Barbarian Painting: Stages

Going to add to this as I work on it more.

Step 1: Develop the sketch. Mine is pretty loose, not by choice, but just because I've been dicking around with it for too long without getting anywhere, and I need to get *something* done.

Step 2: Lay in flats. He's mostly wearing furs, which have some mottling to them. He's also got little trinkets tied into his boots and wristpiece, for luck and protection. (the cyan is going to be silver, while the blue will be dull iron)

Step 3: Beginning shading. Sometimes I do this in the painting itself, putting color into the shadow, but I find it also helps to lay out how everything looks in greyscale, to know where your heavy shadows are going to fall. (plus I'm going over everything a few times in steps 5+..)

Step 4: Blend the two using layer modes. Find the mode for the B&W that matches your scene or just looks cool.

Step 5 (in-progress): Start painting. Go for detail, eliminating lines, creating texture and depth. (compare #4's hand to this one.)

I'm still deep in this stage, right now all I've got is the preliminary skinwork, face excepted. I'm putting each region on its own layer so I can worry less about edges and how they affect smooth areas. (debating splitting off the right hand from that knee, for just that reason.)

(Apparently, the reason he's in such a contorted pose is because he just stuck his sword through his thigh, as seen in #5.)