eskiworks:

Another mass WIP post for you all!  This one is for Kiety, of her anthro ocelot hanging out in the canopy with her tuxedo cat, Nova.  This time I’ll run down my process a little bit.

1 – Refined sketch!  I lost my thumbnail for this one, but I did about 7 black and white composition thumbnails before deciding on the final layout.  This stage is actually more like step two.

2 – Flat colors for the figures and main branches/foliage, and some flats for background foliage.

3 – Initial shadow/light layer.  This is a layer on top of the flat colors set to multiply, into which I paint my chosen shadow and light colors.  Shadows on this one are a grey/green, and light a warm creamy orange.

4 – I bump up the light colors with a couple layers set to overlay, trying to bring out the dappled light more.  Also added some more background plants to give it that busy jungly look.

5 – I add another layer on top set to multiply to help deepen the colors overall, and get the darks darker.  This is like a warm reddish copy of the initial shadow layer in step three.

6 – Now that I have the light the way I want, I start painting the nitty gritty details in.  Mostly fur texture, and refining some of the leaf shapes.  This is a layer on top of everything set to normal.  I use the eyedropper tool to choose my colors as I’m painting.

7 – Add sunbeams, and ta-da!  All done!

8 – Close-up of what it looks like BEFORE paint stage.  Relatively loosely painted in.

9 – Another close-up after details.

Total time for this one was 29 hours, done in Photoshop with my Intuos 3 tablet.  Check out the final image at a larger size on my DA page!

http://shadow-wolf.deviantart.com/art/A-Shared-Perch-352039390