I think I'm done with Nariko for now !
I didn't want to paint to much details on her before putting down my colors but I got carried away.
So now, I want to do that, putting down my colors... And I guess that's where the masks come down : I am freaking scared when it comes to coloring an illustration.

It's one way or the other : Either I start painting with colors and I just can't do anything, OR I start with grayscale and I just don't know how to colorise it.

When it come to illustration, I'm self-taught, whenever I have trouble on something I look for the possibles solutions on the web or in my book. But I can't figure that out... I feel like it's always by luck that I make a good coloring !

So yeah. It's time to do some experiments I guess

Nariko-Thunder child.jpg3840x2160 2.37 MB

Hi again ! Sooooo...
I've been trying to find a way to colorise it and I tried using the gradient maps.
I'm KINDA satified with it but having your opinion would be greatly appriciated
(I'm not sure about the skin color, since it's supposed to be in shadow, but at the same time, the lightning glow has to be taken into consideration. It's a pain...)

I also tweaked the perspective a little bit (for the head and the background).

I'm not that satisfied by the lightning going from her hand to the back. It's supposed to show her motion, from one ennemy to another but it makes things kinda messy. I also wanted the floor to reflect the lightning but it also makes the overall background messy...

Nariko-Thunder child.jpg3840x2160 2.46 MB

For the light in the background, I think so too. I will also try a few different ways to position the lightnings in the back ground maybe.

About the thickness of the lightning I initially liked it this way. I wanted it to look more like electric arcs, like, Nariko has all that energy mostly inside of her and I didn't want it to be too "over the top", because I want the whole character to be really, simple/sober, including the way her power looks.

But all of that just to say that the fact is : Yes, in the end, it's too thin

At least now I have a good base, I'll work on that now.
(But ugh... I really went outside of my comfort zone with this piece : with all these light sources and perspective )

@vasge_ Thank you for the advices, I'll try moving the closest one a little
@clarief Thanks ! Indeed it looks dark, I wanted it this way at first, to have this strong contrast but, the more I look at it the more it bothers me now
@HollyRose Thank you ! I'll work on that

And now, I guess I know what I have to start working on !

Alright! The deadline is coming but unfortunately, it's been hard to find time to work on it...
But I manage to work on these lightnings and light so here is the result.
What do you think?

But I was thinking... What if the guys in the background where actually midair... To show the speed of Nariko and add a little me dynamism? Like, she's so quick that they don't even have the time to touch the ground that she's already taking steps toward the next ennemies! I feel dumb to think about it only now... Crunch-time I guess
At least I haven't gone to far in the details of the ennemies yet

Yeah the floor is far from finished, same goes for the wall in fact.
As for the lightnings I'm still struggling to make it visible enough but not too much because, as I said, I don't want it to be too over the top.

Update ! So I changed the changed the guys in the background
I think that I spent too much time detailing them since these details will not be THAT visible after post-processing and all
Tomorrow I'm going to put the patterns on Nariko's kimono, and work a little on the background walls. After that ? Just some details, tweakings and post-processing, to add some movements and all.
I'm close (yet so far) to finally finishing it. I don't know if I'm happy with it, I guess I am , I think I've just stared at it for too long ^^

By those on the front, do you mean the bottom left corner or the right corner ? If the right, would it be because I forgot to draw part of their shadow being projected on her kimono ?

Thank you!
Woops ! I didn't even notice these shadows were this dark
It must be an old layer I enabled by mistake (I failed at keeping them organized )

Now that you mention it, I think you are right about the floor being too perfect, I'll work on that

So, hello again.
Here's what I've been doing today. As I planned yesterday, I worked on the walls and applied the cloud patterns on Nariko's kimono (That. Was. A. Pain. In. The. ***) I also tried to work on "unperfecting" the floor
(Please dont mind thoses orange dots in the lightning area, I juste painted as place holders and will make it look better later.)

There is still a lot I have and want to do : Putting the lightning emblem on her kimono around the shoulder, add some dust particles, light reflections around the hair, etc etc...

ALSO !

Before going even more in the details I wanted to check real quick what the final illustration could look like with some quick post-precessing. And I need an opinion on that ^^
Here are 2 versions of it.

So here's the thing I initially wanted to add motion blur and other to add a little more depth to the illustration. Thats's what I did here :

BUT I believe that, as I gain in depth, I lose in details, so I tried without the blur :

And I can't make a choice... What do you think ? I Think that, either way, I will keep the motion blur on the first 2 water soldiers to show the impact but I don't know about the rest of the scene...

Thank you ! I'm gonna try every options after I'm done painting the final details

As for the shadows, I'm not sure to understand what you mean exactly (I still have some trouble with english) but I scribbled something real quick to explain the way I casted the shadow.

I've always had troubles with lighting and shadows so I might have done something wrong here.