month painting.

i coloured this using a combination of 'regular' painting and the lasso select + gradient tool method described here. i'm having a lot of fun experimenting with different techniques, combining various methods, and trying to achieve different looks in different ways. my favourite part about this piece was colouring the icy bits. i started out with a pale blue base colour, fading into the ochre fur of her legs/arms, and then added progressively darker blue gradients in a scaly, flakey, layered kind of pattern. each new "layer" of blue shadow made it look more and more like semi-translucent, cold, blue-ish ice, not least when i cleaned up the edges and added the white highlights. i haven't designed/drawn a monster with this kind of icy effect before, so i'm glad it was a successful experiment; it seems like i'm learning something new with every image i do nowadays, which is a great feeling.

in the design commentary for this snow monster i mentioned how i decided to remove the pine branches from her design because it just didn't look good to me; and here, as you go from looking at step 08 to step 09, you can witness the Historical Moment when this decision was made. i'm happy i ditched the pines - the concept itself was neat, but without them her design looks more ... tidy and streamlined, in lack of a better word, plus the colour scheme turned out looking more united and coherent without the dark green.

speaking of colours, i'm happy with how the colour schemes of the characters both match, contrast, and reflect each other. the cold, pale hues of the ice monster matches well with her girlfriend's hair and the fur details of her clothes, while the warmer colours of the human are repeated in the ochre hues of the monster's legs and arms. each character has her own look - cold vs warm, white/grey/blue vs tan/green - but they also look so good together and complement one another, yknow?

i'm honestly struggling to find much to say about this painting. it feels like a fairly standard fangs(tm) painting, where the process was very smooth and fun, and where i'm very content with the end result. i included an unprecedented 20 steps in the process pack, so you can really follow it's progression from sketch to painting in a lot of detail, and i'm hoping the images sort of speak for themselves. but comment below if you have any questions!

// art + characters © me.