Step 4 - Developing the background

Now that there are some basic tones in the background, I take a moment to look at the irregularities and splotches that are there.

Using the smaller brushes (size 3 and 1) I purposely start to enhance those irregularities by outlining them with sap green and viridian green mixtures. These are the little "bubbles" you see in the texture. I don't leave it hard edged, but feather it in lightly to fade to the rest of the background.

Another technique I use here is to lift some of the color out from the center of those bubbles. This is done by wetting a small brush and lightly scrubbing the bristles over the painted area. Dabbing with paper towels while it's still wet will remove some of the color and leave the area slightly lighter. I use older brushes that have lost their point for this because it's not very friendly for the hairs.

A note about this though -- different papers will respond to this to varying success. The illustration board I use does very well for lifting, and because I do so much lifting when I'm creating textures, it's another bonus for me using this particular paper.

With some more light red and viridian green in the lower part, I add those faded looking streaks of darker color, again just emphasizing the irregularities that were already there.

I also put some light washes of lemon yellow and sap green over it all to brighten up the overall color.

 

 

Step 5 - Underlayers for the foreground

At this point, the background is pretty much complete. Time to move on to the foreground.

With a mid sized brush (5), I put in a wash of light red over the spirit's clothing and tail.

With some flesh color, I paint an underlayer for her skin. If the paint set you have doesn't have this color, you can mix naples yellow with some oranges and reds and get suitable tones. I wanted this creature to be a bit unearthly, so it's slightly green-tinged with a touch of sap green as well. If you were working with darker skin, various types of browns added to the mix would work well.

 

 

Step 6 - The figure

After the underlayer for for the skin is dried, I start to build up the shadows.

With the smallest brushes (size 1 or 0), I work from the edges of the body with mixtures of light red and burnt umber. I shade in to define the muscles, and along the creases where the folds of cloth meet her flesh. In some places, like along the underside of her hand, the arm in back, her neck, and where her foot meets her calf, I do a thin layer of light red.

To really emphasize some of the crevices, I line it with viridian green.

Also, the strips along her leg and back are done with short vertical strokes of viridian green.

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