(Old 2010) Lizard Guy - Step by Step

As promised, here is a little composition of the stages I went through while making Tuomio's Lizard Guy

1. Tuomio's original lineart with the background made transparent.
2. Tweaking of the anatomy, especially the head and legs, and removal of shading to get a plain lineart.
3. Now I draw around the outlines of the body with vector shapes. The different shades of red show that the body is made up from multiple shapes, which makes it easier to move and tweak them later.
4. I color all the shapes to a dark tan, and start working on the underbelly (also made up of multiple parts, like the chin, chest and each leg). All of these base colors are one one layer. I add some major details like the nostrils and eyes to a new layer.
5. Here's the fun part - shadows and highlights! All of this goes on a top layer. I choose a light direction and create a lot of parallel guidelines. For each guideline, I move it further down the body until I judge the angle of the surface means there is no longer a highlight there. It's hard to explain, but basically I'm sketching out threshold boundaries for the different levels of shadow/brightness. In a similar way, I draw dark guidelines out from areas where the light will be blocked. When that's done, I draw the paths in. Shadows are transparent and black, and highlights are white, using the Overlay blend mode, which makes sure colors stay saturated even when they get brighter.
6. I decide on the final colors, and add a red stripe to make him more interesting. I add extra details to the body form by cutting out shadows and highlights in places, and adding them in other places. Defining all the body contours and details with shading instead of lines is the proper realistic way to do it!

Please ask questions if you want to know anything else.

See the finished work: www.deviantart.com/restrainedr…