On a personal note :
I really wanted to come up with something that we could all relate to in some way.
The main highlight of this piece ... The Grim Angel ; she could be us in the real world, totally away from the crowd, trying to fight our own personal demons every single day. There are some of us who remain silent about it, while the rest of us confide in our friends and family.
The important is.... it's up to us to try and stay strong till the end... and eventually become our very own champion.
Technical info :
After a lot of experimentation .. i settled down for : 5165 x 5677 px
This gave me an option for a portrait crop as well, not worrying about revealing more of the artwork.
I used Photoshop CC 2015 and a mouse; years back, i had a wacom bamboo (old model) but gave it to a friend of mine since she was in need of it. On the other hand, i wasn't able to use it properly. Obviously, i needed a lot of practice. This also explains why i have so much trouble with my signature; i don't have a steady hand. But with a mouse, though it's hard work.... i'm able to control it better. So, for blocking shapes i use the pen tool, then hard / soft smudge brushes for fog, mist effects, specially to pull wispy shapes and thin strands.
Then, for the shading process, the "Adjustment layers" these guys rule big time!
"CURVES" , "LEVELS" , "COLOR BALANCE" etc ... they can completely change the look and feel of your artwork in so many ways.
For the first time in this piece, i used "FIELD BLUR". This allowed me to blur certain areas and keep the rest in focus.
Other than that ... endless, crazy hours of tweaking, taking advice from few of my friends and a mocha smoothie to keep me awake.
