Hi everyone! How are you!!

I'm finally having a little bit of time for posting something here around! And what is better than a concept for our great return!!

This time my very best friend challenged me to create a sexy character without boobs. Yep... such a challenge!

I had my doubts because... you know... I'm a man. I like boobs.

But I decided to take part of it and make it happen!

So our idea was to make kinda a witch with lots of tattoos and since I just like to paint crystals, well... also make it with a lot of crystals.

You know, when you are making a concept, the idea is to place the character in a way that the whole body can be seen. So you place it standing. But we have a problem there, because you have to also make it in an interesting pose. If you don't do it, then the whole thing will be super tough and it will easily get boring.

So I made a fast rhythm of the pose for the character. Then I redrew over it a simple sketch only with the information of the body (for making clear the proportions, and general base for assets of the character itself).

After that it was time for adding some sketching of the clothing and assets like the staff, general style and idea.

And as third sketching for the final line-art before painting: anatomy corrections, face draw and more and more details for making a solid base. Now look how it starts to have a tiny story to tell by itself!

Well yeah, if you guessed, then you guessed well: there are crystals everywhere, yup. Also I wanted use a resource of storytelling for making the character more badass (which actually means more sexy): pirate clothes hidden under a cape with also some magic-kind ornaments all over.

But actually the secret of a badass character keeps into one single frame: the expression and general mood. So the pose is actually helping a lot.

Aaaaand! Finally the best part of all: PAINTING!

So as always I start with a base to try colors that may match with the whole mood and idea. And so since the beginning I though about the 50-35-15 rule. Don't you remember how it was?

Well it goes like this:

And yes, it means that the dark-blue-violet will rule the scene (also ruling the shadows) with its 50% of presence. In second term the olive green (sometimes working in coop with brown) helping to the transition. And finally the accents of value and saturation go thanks to the light blue (pumping up the whole concept).

After deciding how the general palette would be it was time to start giving shape to the whole thing. And yes: since I suck so bad with faces, i was decided to make this face properly. I tried a lot of times until it really convinced me but hey!... the result looks good !

...some super fast and simple background to make contrast, but not use white (because you should never use white or black, it's a rule! Why? Well.. so this way you will always be able to generate more contrast... SPOILER: I used 100% white in the face :3).

The general material for the dress should be leather, heavy fabric and metal, since i wanted to place her into a cold storytelling background. This is why I also added a scarf (that would also help to the composition and general silhouette)

But this shape of scarf was not helping... they looked like shapeless arms. So a good idea came to me: to change the shape and also add some dynamism to it. And damn it helped!

Then the work of the staff was truly my favorite part... The dark brown and almost matte metal I placed there was so balanced with the light blue of the crystals that i fell in love with it. But I couldn't hold it there: it needed even more details and kinda ropes hanging from there to give some sort of witchcraft-humble feeling. Also pushing even more the idea of dark magic and giving a deeper feeling to the main objective: badass girl.

Something I decided to do recently, is to really think intelligently about the use of textures. I've been always too lazy to change brushes and change the textures so my paintings always looked like or too clean, or too dirty... but not anymore: it s super needed to make a good and intelligent use of your tools and never allow the laziness to come in or it will cost the whole concept or illustration.

Ohh finally! The time for those gorgeous crystals from the base !! YESS!

...Well actually no,

because as soon as I painted one of those I could realize they were calling too much the attention. So i needed to take them off somehow without killing the idea and the life they brought to the concept itself. BOOM! Let's cover them with dirty, as if they were rocks and earth.

After that yes, the little faces on the rock's idea came up and just as you did, I loved them since the beginning!

Coming back to this last painting stage, I already defined all the textures, shapes, light and color. So the last and general tweaks came to fill the gaps and correct the general mood. Some as a long sword at 90º from the staff and so it would be helping to the reading of the general overview, some tattoos at the chest for adding even more storytelling and information at the core. And finally the filters, ohhh beautiful and glorious overlay filters ♥ ♥ ♥.

And voilá !

Some amazing adjustments my friend did to me were about the contrast of the stuff going to the background such as the scarf and few of the crystal-rocks from the base. To take them back to the background so the whole concept would pick up some volume and deep feeling. An amazing suggestion by the way.

And also I couldn't stop mentioning the chromatic aberration I added all along few filters I always tend to add to my art pieces which give a beautiful texture and professional finish feeling. I will make a post soon about that so stay tuned!.

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Thank you all for reading this and for your support! I may be a little bit disconnected these days because in four days I'm finally moving to Europe and, well... this is the biggest move I've ever done in my life! So wish me luck!

And as it's a habit already, the GIF with the whole process!

If you want to see the process bigger hit here!

Have a great day!

And how to finish this post without showing a close up of these beautiful faces, you love them, I loved them, let's love them together!