Take a walk-through with me. NSFW, by the way.

So, how about a progress walk through for Behold, God? You game.

TLDR gif for your convenience.

To kick off, here's something you might find surprising about this work. Its concept came about when I saw this photo by Vaxzone on Deviantart.

Can you see the connection?

Maybe if I show you the way I saw it... It was actually due to miss interpreting the negative space and colors. 

Here's what happened.
I was digging around DA for something... No clue what the search was about at the time. It's been long forgotten at this point. When a glance was stolen at a thumbnail image hiding in the "More from" column. My sight is so poor that when my attention fluttered by, I saw a lanky limbed woman seated on a throne of clouds. Took a second glance and saw the image correctly. But the idea had been sparked. So a screen capture was taken and a fast doodle was thrown down as a reminder of what I saw. Ultimately to be filed away for a later date.

Thankfully the open call from Slushbox dropped in my lap at almost the same time. Which pushed the concept into production, instead of allowing it to languish in forgotten files.
Like most "flash of inspiration" ideas. 

Concept sketch.

Working sketch.

Usually, as I'm working I'll find images to cobble together to help build the idea as fast as possible. 

Rather than laboring exhaustively over a small piece or humoring an idea for hours that might not work out. 

I have such a short attention span and tolerance for difficulty that I tend to drop a project for months at a time if I get stuck evaluating all possibilities. This generally happens while working out poses and compositions. 

It turns into a flurry of "oh what if the arm was nudged a little this way?" or "maybe it'll look better nudged just a little more. Or maybe the other way." and "what if it's just switched around?" to "how about dropping it down instead" and again "let's nudge it this way, now the other way... How about up? Maybe it looked better the way it was before." Over and over and over. Till the options get so confusing I don't know what's going on anymore. The biggest danger is potentially  loosing sight of what you really wanted in the first place. 

So by "clip art'ing" I can at least see if a supporting idea or object will work out, right away. For me, it's about keeping things moving as smoothly as possible in the early stages or I'll just throw my hands in that air an walk away to go pout.

I believe there's a term for it, Analysis paralysis.

I think this one comes next...

Or maybe this one... See, the changes are so minimal that I can't even remember which version was actually saved first
.

The original concept wasn't working and caused too many headaches. It was time a for a redraw. Above is a Photoshop colorized sketchbook page. 

It was also time for a redraw and tightening of the "Goddess"

Everything's coming together. Chunky flat colors will get thrown in for readability.

Plotting paths for hair cascades.

Taa Daa!

Blocking in the midtones and highlights.

Let's try something out here.

Color palettes are always a challenge and will change several times.

At this point the sketch is finalized and ready for penciling.

                                       

LIGHTBOX TIME, GO!

To get all the line work detail wanted, the image was divided into four separate sections. Penciled, scanned and reassembled in Photoshop.

The shading seen above was done on as a separate component and scanned after the pencils. I like to keep the two separate just have on hand if I ever want to work with the image in a different medium. It's likely the most confusing, work intensive and an all together busted way to work, but at the time it felt like the most "medium open" option. 

If you think that's in any way pointless then you should see the maddening way I handle my Photoshop files.

More color adjustments.

Till we get something a little more unconventional. At least I felt so. Still playing around with the rays of light till it was decided to just stop fighting with it and go with the simplest effect

That pretty much runs through the whole thing. 

Thanks for walking with me. Next time I'll try to keep my hands to myself. Promise.