WIP 2 Lava BG

Another progress post. I wanted to try do a quickie with my favourite details, red colors and shiny glowy lava! I started out with just a shape in my head, mostly the background shape... I eventually added more shading and formed a lightsource. I also wanted some kind of creature in the background, but I wasn't in the mood to work on something big and scary so I drew something silly which looks like a combo of Totoro and the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland...with fire on it's horns :)
I never manage to tone down my image, I allways want is super colorful with ALOT of contrast!

Experiments

                                                                   

RED BLUE EXPLODE!

Some experimental crap...I'm not pleased about how this turned out, but I'm posting it anyways. Lightning effects and liquify used!

Quickies 1

 A couple of drawings done the recent days. The one with the ninetale-ish creature is one of the three tryout images for this art school I'm trying to get into. The pig is also a tryout image,I did a more cozy style on that one. The third tryout image was the Horned toad in the swamp, from yesterday. I also have a background done yesterday as a practise :) 

Around 2 hours on the top picture, an hour + on the BG practise and roughly 40 minutes on the pig.

WIP to Finish: Horned toad thing

This is a huge one! A 2 hour + (?) painting of a fantasy creature in a swampy looking area... I am trying to not go wild with my layer modes and lightning this time, I want a dark looking scenery with a monster in it.... with some exaggarated lightning :)
Here is a step by step mini tutorial!
(Used alot of custom brushes, most from the guy behind http://idrawgirls.com/ )

STEP 1

I'm drawing a easy fast 5-10 min sketch of a monster which I have been picturing in my head...

 STEP 2

I'm blocking out the shadows as I picture it by now + adding base color which covers the WHOLE creature.

 STEP 3

I'm starting to picture the background, and I start to block out the main shapes I see in my head... I use a custom brush for the water to add a sharp effect.

 

STEP 4

I started doing alot of details in the background. I set the creature on invisible so I could shape out the background. Alot of brushes were used here to create a dirty atmosphere. Brushes, textures and brush sizes/strokes matters alot! I also erase by using custom brushes, like in the opening to the forest. Used the same brush on the water to create shiny reflection.

 STEP 5

I started to add more shading to the creature, and I added alot of texturized effects on it with custom brushes. I also added more depth in the water where it stands. Some grass in the foreground is there too, I added some water sparkles on them since this s a wet area.

 STEP 6

I added some frog like dots on it's body, and a custom brush with shell effects. I "outlined" the shells with a wet reflecting look. Highlight from the background is important to make the character's shapes pop!

 STEP 7

Now I'm done with highlighting, the background and everything. Only coloring left! I make a new layer with OVERLAY mode, and start out with two colors, saturated brown and lushed pink. I use the gradient tool to easily define the base lightning, as seen in the background.

 STEP 8

I create another layer with overlay, and pain ontop of the other one. It gives it a stronger color. I chose shock red for base color (everything gets darker with overlay mode, so you have to push the color limit!:)

 STEP 9

Now I've done something tricky. I made another layer with HUE mode, and I chose a light blue color, and painted over the "master shadow" part (the part where there is most shadow on the creature) and I had it on very low opacity 25%~

I also made a normal layer and painted the eyes more yellow so it stood out more that before. On the same normal mode layer, I drew a purple-ish outline on the darkest side of the creature to make the details pop out more.

 STEP10

Now, I made another layer, and I actually forgot which mode it was set to but Overlay/Color dodge or so works fine...and I took a soft airbrush and painted the light part red, so it would glow more.I then painted over the creature so it would blend a bit with the lightning.

 STEP11

By now I have been experimenting alot with duplicating the merged layers, changing contrast and bightness, changed some of the colors with Color Balance, and layer modes. I also painted in more colors in the background, but not too much since the monster and backlightning is the main things to focus on in this picture.Drawing straight lines and blurring them is nice for rainy scenes!

And after roughly 2 hours + I'm done! The key is to be inspired, look trough tutorials, have good mood music in the background and have PATIENCE! Experience wth drawing small conceptual backgrounds on a 300x300 canvas, so it won't be too big. Experiment and play with lightning, contrast and colors. Get some custom brushes and find inspiration! I recommend buying tutorials from this place . For free tutorials and awesome paintings, please check out this site!

Environment concept: Docks

I've allways wanted to try do some environment concepts, but I never get the perspective right...so I am gonna try do some easy practises :)
This one took roughly 20 minutes...Inspired by the first minutes of "Sweeney Todd" where you get to see London.

Concept; Giant Hyena

Another animal concept...first time attempting to draw a skeleton based on both canine and hyena. I drew this creature maybe 5 years ago and I remembered the basic looks of it. So I decided to try to draw the beast again...

Concept; Tibestus Eagle

Yeah I have no idea why it's a TIBESTUS eagle... but I had to come of a name and while listening to "The Forgotten kingdom" album; I thought of Tibet for some reason..and Tempestus...so... Tibestus! This is just a concept I did for fun, trying to figure out the structure of a creature and how it walks, manages to fly and so on... This is going to be one of the many concepts for fun I'm going to do...in the futrure... enjoy!