Anya

I'm proud of this, so I wanted to share. ^^

This is Anya, from a game I'm playtesting with ~Firra, so I can't share too much about her. NDAs are fun. I'm fairly confident that I can share that she's about four feet tall, and she's a healer, which is where the idea for this pic came in - Anya digging into one of her beltpouches for some sort of healing salve or bandage or whatever.

I drew and inked this off the computer, fully intending to treat it as I do any other inked lineart - color it, celshade it, be done with it. I got the lineart cleaned and the flats laid down, then lost interest (more or less), and it ended up sitting on the computer for a few weeks. As I continued to draw the character, I eventually came up with a rather ambitious image of her climbing over some rocks, holding a roll of bandage and pulling it off with her teeth. Determined battle-healer stuff.

I got the sketch and ink done, and am still madly in love with it, but there was a slight problem I ran into when I went to start with the colors... I can't draw rocks.

Fricking ROCKS. And I can't draw them. They just look wrong.

So I do what any blocked DAer does, and searched for rock tutorials here. I found a ton of really interesting ones, with lots of useful info, but they were all for 'painting' rocks, which (when I tried it) didn't look right next to my lineart. I thought on this for a few days, and came up with the idea of painting the whole damn picture.

The problem this time was that I'd only ever painted one picture before (the Rafe portrait, and yes, I still hate how his nose turned out). Ugh. And now I was going to launch into a full-on lots-of-motion battle-healer pic, including background? It was a little daunting.

So I thought I'd refresh my memory on the painting technique I sort-of adapted for Rafe, as well as practice on something less intimidating. I picked this lineart, figuring that at least since it was a profile, I wouldn't have to deal with a craptacular nose. I intended to do her skin and her hair, and maybe her eyes.

A couple of hours later, I've finished her skin, hair, and eyes... and I'm thrilled. And then I couldn't do her hands without the sleeves and the pouch, and then I couldn't stand the undershirt floating in space so I had to finish the oversmock, and then all that was left was the underskirt and the shoes. Overall, including my crapped-it-out-but-doesn't-look-that-bad background, this took me maybe six hours in two sittings.

My favorite part is her eye, I think. I love how it turned out. I like her face in general, actually. ^^

Least favorite thing (apart from BG) is her boot, but that was at the end and I was kinda phoning it in at that point. I got the idea across, I think.

Easiest thing, surprisingly, was her braid. It just... worked.

Hardest thing, unsurprisingly, was that damn underskirt. So much fabric! So many folds.

As ever always, I'd love any kind of comment or critique people can offer, especially those of you with any sort of digital painting experience. I'd really like advice on getting my edges cleaner, but then again I'm not really that patient when it comes to verrrrry caaaarefully making an edge (I magic-wanded the lineart and interior of the section I was on, then scribbled it in with impunity, and cleaned off the rough bits with an eraser later). I'd love anyone's advice on the damn rocks, too. Let me know what you all think!

Oh and by the way - the download is kinda big, and there's not much extra detail to see. Just an FYI.