March MOTM: Eldritch minotaur painting process // nsfw

if you want to see the process for march's monster of the month painting, download the attached .zip below (16 pngs + 1 gif). 

i loved painting this kind of fur and i'm very happy with how it looks ... layered, if that makes sense? working with this colour scheme was also fun, since (like i think i've mentioned before) i'm trying to experiment with more varied colour schemes. also, there's two potentially useful things i want to highlight;

1. how you can start out with a sketch/lineart (step 03) that looks pretty rough but eventually end up with a picture that looks crisp and polished. the lines of my lineart were a dark purplish colour, i set the layer to multiply, set the transparency to a medium transparency, and initially worked on layers below the lineart layer. i added the base colours and then more and more details, refining it as i went. by step 11 i switched to working on layers above the lineart layer, filling in some of the more important lines and "cleaning up" the surrounding areas. compare the face/mouth and hand of the minotaur on steps 11 and 12, for example.

2. creating depth and making the image more easy to read. i've talked about this before, and i'm not claiming to be an expert at it, i still have much to learn. but i just want to point out how at step 08 the image looked kind of samey all over - for example the minotaur's arm kind of blends together with his thigh, since they're much the same colour and have much the same texture. i dealt with it by making his arm more saturated, darker, and slightly more detailed, which helps draw it into the foreground, while i de-saturated his thigh and made it lighter in colour, which makes it look "faded" and sort of pushes it into the background. the same goes for his other arm/leg, the tuft of his tail vs the rest of his tail, his face in front of his shoulder, and his lover's head/torso vs his calf/foot. creating a sense of depth this way makes the pose (and image in general) easier to read. you can use different colours while painting, or else take a shortcut and apply Photoshop Magic (tm) - for example using a pale hue to colour in an area, setting the layer to 'overlay,' and lowering the transparency to whatever looks good - i did that for the minotaur's tail and thighs, for example (compare step 13 and 14). 

i hope that made sense lol! cheers <3

// art + characters © me.