---

Hello thinking beings, I bring you a new commission for Hive account@smanuels, with a quite deep character, a philosophical magician who has gained his wisdom through his coarse and very long life, merging with nature through his magical acts. His home is among the densest forests, where he has been confined in a life of peace and solitude hermit, avoiding any contact with civilization, which is why the structure of his body is quite curious, since it must allow him to easily camouflage with his surroundings.

Each new illustration is a learning challenge, since I started the drawings for Hive account@smanuels, I promised to improve my art more and more, and you don't know the satisfaction I feel inside when I see my dream come true little by little, the patience and dedication have been harvesting its fruits and I love the path I am walking. Besides, I am very grateful to you guys, since you have been part of this growth and have never stopped accompanying me, you are a great community.

Tools:

• Wacom Intuos 4
• Photoshop
• Brushes courtesy of Imad Awan: Download here

-Step 1:

As usual, I started out sketching the idea, making almost meaningless lines and too much overlapping on each other, here I always make use of the transform tool, since it helps me to fit and resize the character's elements. As you can see, I had to flip the image, since the right hand had to be the one with the claws, luckily the character was well proportioned and can be handled perfectly in any direction.

-Step 2:

Then I started the detailing in gray, this with the intention of generating more volume sensation. Once the greys were ready, I colored what I had until now, for the character I used a layer configured in the "lighting" fusion mode and for the trees I used the "gradient map".

-Step 3:

Using the nature style brushes, I built little by little the foliage of the trees, the trick is to use brushes with the shape of branches and then erase softly the unnecessary parts, in this way you can achieve wonderful textures and backgrounds, to finish the lights, I used the "hard light" fusion mode applying it with the spray.

-Step 4:

Finally it was time to work on the main character, with a diffuse brush I added volume to his body, trying to simulate a body composed of interlaced wood, likewise, I introduced texture to the skulls using an image of real bone, and then painted softly over it so as not to lose the original structure. As a final touch, I created a layer in the "overlay" fusion mode and another in "hard light" to warmly illuminate the druid and blend it with the landscape. And as a last step, create a layer to render the illustration even more, correcting some badly done or not fitting brushstrokes, all this with the diffuse brush in low opacity.

Tell me in the comments that you imagine when you see this illustration.

---

I'll leave you a little gif with the whole process in it, so you can better appreciate the step by step.

See you in a future post!

Thank You for Supporting My Artwork

@HADLEY4RT