Step 3: Background, part 3

The lighter colors, the highlights, help give a relief. Relief is used in this way to mean, height or suspension. It is a term mostly used in sculpting. Different thicknesses and transparencies are used to create this look.

Step 7: Shading and details

You can see that the horns have been enhanced with fleshy shading. When you shade, the color doesn't have to always be a shade of black. As long as the value of the over-all color is darker. The general shape of the eye has been added also.

Step 8: Finishing the Head

Small little details have been aded to finish up the head. The eyes received a glimmer, using the smallest amount of white paint. Blue has been added to the body and the horns as a reflected, cooler light, opposite of all the warm colors we see. The nose has been added to and then, the finishing touch was the Shadow being casted on the wall, using a very watered down black. Solid black wouldn't work. Even as a shadow, we should still be able to see what the shadow is being casted on.

Step 11: The Hands, part 3

Here, the shading and the highlighting was applied to the hands. The light casing down from above was perfect from the picture I took. Most often times, it ends up being easier to go out and shoot the reference, yourself, rather than hunting online from stock photography or whatever.

Step 5: Adding the Makeup

when the makeup is added, you have to "figure out" the eyes and nose all over again but, by the 2nd time, it's easier to figure out. first, everything is "blacked" out. then creativity with the more decorative elements follows.

Step 5: Details

Finishing touches are in the detail. In this case, it was creating the feathers to be more realistic and adding the splatter of gold. In many cases, you have to know when to walk away from a piece. You can render all you want but, in most cases, enough is enough and as an artist you have to know when you've got enough "ingredients". Adding more gold to the outline contributed to the finishing touches.