Tornado Spin_Step By Step

1: Sketching the basic pose of Cynder. Took me forever to figure it out!

2: Ugh, line art always kills me. I used a 2 pixel brush with pen pressure off. Line art is just a guide for me and is hardly in the final piece.

3: Added some grey for the entire thing, it helps when you want to paint the whole thing in one layer.

4: Created some perspective lines to help me decide for the background. I painted the background in grey scale to help me decide on depth and contrast level....fail....Oh and I flipped the canvas to help to see mistakes.

5: As some would say, I throwed up some colors on the background. I decided on some warm red and orange colors.

6: Started detailing the head and chest. This is when I start defining the realism of the scales. Remember this is all on one layer.

7: Detailed the wing skin. I keep in mind of the bone structure underneath and to decrease the size of the scales as I near the tips.

8: Phases 2 and 3 of the scales. I added shadows and highlights. I keep in mind that my light source is from the top right. *important* Oh, and added a basic texture to the wing skin with blood veins.

9: Fast Forward: Did the same with the rest of the body and defined the highlights and shadows some more.

10: Flipped the canvas again, pleased to see no obvious errors. Added yellow in the highlights and purple in the shadows via a new layer using a blend mode called Multiply at a low opacity.

11: With a soft brush at a low opacity I added the wind. I painted it in a way to show movement.

12: Added more shadow to the wind and added debris. Added some minor details to the mountains and sky. Very minor.

13: Reded some things on the body, such as the arms, and did some post editing with the contrast of the image as well as the sharpness. And finally the signature

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