Click download for a much larger version... 1600x9500

Sorry it's so large actually but, if I made it any smaller, I don't think the changes would have been very noticeable

More info on the original. [link] Someone suggested I add some text to these to explain what I'm doing. I'm really bad with words, but I like the idea so I'll try it. I used photoshop CS3 and a wacom tablet on my boyfriends monster custom computer (Hardly any chug ) Here's the basic breakdown, I'm sure I forgot stuff though:

1. a sketch. I wanted to challenge myself to do some perspective. A howling wolf was already a challenge though, I never really have distorted mouths.

2. adding to the sketch, and some blocked color to see how it will fit

3. refined the sketch a little.

4. added more color and refinement

5. added more solid colors

6. Whited out the color so I could start the base. I had problems before, with being overwhelmed by link's markings, so I was going to do a white base and then overlay the colors.

7. Used the under sketch to make a base.

8. Refined it some and added some lines over that

9. refined it more

10. not much change

11. added some over color

12. looked at where his side swirl would be

13. used liquify and changed his shape a little. Arched his stomach up more, pulled his back hip in, fattened his back legs up, tucked his mane more into his back because it was making the perspective all weird.

14. I hated his eyes so they got changed here. I also refined his coat a little and there are some more sketch lines.

15. Started to redo the front paw I hated. added more fur to the under layer

16. refined him some more and worked on his color some more

17. changed the eye more, added some overlay glow to his coat

18. Started blocking in the background concept

19. Added sketch lines to the background concept

20. blocked out some color

21. picked out the shapes a little more with some sketch lines

22. Checked it all together. This is my favorite version of the background. I could not get the colors like this in the final. I hate how I feel I have so little control over what I'm drawing

23. Was so uninspired on how I should execute the look. I fumbled around for quite a while

24. Decided just to draw every line for every rock

25. hated it, didn't know where to go with it

26. Decided just to block over most of the work on the road and liked it more

27. started adding more solid colors in layers. The road is a grouped set of layers, the plant life on the sides of the road are another grouped set of layers. The castle and hills are another grouped set -and the wolf is a grouped set. You can tell here that the wolf looks sketchy. I had added a quick, dark, outline so his outline was broken up from the background (because without it my eye was getting lost) and so I could tell where he was placed while I had the solid part of him turned off to work behind him.. It's not really on his permanent layers.

28. Started on some foreground plants. I still really didn't know how I wanted to proceed on the background so these got too labored. I ended up deleting them. One of the other main reasons is that they covered up his joints and I just didn't like that.

29. More work on the foreground plants.

30. More work on them. This is about when I deleted them and decided how I was going to work on the background. I was inspired by a few of my favorites, the lotus and their colors (I've had lotus) are very much like one. I'll find the link and edit it in here when I get back from the woods with my sister.

31***. It looks like a lot has happened. Even though I know I saved it, I somehow completely lost my ninth save state, which is basically when I did all the work on the background.

The funny thing is, even though it looks like a lot, all I did was sketch out more solid lines and then just start painting over them in a layer. So there wouldn't really be too much to show. I didn't pay real close attention to color, just the shapes of the plants. This ended up causing me a lot of trouble later, so there are a lot of masks and overlay layers to do things like tone down the hot spots on the trunks, normalize some of the Smurf-like colors, mask the road off so I could tone down the foliage without bleeding the road out, etc. Jake showed me some layer and masking tricks. He's been using photoshop since version 1. He's the photoshop master.

I used a screen shot of the TP castle to get the towers in the right spot. I made a very simple diamond/leaf shaped flat brush and painted the under color of a lot of the leaves that way.

32. I added some over color to give the plants some "sunlight" glow. I also messed with the tree trunks a lot because I really didn't like them. I never got them how I felt I wanted them. they felt out of place to me

33. I duplicated a photo of some branches all over the place. I decided I didn't like it because it was so messy

34. This is what it looks like with the one texture overlay I'd been using and another 2 layers of flat color to change the tone of things.

35. More smurf-a-licious color. I had to punch it up so it looked like something more deliberate with the overlays on. I finished up some unfinished areas on the background. I also added some more masks and stuff to the trees

36. I added some shadow in another layer.

37. And this is about it with all the extra layer crap. I fixed the chain on the wolf so it wasn't just a sketch and started to refined his outline.

38. I scaled him up because I thought it looked better.

***To the final: [link]
I added shadow on him and some glow.