Digital Illustration Narrative / Fantasy

Part 2: More details and refinement.

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Maaot

12- Redesign the girl (character)

Since I previously decided to erase the girl because I was not very happy with her design and to be able to paint the rocks calmly, now it is the turn to do it again.

We start in a new document to perform the new pose. You can search for references of poses.

I like to make baggy clothes because that way we can simulate movement.

I have added a flashlight with a firefly inside, to help you see in the dark forest.

We copy the sketch in the illustration. As it is very dark and we can barely see it, I have added a temporary gray rectangle that helps us see the line. Then we fill with dark paint.

And with a soft brush we give it a touch of light so that it stands out on the background and green highlights on the left. When we are sure that it looks good, we can erase the rectangle that is below, and continue detailing the light.

We paint hair and skin. I decided to paint the hair white to make it stand out more with the background. I kept giving brightness and details.

We do [Control + click] on the layer where the girl is, and create a new one on top, to add gradients and be able to edit them without modifying the original layer of the girl. In my case I decided to give it a bright blue gradient to intensify the light on the right.

And we finish the lamp with the firefly.

We create a new layer on top of the lamp and paint a subtle gradient circumference blue where we want more light.

We also do it on the floor and put the layer in [Overexpose (color)] mode

With this we managed to further enhance the colors to make it shine.

You can try adding more effects if you want to experiment.

We added some shadow behind the girl and it would almost be finished!

13- Darken the shadow

Since my main intention is to be a dark forest, I decided to try to darken the shadow parts more to create more contrast.

Let's use the tool [Lasso]

In a new layer we select the parts we want to darken, to have different selections simply press the [Shift] key while selecting a new zone.

Paint this new layer black, with gradients if necessary.

And I lowered the opacity. I finally got this result, after varying the tones a little.

Basically the illustration would be finished, but you can still work a little more on it and make it more interesting.

14- Final details, more effects, corrections

Trees in the background

The blue background looked a bit boring, so I decided to add more trees in the distance. This is very easy to do, just create a new layer, set the layer mode to [Darken] and it would be.

Remember that trees are thinner because they are farther away. We can also add the treetops, with this we create depth.

More shade and light

Once the trees in the background are finished, I decided to darken this part of the sky even further with the help of the [Selection] tool.

We apply a gradient and subtly darken it. Now it starts to look like real night.

I also wanted to intensify the light on the right, again with the [Lasso] tool.

I selected the part that I wanted to intensify.

And I applied a subtle layer effect on [Overexpose (shine)]

Then we will add more details to the background. For this we paint a little light between the trees in a new layer.

We lower the opacity a bit and mix them with the brush.

More light!

I wanted to give a more powerful, more magical light effect, so I repeated the process again, with [Ellipse] I gave a gradient on the floor to intensify the effect of the lamp.

With the brush in paint quantity at 0, mix and correct the surrounding grass.

We add even more reflections, this time brighter, even in plants, and we repeat the same process, always keep in mind where the light comes from, and where it would reflect.

We would finally get something like that!

Now we need to correct the left hand. With a darker color we make it stand out a little more on the background.

15- Fog

One of my favorite details to create atmosphere is to add fog or dust, and it is quite simple to do it.

In a new layer simply paint gray spots where you want to place the fog.

Put the layer on [Overexpose (color)].

And with the mixing brush blurs the fog. For this effect we will reduce the paint density to 0 as well.

When you mix paint in a layer with a transparent background, the density at 0 drags the transparent color as well.

Thus was my fog.

16- Extra details, particles and flashes.

Shine of the wolf.

Let's give some extra shine to the wolf coming from the right, with any brush we apply brush strokes on the right side of the wolf, make sure you use a color close to white.

With the brush, and amount of paint at 0, mix the colors until it looks good. We can also fix the hair a little more if necessary.

Now, we create a new layer, we put it in [Overexpose (Gloss)] mode and we paint white hair again, you will see that now it looks much brighter and brighter.

We apply a Gaussian filter. Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur ...

And we already have the final glow in the wolf!

Lamp brightness.

We create a new layer, we put it in [Vivid Light], with the hardness of the brush in the softest, we paint with a light blue in the areas where the light reflects.

We apply a Gaussian filter. Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur ...

In this way we blur the brushstrokes a bit and mixes better with the background.

Now the light looks much more intense.

Ferns and small plants.

Although the illustration is almost finished, we can still add small details to make it more interesting and original.

With the [Eyedropper] tool we select the color of the moss / grass and paint simple ferns and small plants, they do not need to be detailed like the front ones.