Chaos WIP - starting effects

I fixed hair issues and stuff, so now I'm officially moving on to the background and effects portion of my painting. Figured I'd start with getting the light solidified so I have something definite to base the background lighting on, instead of just a vague "top left corner" kind of thing.  All I've got is the main light source, and I'm going to add little swirly tendrils to it to make it more interesting. So it looks kind of silly now XD

Obligatory detail shots:

I am so ready to be finished with this D:

Chaos WIP - The beginning of refinement and the conquering of Gilbert

That's kind of an epic title for a pointless update. Well, it's not pointless to ME - I need these to chronicle my improvement XD

Speaking of improvement, I'm afraid I hit a snag. I spent most of the day repainting the dress because of weird off-color marks that would suddenly become massively visible blights if I tried to add any advanced shading or highlights. Not just little spots either - the entire left sleeve was ripe with them. It looked like it had the plague.

This was caused by poor color blending. I had stretched and blotted the color pigments in such a way that it created a whole new blueish-greyish-reddish color somehow that would NOT disappear no matter how many times I colored it with another color. I'll call this color Gilbert because I hate that name so much (sorry, Gilberts). Anyway, anytime I would try to add shadows or color variations, Gilbert would be like LOOK AT ME NOW! So I had to redo it.

The problem was that when I started this before Christmas, my blending style consisted of circles, blots, and strokes. Messy messy. However, when I started working on the prize for my Christmas raffle winner, I noticed how horrendous Kisuke's jacket looked with this technique. No matter how many times I tried to refine it and make it look smooth, Gilbert would not go away.

See what I mean?

So I refined my stroking style to this, using lighter strokes going all one direction instead of just blots:

Smooth!

I hope all of that made even a bit of sense XD It's all rather important. Well, if you care about it anyway. If you don't, I just wasted five minutes of your life.

But don't worry, I'll make it up to you. Here's the actual update:

NO GILBERTS! :D

Did some skin refinement, too, so here's a detail shot:

Hair is looking kind of kooky now, but that's what I'm working on tomorrow.

I guess as far as problems go, having to repaint something because you got better is a good one to have.

Chaos WIP - epic scythe pwnage

HA! I finished it finally! Just the scythe, I mean. I still have a lot of work to do on the whole thing.

Next on my project list is to repaint the sleeves of the dress. They are bugging me. I tried to fix the left one and only made it worse -_- So that's the next thing. It shouldn't take too long though. Hopefully. I also need to add textures and lighting effects throughout, since I had decided halfway through the scythe that I wanted to have more intense light than I had originally planned for. That won't be too hard, either. All I have to do is add stronger highlights and darken the shadows a bit.

And of course, finish the background, add a foreground, and create the light that is invisibly making everything brighter at the moment. And add effects. I've spent so much time on this now that I might as well go all the way :|

Estimate of when will I finish it? Never.

Chaos WIP update like... 80000. I've lost count

I'm really starting to get tired of this picture. I can't imagine how YOU feel. But tough it out. I'm sort of almost finished. Unless I start adding unnecessary chains and such in places people wouldn't even notice anyways. And that is always likely.

I'm telling you, when I'm finished with this scythe, I am going to kill myself with it.

In my reluctant defense, I did take the last five days off. Friday was Rukia from Bleach's birthday and I received a random outcry of requests for me to do some artwork for her. So I did. I'm such a pushover XD

I had wanted to do a painting, but I only had two days and that wasn't enough time. So I did a comic.

Yay!

I need some help on this one

Determined to take a break from the scythe, I started fussing around with the background. I'm never happy with backgrounds. I always start thinking along the lines of "Now why would someone be standing there posing? It makes no sense" and never get anything done.I guess I should start doing paintings of characters interacting with the surroundings to avoid this problem, but I sometimes change my mind about what I want the background to be, or sometimes it just doesn't work. That's me being a n00b.

My relaxing break from the Scythe of Doom wound up being a failure. I went from just losing my soul to intimidation to something along these lines:

Of course, that's only in theory, because in reality, I never get off my butt.

Uh... Anyway, I need help picking a background. So which is your favorite?

This is the initial one, chiseled out a little bit more.

I hate this one the most. That column would have to be scrapped and redone from scratch.

Rock over the sea kind of thing. I actually like this one the best, but it would require massive amounts of hair re-painting, and I'm afraid I just didn't do the initial painting with outdoor light in mind v.v I wish I had. The scythe looks like the moon against that sky.

So give me your opinion! I can't promise it will affect mine, but I'd like to know what you think. Oh dear... now you won't answer, will you D:

Another self-gratifying scythe detail pic:

Remember this?

You should. I was updating it a lot before Christmas. I decided to finish it before I start anything else since I've already spent so much of my time - and yours - on it. But of course, my time is all that really matters. I just added you to make you feel important :D

For today's update, I have but one thing to say.

Scythe.

The time I've spent on it so far is not even funny.

I changed the entire design on a whim, just like I did with the belt. And, like the belt, it's working out for the better. It's taking me forever because my base tone for it is browner than I had intended it to be. I had wanted it to be a bronze scythe, but it was looking like wood. So I spent half the day messing with texture brushes to add a bronzy look to it. Looks better in photoshop since the metallic part actually shines... :|

And still so much to do. Plus the background. I'm feeling quite intimidated again. It's been awhile since this happened. And yet, I enjoy myself so thoroughly that I can't stop even though I'm overwhelmed.

The Christmas Raffle prize!

I finished the prize for my Christmas raffle winner today! I realize it's a bit late, but I didn't want to rush.

For his prize, he requested I paint Urahara Kisuke from Bleach. So I did. And here it is!

I am quite frustrated with the jpg file. There is this weird grouping of pixels right there to the right of the jacket AND the two greens of his jacket and shirt are all meshed up. The psd file is flawless, if I do say so myself, so I cannot understand why there is such a problem with the jpg. Considering all the work I put into it, I find it rather insulting. But alas... Spit happens.