Ewan - Process and Remake

A while back, we posted this WIP of a CG from Ewan's route. It was one that started with a quick sketch by me that was just based on a really, really clear mental image that came to me one day while editing his route. 

I got stared painting it and really struggled with, well everything. The core problem was that I just didn't spend enough time on the sketch and making sure there wasn't anything weird about it. So when I started painting it, all the weird issues started coming out.

I set the CG aside for a while as I got focused working on other things and when I finally came back to Ewan's route to finish up his CGs...eurgh.

All the issues were painfully obvious and I realized I was going to have to fix it. It didn't look like Ewan - and that was probably the least of the issues. Fortunately, it was not finished. And it's a simple CG as well, so even though I started nearly from scratch, it didn't actually take that long to fix.

So let's start with a run down.  The shading on his skin sucks! I decided to grab a reference so I could look at the arm shading and make it...better. In the meantime, I also changed the way his fur collar sits.

The hair...is super messy. Not in a good way - I mean the painting itself is sloppy. So I decided to fix the way it sits and flows. While I was working on that, I had the idea that instead of his hair having gone solid white, to have it in the process of fading into white. I like that idea way better. Changing the way it flows meant I could switch the glowy eye to the other side, which I think looks a bit better. 

And finally, I tried to just fix his dang face. His head proportions were really wonky. I had the front of his head waaaay to high, and his jawline was just weird. And...idk. I just made a lot of fixes to it. 

And, of course, I finished out all the smokey effects.

So, yeah. Sometimes you art and then go back later and say "Well, this whole thing sucks. >=C" So you re-do it. Sometimes it's not even about having improved in general.

No artist is at the top of their game every time. Sometimes we have off days. Sometimes we just have off paintings. I think that I have gotten a bit better and more confident with the cGs since I started this one but I feel like the main issues was just that the first version was done in a rush and I was just having an off painting. Going back to it a few months later definitely means that the game benefits from an improved version overall. 

So...yeah.

(As for what's going on here - I'm not telling. Mwa ha ha!)