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!