DAEDRIC FUN TIP:
Mortal fiction is pathetic. Any mention of 'spoilers' will usher forth a cleansing flame.

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Makkon: I should have finished this long before I got tired of it. Now there's so many things I hate about it.
I painted this specifically to share the PSD. I have most layers labeled, except for the lines layers. Let me know if you have any questions.
The file is 420mb. What luck!
http://www.mediafire.com/download/w9ff5xcsmw14jaa/04-24-2016_katiabadass4_2.zip

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Grape: So... do you do prints?

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Kazerad: @Grape: he gave you a high-rez file, Grape! Nobody can stop you from doing your own prints.

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Grape: @Kazerad: I'm letting him know there's a market for them! But if I'm doing it myself then at least it's not being printed on some piece of CLOTH. ):

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Kazerad: @Grape: well then you can't wear this picture of people wearing capes as a cape!

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angrybacteria: @Makkon: You have no idea how happy this makes me. I really love looking through the stages of a complicated creation such as this one. Is there a reason why you went with the spear over the sword version?

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Francix: too much awesomeness in one picture

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Radian: This is kind of pro level picture :O How much time you spent on this (not include line)?
Oh god, 680 mb psd. *open* OH MY FUCKING GOD! LAYERS! Layers for everything! Layers for body, layers for clothes, layers for weapons, layers for eyes, layers for claws, even two layers for pupils! Thousands of them! Honestly, I'll probably never understand that. Again, how much time you spent on this?

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Armored-Struggle-Wagon: Holy FUCK. This is godlike, I'm at a loss for words.

Amazing work, Makkon!

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ThatGuyWithAKhajiitWaifu: Simply amazing.

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Makkon: Thanks so much, guys!

@Grape: Go ahead, I'm okay with it. You can remove the background layer and make stickers, even, if you want.
@angrybacteria: Thanks! This particular illustration was always with spears, the other drawings I've done could be painted but I didn't see the need. I think I might try rendering some of the others.
@Radian: Excluding lines, which I spent a lot of time on, painting took about 3 or 4 hours. Since it was 2 characters, that increases time a lot. The most tedious part was the flat colors, which I use to make selections and masks while I paint on the shadow/light layers. That's why there's so many separated layers for body parts, and why they're labeled (so I can find them) it just makes painting easier and faster.

Waking up today, I realize that a PSD is cool to look through but doesn't exactly explain much. I can make a quick step-by-step if anyone is interested.

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Nyflex: My eyes are pleased. Those badasses... I love them! :pac-weave:

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AMKitsune: @Nyflex: Seems that the emoticon system doesn't like hyphens. Sorry about that. It should work for you the next time you try.

@Makkon: I'm a bit late to the party here, but my god... I don't know if there's anything I can really say to accurately describe how incredible this is. I knew you were a fantastic artist, but this just took your Prequel artwork up to a completely different level.

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Nyflex: @AMKitsune: Oh okay then this time I will try it without a hyphen

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Kewot_Rokar: It's not ganking, it's JOLLY CO-OPERATION!

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Radian: @Makkon: 3-4 hours? I expect something like 12-15. I'd spend about 3-4h for each. Maybe I'll try that way to render (but merge most layers anyway).
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Riddle78: Ornstein called. HE APPROVES!

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Makkon: @Radian: I end up merging layers to paint over later ;)
But yeah, give it a shot, it is a lot easier to process the lighting and rendering when you take it one aspect at a time.
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Streetwind: Great design on the clothing/armor!

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Radian: @Makkon: I use Matt Kohr's method pretty often. It's like create new layer > add some changes > refine > merge > repeat. So, usually my drawings have 5-8 layers at the end and it feels comfortable.

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Makkon: @Radian: Matt's method is pretty useful, and it is the classic way of doing it. The way I paint is pretty far into left field, but I find it preferable compared to Matt's method that I used to do, wherein I'd find myself getting hung up on details too soon and it was hard to make large changes.
For example, if you need to change the color of your subject, you have a lot of work to do when it's all merged and you have colored directional or ambient light affecting the colors (like in most conditions). Hue-shift or overlay just doesn't cut it. If you want to change the direction of your lightsource, you might as well start over. The method I use lets me make pretty drastic changes to the subject at any time without the need for a full paintover or completely reworking entire sections of the image. It also naturally gives me great colors, so I don't have any guesswork.

For reference, my friend Johannes Helgeson paints using this method and gets very fast and consistently good results.
https://www.artstation.com/artist/helgesonart

Here's a tutorial about how he paints, pretty much identical to my process give or take a few layers. Warning, nudity:
http://helgesonart.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-formula-step-by-step.html

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Makkon: @Radian: Also forgot to mention that Johannes eliminates the many-layers problem by making a "selections layer" where every part he'd need to have separated for masking is just a colorful, easy to select color with the magic wand. I haven't become too comfortable with that method yet, but it works great for him.


Also, all of these lighting layers get's flattened down to be painted over in the end, these layers seldom give you the final result you need. They give you a solid base to work from tremendously faster and easier than the traditional way I think. Give it a shot!

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Radian: @Makkon: Yeah, ability to easy change colors, lights and other things is great advantage of this method. Thanks for links. I wish I have such friends

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Geravind: Khajiit wants to want to learn easier methods of making cool arts than almost completely manually working with every damn pixel.

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angrybacteria: @Makkon: On the one hand a step by step would be awesome, but do you really have the time for that?

In regards to the sword question, I refer to Layer 1 and Layer 2.

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Filthypaladin: I'm finding this discussion very insightful. Thank you!

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The_Pitiful_Writer: Immediate thought upon seeing this was "Katiadin Stormblessed! Best Windrunner. "

Exceptionally good.

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Khajiit_mexican: Wow!!!

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DavidTheZettaNerd: *SPEAR OF JUSTICE GETTING LOUDER* NGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! GREAT WORK YOU TWO! YOU'LL BE GREAT FOR THE ROYAL GUARD! *faint sound of Papyrus crying*

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Geravind: Why does QW wear a weird belt just below her breasts -- it hampers breathing, no? =ಠ_ಠ= Their spear shafts are bent a little, while the edges touch nothing yet, but who cares...