Below you'll find an extract from my Patreon page, showing an example of the process for a commissioned piece.
This commissioned piece was from Aschentanz of their character Myriel in werewolf form. The main idea for this piece was to have Myriel in a wintry/snowy kindof setting, with crystals around her and a full moon in the background. There was also mention of the character having been touched by the stars in her background, so wanted to try incorporate that in some way. To do this, I added a few star effects within her fur and she's holding a pawful of stardust.
To start with I had a play around with a few different rough sketch ideas, having a load of crystals placed behind her and mountains in the background to help frame this piece. There were a few different pose ideas, with her either crouched or sitting on the crystals holding a pawful of stardust, and a couple different standing poses as well:
Number 2 was chosen, but with the addition of combining the idea of Myriel holding a pawful of stardust. There were a few other adjustments made then it was on to refining the sketch:
Next some very rough colour was added, focusing on using reds and blues:
The crystals were a mix of ice and mineral formations, which was a pretty fun combination to paint! I wanted to try seamlessly combine the two but also make each formation stand out. The main crystals behind Myriel show a bit more colour, especially reflecting some of the colours from the aurora. Whereas the ice crystals show a more deeper blue with slight aqua highlights, and a crust of snow on top.
Lastly, here's the final piece below, and a close up on the details:
