@Pregium
Yeah, that one really felt badass.
The only thing that kept me from working further on it was how "flat" it felt to me compared to the angled shots. It didn't quite fit my requirements for how dynamic I'd like the final piece to feel. That said, I think everything else you said can be applied to the other ones as well and possible elevate them even further - and I totally did think about it as I kept working on it.

@studio-petercools
Thanks man!
Having some background colors served like a painter's wash for me and helped the colors stay consistent. So far, I've been approaching all the parts in colors in a way similar to that of a traditional painter... not that I have much experience with that, so it's more like that I think it'd be like.

Trying out some of the things I liked in the previous stage, focusing on how the angle of the canvas and character work together. The only one I didn't like was the vertical canvas with an high angle of the character. It made her fill out the canvas way too efficiently, leaving to little room around her than I'd feel comfortable working with. (It wasn't that bad though.)

After putting some very rough values (I lack the patience to take this step seriously unless it's for work) I realized that the high angles didn't let me see the sky (unless reflected in a puddle or something) and I really wanted to show some nice sunrise-ish colors in my painting to come.

Now here it gets a little interesting. I ended up going quite far with this one despite having been quite against the high angles so far. What happened was that I still had a difficult time letting go of the idea, as I thought it was the lack of detail in the previous versions that held them back.

That was not the case. I simply couldnt' think of anything to put in the background that'd support what I wanted the final piece to convey. Be it structures, nature or people - the piece would just feel so heavy, like the mood would be so heavy, with this angle. The details looked nice, but I couldn't quite figure out the legs. Might've been something with the hips.

At last, I landed on something different. I knew what I liked and what I thought worked in the previous ones. Only thing left to do was to put only those things in the final sketch and ditch the rest.

What I really like is the fact that the angle isn't too dramatic and leaves a lot of room for the design to be on full display. Also a little bit excited to make some more one-off designs for the other vikings in the back.

Now, the question is...
Do I want to just try and wing it with paint straight away or will I do more prep-work?
The answer is most likely the latter, but It's very likely that I'll start painting sooner than usual.

Anyways, progress is being made. At this rate, it should be possible to finish in time.

I wonder if I should add in more people later on. Like, in the far back.
It seems like it'd be worth it. They kind of clutter the composition (lol), but if they're far enough from the main stuff, maybe the value difference can make it work. I'll just have to try it out and see for myself.

Mmm yes. I think so to.
Feels a bit like the people in the back needs to be put into context.
She's clearly someone imporant among them and that's her thing, but the rest kind of lacks a purpose. At least, for now.

I initially planned on doing something more akin to a sunrise.

But then I saw the potential to put a hole in the clouds and really create some vertical depth through them, so I switched to putting the sun up there instead.

I've also adjusted the positions and size of all the characters to better match up with the perspective.

Yeah... I totally went for the "paint until it works out" approach.

Thanks!
It's almost funny how I didn't see it until just now, considering how I already knew I wanted to have the clouds go round her like that.

I tried to get as much done with the little time I had available.
Grey is such an amazing "color". One second it's warm, another it's cold. When the colors clash, go grey and now it works. I know the theory behind it, but seeing it in action wlays blows my mind.

I think... as soon as I've gotten far enough, I'll start merging layers and just paint on top.
I want any sharp edges to have been made with a brush, rather than a mask. Makes it look less digital to me.

My tablet (it's one of those screen based ones) doesn't seem to accurately show colors to me, so I have to double check them on a different screen afterwards. Turns out everything was a little bit too green. Way more than I intended to.

The lack of cast shadows makes the characters feel disconnected to the piece, but I'm leaving them for later. If you look at the area around her shoulders and head alone, I think you can get a pretty good feel for the target quality of the piece. I'd say I'm aiming to get it all to a level somewhat above that.

Before I get started on polishing, what's left to do are:
* The two guys next to her
* The ground beneath them
* Cast Shadows
* Bringing all the pieces together (making sure everything feels like it exists together or something like that)
* Final Polishing and fancy effects and whatnot

He looks kind of funny rendered out.

Slow progress. I've been lazy.
I'm not sure why I've slowed down so much.

Anyways, that's the update this time.

@oleg.evglevskyy Thanks man!
I haven't had the time to check out everyone else's work as much as I did previous years, so I'm trying to compensate by leaving stuff for people to engage with, should they come by my page.

I've been going over all the overlooked details in the foreground.
Her spear(?) started to look real nice with the banner in the wind.
I'll have to do another pass on it with the final details, but that's for later.

God... only 10 days left or so. I'm actually starting to get worried

@gabs-fg Thank you. The style was a result of me wanting to have a painterly look to it and a brush that happened to have just the right properties for this specific task. Glad you like it (so far)!

I'm itching to just merge all the layers and just paint on top, but I still think there's some work left to do that'd benefit from the piece not being merged.

Size and positions of characters have been adjusted once again - perhaps for the last time.
I regret trying to eyeball it all in the first place, rather than using a perspective grid. The added shadows instantly connects the characters to the ground (as expected), and I'm kind of feeling like adding some mist here and there to create more depth between the characters.

Becase the clouds had so much brushwork details, they created a lot of noise and drew attention away from the shieldmaden, so I softened them and will aim to bring back some of the details to the clouds in the center.

Lots of very dark spots, such as the top corners and all over the shieldmaiden. Both are something I think makes the piece look a little muddy. I'll have to check that too.

edit:
And I also shrunk the mountains. It made a huge difference and I suspect they (pronoun for mountains??) were the reason the depth of the piece was thrown off somewhat.

-

@prinzmoana
Bruh, I wish I got into top 30. That'd be so cool.
Glad you're enjoying my talkative side.

For today's update, I've done some more tweaks to the shieldmaiden and fixed her hair.
More importantly though, I've polished pretty much the entire sky. Mostly focused on getting that almost divine look to the clouds around her head and bringing back some subtle texture to the rest.

I wasn't quite happy with the mountains and the forest, so those two recieved a paintover. They seemed a bit too dark and the lack of intentionally implied detail messed a little with the depth of the image.

I'm feeling quite good about all the things I did today, so I'm probably not going to touch those part any more than this. Now they're finished.

Moving forward, I'll be working my way from the "army" in the midground and make my way to the front and finish it with details and some adjustment layers.