Elayne, after Ayami Kojima

This work was originally intended for the latest Concept Art & Discussion thread (for $7 Patrons), but it clearly became more than JUST a sketch. Though it's still pretty rough. The idea was that it is possible to communicate darkness without pure black. 

The background utilizes shades of red, violet, and blue -- though the cooler hues probably just look black, despite not ACTUALLY being black.

I drew inspiration quite heavily from Ayami Kojima, who's work for Castlevania is iconic. I had attempted to draw inspiration from her before, though with limited success. The previous illustration was just very flat by comparison, though there's some cool stuff there. 

The textures in the new illustration go far beyond what the old one did, actually resembling the layering of acrylic paint on canvas. Though it still looks artificial in some parts... I could probably have painted with an additional brush or two to get a few more natural strokes in the shadows of the figure. The textures are still nice and organic, as there are a variety of different textures being layered to prevent them from looking too uniform. That means the textures in the upper right corner are not the same textures in the middle of the canvas, for instance.

Elayne's hourglass figure in the original is much more appealing, I think, as well as her abs, but considering I was not planning to take this piece quite so far, I can forgive myself for some static design choices. The head is probably the focus of this work anyway. I utilized a lot of techniques for this piece that I usually don't.

Anyway, I've talked enough about this. Don't forget to eat & sleep!

Oh, there's a simple NSFW variant in the Dropbox Archive. I originally painted this WITHOUT her clothes on, so that just happens to exist.