Skok Duskblight | Splinterlands Art Contest 310

Hello, Alien Art and Splinterlands community! . For this participation, I recreated the card of the character Skok Duskblight. I found it to be an excellent opportunity to practice glow lighting effects, especially in green tones, as I've been wanting to perfect this technique for a while. The character was built using various elements and images that helped me achieve the final result.

I hope you enjoy the explanation and join me throughout the process from the very beginning. Let's dive in and take a look!

To create the initial compositions, we’ll focus on summarizing the process for the mask. We began by designing a mage with a violet hood, followed by generating a deer skull, aiming for it to appear as elongated as possible. Then, we added wooden textures to shape the horns, complemented by octopus tentacles to give it a unique twist.

With these elements and tools in hand, we proceeded to combine them and continued working on the shadows and details that bring the character to life.

Once cropped, I applied color and shadows, adjusting it to fit within the composition while hiding it in the perspective of the glow from the flames, which should be emerging from the character's hands.

The use of a generated flag serves as a technique for these fabric covers that highlight characters and bring out a deeper characterization. The fabric was distorted and stretched, and then I applied a color matching the card's tone. I used a neon green to recreate runes that glow from the center, strategically placing them in corners where light would naturally bounce off.

I initially wanted to create the flames from scratch, but since I'm still perfecting that skill, I decided to use flame textures that were easier to handle and simply adjusted the color. To ensure a neat outcome, I worked layer by layer, making sure the glow effects didn’t spill over into other areas of the design.

Once I finalized the flames, I worked with neon green glow layers, applying them subtly to the corners and shadows. I gave a flash of light in the areas where it would theoretically hit and approach, and in the more distant areas, I softened the effect. For the background, I generated one by removing the trees and keeping the grass, which I also adjusted with the character’s glow.

Next, I placed the respective titles along with a part of the character's story. To finish, I used some textures provided by the program and created movement effects to give it that emerging dynamic feel.