Emperor Process

Been awhile since I did a process pic so here we goooo~
This one was a bunch of layers, way more than I usually have so I tried to condense it a bit otherwise we'd have like 40 steps lol. Still a bit long tho so enjoy if you have a read~

1) Sketchidoo. I don't usually plot out backgrounds but it ended up helping figure out both the rear trees and the foreground.

2) Unlike all my usual pics, the main char here was done on 2 layers then merged (line art + colors). So it ended up being way more painterly as I tested out some brushes, specifically ones that had a grass texture to make the hair and fur. 

• I blended colors to make the gradient then applied a multiply layer to make the shadows which too was merged. I'm still learning the process to this so it was very experimental. An extra layer was added on top and clipped to make the snow on the hands and fur using a rock textured brush.

3) Turned off the char for now to start the background. Dark gradient base with several layers on top to create the snow and fog (which had the opacity cut by about 60%). 

• 2 layers were made for the trees, one darker than the other to give the illusion of depth. 
• The light gray splotches are bushes which were made with a blurry brush as they'd be far away and out of focus. This same brush was also used for the trees.

4) Additional background details added. Dark grayish layer for the snow on the trees - avoided stark white since, as part of the background, it shouldn't stand out too much.

• Rock cairns with ribbon added as their own layer. The rocks were just quick brush swipes while the ribbons were long squiggles that had their edges erased to make them more tattered.
• Fog layer with lowered opacity. Like the ribbons, I erased the edges and some holes for a more stylized look. I would turn on and off the char so the middle of the image looks pretty messy since I knew it'd be covered up anyway.
• Lil sticks on top of the snow layer. Blurred/erased the bottom of them to blend them a bit into the snow.

5) Foreground added as their own layers on top of the char layer. Same brush from the bushes and trees was used here but at a softer, blurrier setting to make more out-of-focus foliage. Same dealio for the ribbon. 

• Note that I made the ribbons in the foreground and background the same color. Normally I would make the background ribbons a darker color like I did the snow but I chose to keep them bright as a stylistic choice.

6) Lastly turned on the char layer. Duplicated the char, blurred it and placed that layer on top of the char. Turned down the opacity to around 25% for a slight softness effect and done~