Bloodsong13T on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/bloodsong13t/art/Dark-Empress-of-the-Frozen-Pines-502410552Bloodsong13T

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Dark Empress of the Frozen Pines

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     This image was created as a gift for my friend Dark Empress.  I hope you like it.  : )

:icondonotuseplz::iconmyartplz:

As I said, this is a gift with special meaning.  Please do not swipe it for icons or roleplay character pics or things.  You can use it as desktop wallpaper (if it's not too tall) if you like.  Thanks!



   This was painted in Photoshop and took *for*ev*er* to do!  Forever and nearly 200 layers. (update: 214 layers!!!)  This is really the most ambitious 2D work I've ever done.  I started with the background stuff, because I have a horrible habit of finishing the main focus of a painting, and then totally not caring about the background and minor stuff.  Yeah, well, I can absolutely tell you, I spent like 3 times as long on that crag than I did on the actual owl!

   The background is a photo of a hedge in front of my house, when it was full of icicles.  That was easy enough.  I messed with it a bit, and put a Flaming Pear Mr Contrast filter overlay on it.

     Next, the crag.  I admit, I cheated.  I got a photo of a good one, and started painting it.  I got sick of trying to paint it, so I just composited the photo over the painting : X
     Then I painted ice on it.  I have (had) zero experience painting ice.  How hard could a transparent covering on something be?
  : X 

     Icicles were easy!  I used these: Ice Brush for Photoshop
     But then I thought they needed enhancing.  So, taking some tips from Jesus Conde's tutorials on YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPZ0RG…); I enhanced each icicle with reflections and transparencies and about 5-12 layers each set.

     Then snow.  OMG, the snow.  I look up tutorials on painting snow.  It's all snowscapes.  Not, say, a close up of piled on snow that got dislodged and compressed by an owl sitting on it.  This particular snow is version 800 or so.  Well, try 80 on version 8 perhaps.  I finally looked on Google for pictures of snow CLUMPS, and montaged some together to paint over.  That, plus a video on paiting a chickadee on a branch in acrylics also helped.  (Sorry snow brush makers, those didn't help me at all for this.  : /)

     I could't forget that I wanted to have bits of pine branches sticking out of the snow.  And that they had to be coated in ice.  The guy painting the chickadee had a really EASY method of painting pine needles sticking out of clumps of snow, and putting snow on them.  I sorta concoted these based on that.  And a bunch of layers and compositing, to try to imitate an ice coating.  I was surprised it turned out as well as it did.


     Once I got to the owl, it was fairly easy.  I mean, it's just a white bird.  Those are easy.  (Maybe not as easy as black birds.)  I used the Photoshop CS5 3D shape thingy to make the ring and roll it into the proper orientation, then painted over it as a reference.  I did paint the talons/feet first, on top of the snow, and several weeks before I did the owl body.  And then I had a hard time getting them to meld properly.


     Oh, I did the helmet first!  Jesus Conde to the rescue again!  www.youtube.com/watch?v=7juWm5…;
How to paint armor, with a helmet demonstration.  And Jesus' knack for always asking "Now how can I make this better?"  To drive me nuts.

     I tried to do the reflections, and highlights, and shadows.  Really, I did.  Eh.  Then I slapped a SuperBladePro effect on the sucker and combined them.  For the gems, I followed this tutorial:
<da:thumb id="284773855">  argh, why are these showing up in preview but not in my post!?!?!?
It was incredibly easy, really.


     I know snow owl eyes are yellow, not blue.  And I made the mysterious pendant thingy blue, too.  Well, there's a theme going on, here.  That's why I chose to do that.
   


   And then at the 11th hour, I remembered I wanted to put a frame on it.  Not JUST a frame, but a frame with a symbol carved in it.  And I wanted it to be plexiglass.  I used my SuperBladePro plexiglass preset, but it was too dark.  Then I used Eye Candy's Glass filter with a forest reflection on it.  And then combined.  And then some Mr Contrast to make it look icy...

   I can't imagine how many hours went into this, but just finishing it took four!
Image size
1024x1858px 2.87 MB
© 2014 - 2024 Bloodsong13T
Comments8
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zomg! that is an ambitious project! no wonder it took a long time and so many layers. you've got a ton of stuff going on, all sorts of different textures (ice, armor, snow, feathers, trees, etc). each one of those is a skill that takes a lot of practice to perfect.

the owl and ice are spectacular! the helmet is straight off a fantasy art cover. looks epic! there's lots of details i keep noticing as i look at it, like how the owl's eyes and gem match and the depth of the background.

it's an amazing piece. kudos!