Phew, I finally finished this!! I’ve been working on it all weekend, and I’m so proud of it! Methinks I’ve turned a corner as far as shading and backgrounds are concerned. What do you guys think? I did that background myself from SCRATCH – no ready-made tree brushes, no references, no tutorials, just me playing about and seeing what different textures the brushes in photoshop have to offer. The only brushes I used were the butterfly brushes right at the very end, and boy, do I feel accomplished! I’m going to try my hardest to continue in this style, and finally make the progression from Spirit-style to semi-realism.

Anyway, I bet you guys are all wondering who these two other characters are, aren’t you? Well, you all know Brooke, but let me introduce her mate, Rhydian and her daughter, Paige! I’m really happy with their designs, and I hope you all like them too! They live down by the brook at the far end of the Long Meadow, and you’ll see them in the comic very soon. Oh, for the record, NO THEY ARE NOT DAPPLED – it’s the shadows from leaves in the tree above them! Haha, just in case you couldn’t tell.

I’m going to upload a “Making Of” if anyone would like to see how I made it – but it’s NOT a tutorial! It just merely shows the steps I go through when I make a pic. And I'll be making reference sheets for both new characters very soon. Download the big version if you wanna see the frog up close! Thanks for looking!

Image & Characters © *boribaby (Michelle Walker ’08)

Credits

Drawn with pencil, inked and coloured in Photoshop CS2
Rhydian’s pose referenced from: [link]
Brooke & Paige’s pose referenced from: [link] by ~renegeade
Butterfly brush courtesy of *redheadstock