Lolth: The SpiderQueen

 This was something I wanted to do for a while. If I'm not relaxing by playing video games, I'm usually into one of the Forgotten Realms paperbacks. While not a big fan of Drizzt, I do really enjoy the Drow culture and their twisted goddess; Lolth.

(click the image for a larger view)

Lloth, the Queen of Spiders or Queen of the Demonweb Pits, is the goddess of the drow^[4], a chaotic evil deity who revels in chaos. She patterns her life and the lives of her worshipers on a regimen of chaotic acts and the veneration of spiders. The way that new-born spider broods tear each other apart to survive especially appeals to her. She promotes this by encouraging her worshipers to kill their rivals, thus ensuring that they are the strongest of the 'brood'. Her love of chaos often makes her appear mad but the wise see her as a calculating individual who is always several steps ahead of those who believe that they can anticipate her. She is cruel and domineering, forcing her will upon her followers and her enemies, a will which instructs the strong to crush the weak in the most torturous way imaginable. source

 I painted this with heavy influence from the Renaissance period painters depicting their monarchy.

I spent nearly the entire weekend working on this - probably about 18-20 hours.

Here's some of the details at 100% size. The file was about 6000 pixels wide. :)
Most of the detailing I did by hand, such as the lace and the spider webs. The only pattern I imported was the dress, as that would have taken forever. >.>

I don't have many process images for this, as I was experimenting alot. However, I am really happy with how I worked through the 'lineart' and will definitely be using it again for the next picture.

Thanks for taking the time to check this out! I'm very proud of this one.

WoW Art: Warlock Blood Elf

Been a while, but I finally am getting around to doing some personal/fun artwork. :D
This is (YET ANOTHER) fanart from WoW - I will be moving away from it.... at least that's what I keep telling myself but I know better. *ahem*.

(click for larger view)

Download a widescreen wallpaper of the art here (updated to better quality)

I remembered to screen cap this one throughout the process. :)

The rough sketch - My goal was to distort the proportions and go for a more stylized look. I wanted more personality in this picture. Attitude! I didn't expect her to be a DDD-cup. Yeesh.

I make a new layer and refine the shape a little bit more.

Yet another layer and sketch on the clothes. I had a lot of fun with this one - this outfit is based off of the old PvP "Season 2" set. In my opinion the best looking gear-set they ever made. ;)

ANOTHER layer, and start working out my linework. Next time I'm going to go back to doing this process all on one layer. It has it's benefits doing it this way, but it's also kind of tedious...

Time for color! I rough in the background and start shading the form. Way too many layers for this one.. >.>

Working out details.

I went back and adjusted the background, and then the colors of the dress. The dominant red BG was over-powering the figure, and didn't help with backlighting much.

And.... i forgot to screen after that. Once all the color was in place, I smooshed all the layers together (except the BG) and added in lighting details and refined many of the edges. I also colorized the linework to make it blend better.