Alternative idea for the Illustration. Going for a bit more of a action sequence. The first one seems too stiff for my taste. Also, I'm not streching too far from my confort zone. An that is, again, a big "nope" for me. So, pushing a bit some boundaries. And I'll have to do a quick concept for the fellow who's been torn apart and soul-harvested...
Because what feels better, than working against the clock to accomplish something whose success you are utterly uncertain?

Ok.... so... this is still not looking good, I know, I know.... I'll give it a few more tries before returning to the original....

Sketch for the (hopefully) final illustration.
If this doesn't work I'll withdraw myself from the contest. I would like to retire with at least some of my dignity intact... (?)

Ty. This is really reassuring. I'll put myself to work right now.

Lineart Completed. <3

TY. Saturday night is the perfect time for grey-scale painting ♥

I set the base light and shadow colors and started to render randomly in the chest and belly area.
Now I just need to keep rendering the best I can in the remaining time. I think I can accomplish a decent result around the deadline time.

Current stage:

Current stage. Finishing the character's rendering. Only the highlights remain to be added and then I can move on the background. I want to do something super atmospheric (which I feel this painting lacks currently). And I'm going to re-define the visuals in regard to the villain's super-power.

Current state. Atmosphere stablished and working in the highligts. I really like it's direction.

I'm thinking in use the sharpen tool on the smoke. The texture is very realistic and smooth. I want it to be a bit less clean. Also, I feel the Cauldron's face is competing the focal point with that of the character. So, I need to figure out how to solve that.

Illustration: Finished.
Now I have to update the original concept. Some minor changes took place while making the illustration and now I need to address them.

Mariano Amador
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