The last two drawings I made for the Spice NFT project I joined last June are male and female angels. Angels are some of the supernatural creatures I love because I find some of them badass especially in anime or RPG games. Today, I'll share the male angel I drew for Spice NFT.
SKETCH
I imagine this male angel being tall and muscular since he is a warrior. I made an asymmetric outfit for a change. This will also show his muscular build, which gives him a badass look. I want to show him holding a sword while wielding his power so this is the pose that matches what I have in mind among the references I found. The one I struggled most is his weapon. I tried three times and finally, the chili fit in. I need to put a chili somewhere because it is required to incorporate one in Spice NFT. I made a broad sword, again, for a change and that will match his muscular body as well. The abstract sunlight is the design I came up with for his sword to symbolize his light power.
LINEART
Superpowers are effects so I did not include his light power in this lineart. His wings are quite symmetrical and can be easily adjusted according to the angle of his pose so I just drew only one side. I will explain its purpose later. I added the details of his hair. I made it spiky and a bit brushed up to make him look like a badass warrior as I intended him to be.
BASE COLORS
As I conceptualize this male angel, I have the black, gold and bronze combinations in mind. So I came up with the idea to make him an angel of light since yellow powers will match his color combinations. I did not stick with the typical gentle image of light users that we see in most characters. I want a badass light wielder for a change. I made his wings bronze to make him unique. I also made his sword black to make its blade unique and to make the gold and bronze designs stand out. I put gradient effects on some parts of the drawing for a basic gloss effect.
SHADING
This is the part that gives volume to the drawing. This part also explains why I just drew one side of his wings. I need to finish the coloring process first so I can copy and paste the wing, then flip and move it to the other side. I made adjustments to the size and position to match and complete this pair of wings. I used both cel shading and blending for this drawing. I applied cel shading for the clothes then I used blending technique for the rest of the drawing since they look better with a little bit of soft shading texture.
SUPERPOWER EFFECT
I didn't draw a lineart for the superpower since this is an effect. I used a basic brush and adjusted it to my desired size that will fit the remaining space. I drew the rays afterwards. I used airbrush for the lightest color at the center of the yellow orb. For the finishing touch, I used the Gaussian Blur effect to make the power glow.
BACKGROUND
I figured that shades of brown will match the colors of this angel so I decided to use rosy brown, white, and yellow combination for the sky. This will not overpower the colors of the subject while it makes the superpower stand out. I made a few slanted clouds to match the final effects I plan to add.
FINAL RESULT
This set of raining swords is the final effect I was thinking of that's why I created clouds in slanted direction to make it look as if the skies opened to shower swords of light. The good thing about this background is that I didn't struggle there compared with my previous works because raining light swords are easy to draw along with the light rays. I also used the Gaussian Blur effect to make the swords glow.
I'm very happy with the result despite straining my eyes as I spend longer hours in drawing to catch up with the deadline. I was still able to push for quality even better than previous works. This handsome angel is still available for sale.
Here's the link:
https://spicenft.art/artwork/345
I hope this art gets sold along with the rest of the remaining Spice NFTs. Whoever buys this in the crypto community, I thank that person in advance.