This portrait originally was planned as an experiment.

Hello! As may see, all my portraits I paint in gray scale are from real people, not elves, neither fantasy creatures, only real people. This is, for giving these portrait an unique style.

However, surfing on Internet I found the blog of Dreriart. In one of her blog entries, she describe a method to give color to an image from a gray scale piece, giving recommendations to prepare the piece for this process. With this in mind, I wanted to try this little project, using my original character Kairuos as my "test subject".

I decided to use my original character Kairuos, a death knight from World of Wacrarft because, at the time I read the post of Dreriart, I was finishing the Kinghts of the Ebon Blade campaign. Kairuos, is a character is barely draw and use, the only thing I've done of him, were this two sketches.

Both pieces are from 2017.
Carried away for the moment, I decided to give him more attention.

One of the few screenshots I could save of my character

Originally, I had the whole process of this painting in photographs and gif, detailed without any loss. But, all that was lost; and now, I can only show you few things I saved, the ones I send it to my friends on whatsapp or I uploaded as my stories on my Instagram .

First, as always, I start with a really messy basic sketch, and after I like the rough sketch, I make the Lineart. This portrait was difficult because I started it directly on digital; pieces like this are difficult for me.

This time, i tried something different. I made the lineart giving values to the lines.

For the black and white process there is no much to say. I tried as Dreriart specified in her blog to define as much as I can the shadows and lights for making easier the coloring process.

Considering this, I painted the lights and shadow pretty defined leving an white halo over the hoodie.

In case you were wonder, yes, it is a hoodie with horns. I don't know where Blizzard got this idea, but it's absolutely awesome.

At this point I was finishing my piece. Here, I was detailing the chest plate.

With my values defined, I have my gray scale piece, finished.

From this point, Dreriart said we have to overlap color layers in different fusions like soft light, overlap or any other which could be useful for having the wished result of the piece. She doesn't specify an especial order, just "keep trying".

And I kept trying , duplicating layers, adding colors, overlapping colors, saturating them y after some time of mixes, I got this which convinced me.

Now it looks closely to the reference I was using, but with a realistic touch.

My intention with this portrait was to give the piece a dark look but without that being the true intention, with the idea in mind of my character class.

According to WoWPedia, Death knights are a hero class introduced in the expansion Wrath of the Lich King, and this is their lore description.

When the Lich King’s control of his death knights was broken, his former champions sought revenge for the horrors committed under his command. After their vengeance was won, the death knights found themselves without a cause and without a home. One by one they trickled into the land of the living in search of a new purpose. Frost sharpens their strikes; blood fortifies their bodies; and undeath allows them to erupt in unholy rage in the heat of battle. A thousand atrocities are etched in the eyes of every death knight, and foes who gaze into them too long will feel the warmth pulled from their bodies, replaced with cold steel.

I could extend myself into the lore of my character and his personality, but, I’m pretty sure no one wants to read about that… So, here ends the process of my piece!

What do you think? Is it good the idea to color something from black and white? Let me know your opinions!