this is looking soooo cool!!
Thanks for the comments and thoughts again, really appreciate it!
Everything's not gone through yet and I'll still be adding and changing things, but I wanted to start using some colors now. Most of it still looks quite horrendous with just the rough overlay coloring, and some values are bonked, but will try to fix most of that until next update.
About her design, I'm thinking I want a more "ethereal" or "not-so-human" look. Will try to experiment with her skin and hair color to achieve that, in addition to having parts of her skin look like wood or bark that shifts over to stone + amethyst. That's my current thought anyway, let's see where it goes...
Very nice colors!
I've put a goal to post an update at least every other day, mainly to keep a fire under my butt to work hard on this, but I still need to up my game. Didn't get done quite as much as I would've wanted today and yesterday.
I think one big problem right now is it's very hectic, and not sure if good enough focus on her, so that's one thing that might be a challenge once I start finalizing it.
I've tried quite a few variations for her dress-ish thing but still not really sure.
Felt like she needed more thistle stuff on herself, will try to spread out the design elements a bit more over her. Amethysts in the dress could be nice.
Adding and polishing stuff, slowly but surely...
8 days later
Was on a bit of a break from this, but now back to it! There's still a lot to do here...
Wow it's coming along really nicely! The colours in her design are beautiful, although the amethyst to me doesn't seem like a major design, more of a secondary thing? Either way it's beautiful so far O:
Thanks, I see what you mean and there are still some ideas I have for more of it on her, like along some of the dress "tails", more in her skin, a bit in her arms and some separate ones floating around her. It will also be more prominent in the ground spikes eventually. I'll try to make sure it feels amethyst-y enough 
Really good work, i like the epicness over here. I have little problem with saturation of the sky, which is strong in compare to your main character (check it with color picker). Value contrast in B&W is also similar with the clouds and white hair so thats why your focal point is maybe lacking some more attention.
Thanks!
Yeah it is quite saturated but I do like the look of it. I have some ideas for making her more prominent, and will experiment with other means than lowering saturation of sky, at least for now. This is one of the most fun things in painting, working with weird "odds" and trying to force it to work the way you want, bending the painting after your will and not after what would normally make sense 
Also about values, that's another really fun thing to experiment with, trying to use the contrast between colors instead of values being on point, though I do want to be able to have good values as well. I just like trying out a lot of things when it comes to painting "theory" and stuff..
At this point you've done a lot to it, but it's so busy. There's a bit of a fight going on for the focal point currently and there aren't really any places for the eye to rest. At some parts as well there isn't a clear distinction between middle and background so it all gets a little chaotic and lost in itself. If I were to give some feedback, I'd actually suggest taking out some of those malactites and soldiers just to give some space for the eyes to rest and a flow into the main character. I think even getting rid of some of the mass of islands in the background would help too, and give her a little more contrast. The rendering is very pretty though and the details are charming!
Thanks, I'll consider it! 
22 days later
I feel like it's going in the right direction, but there are still things to do and fix. Not a lot of days left though... 
Ahh was wondering where you were, it's been ages. If it's any consolation it still looks beautiful even with more stuff to do on it, I'm really loving it
Updated my first post with this final, but putting it here as well for process continuity
Many thanks to everyone who liked, commented and gave feedback along the way!
Wow! Such an ambitious and complex piece! I think it's a bit too busy - but I can't stop looking at all the details, so maybe it still works? -) Awesome job anyway!
Thanks! I do like it when there are a lot of details and a lot going on, but I need to learn how to "hide" it properly so the picture is more divided into sections of details and not all in one big pile, sort of.. I think that could solve some problems.
