Splinterlands Art Contest - Week 359 - Ice Pixie

Hey there, everyone. It's been a another week, which means it is time for another Splinterlands Art Contest. This week I drew the Ice Pixie. There are a dozen (well, maybe less) in the game, and today I happened to stumble upon the Ice Pixie, so I decided to draw her. (It has nothing to do with me being sick and tired of this summer heat at all :D)

What caught my eyes about this character was her radiant aura and the bright energy radiating from her (eyes, magic and face overall) so I decided to try my hand at drawing this special piece and how it turns out since I think I haven't replicated this type of Original Art in my drawings, so definitly worth the try.

Anyway, this is it for the drawing's overview. With that out of the way, I'll proceed to dive into more details and the process of this piece.

The Process

As always, I started off with the line art. I tried to keep it minimal since more lines would mean more borders or even more different colors and that wouldn't be in line with how the original art was intended and drawn - bright all over the place.

Then I proceeded to add the basic colors to the subject first. Here I also tried to use light colors so they'd be easier to work with, and towards the end result. I wasn't sure that it would be good enough, so I just jumped right in and left the worries for later when I got there. Also, it's digital art, so it's much easier to correct stuff and go back without sending the poor canvas to oblivion and back.

Now that I was done with the subject, it was finally time to color the background. I went with a simple shade. I also made it a gradient from left to right. I wasn't too worried about it since it had zero patterns, and if it didn't look right, it would've been much easier to fix or replace than the other parts. So this part was relatively quick.

In addition to that, I added some shadows to the part that I found appropriate so that the piece would start looking more 3d and less stale and paper-like.

After that, I added even more shades till I felt like it was appropriate. I also worked on giving more details to her wings, and that's where things started to look more interesting.

After doing all the shadows, I went for the highlights and tried filling all the missing highlights on her clothes and body, and to bring them out even more, I darkened the background a little.

Then it was time to add more details to the clothes and highlight her hair. One obvious detail would be the glow in her eyes, which means it was getting close to the final steps.

After all was said and done with the subject, it was time to go back and mend the background. I didn't hate it, but it was looking a bit lonely and too dark. Since she's the ICE Pixie, I tried adding some floating crystals in the air. Together with her glowy eyes, it looks as if she's activating her powers. I liked that look and feel, so I stuck with it.

The Result

Last but not least, the background was looking too monochrome, so I added some colors and glows to better the overall mood. Hope you enjoyed this one...

Original Game Art

And as for the original pic that inspired this piece (all by accident):