I've always been a massive fan of mythology from all around the world, but Ancient Greek mythology has a special place in my heart, as it was the first mythology I went and research by myself.
As a fun art project, I decided to create a drawing inspired by Artemis and Diana, the Greek and Roman Goddesses of the moon respectively. I didn't have much experience in using Photoshop by myself, so I knew that this would be a good chance to test out what I could do.
This is the drawing I scanned in, which I drew in a tiny A5 sketchbook. I kept things rough and loose, in case I decided to change anything later on in photoshop. I already had a few ideas on how to go about this. In most drawing I do, I tend to use dark outlines (normally black) to define people and places.
I didn't want to outline in black colours this time, as I wanted the background to be a night sky with her head in the centre of the moon. I decided to try something out that I've never been able to do easily on paper, which is to outline in light colours and create a 'glowing' effect over her.
Her design is based off a few different things. The dress she is wearing is called a chiton, which are made from large sheets of fabric, and fastened at the shoulders with a cord around the waist. I gave her crescent shaped fasteners to match her earrings and headband.
Her headband is based directly off the ones Artemis is portrayed to wear in paintings, which I thought was a very appropriate thing for her the be wearing as well.
I started out by taking the image into Photoshop, and outlining the skin in a light blue. I decided I wanted to have her skin be lighter than the outline, which meant I had to balance it out with something darker on her.
I decided her dress would be indigo, and her hair would be silver, and outlined in white. Her jewellery is light grey, which I worried about blending too closely with her hair. I made the background black so that I would be able to see what I was doing. It was also to simulate what the finished image may look like, as I planned on a dark background.
Halfway through outlining, I realised that most of the interest and focus of the image is on her face, and her dress would get lost in the background. I decided to slowly add more colour down the tiers of her dress, which I felt would draw the eye down to that part of the image as well.
Once all the outlines were done, I went onto colouring the image. I started with her skin, which I made a very light blue. her hair is a silvery blue, which I made darker than her skin so that I could draw her eyes, which I could draw in white, as her eyes are also going to be glowing.
Next I moved onto her dress. I started colouring it in a lighter shade of indigo, but I found that it didn't contrast with the rest of her enough. I decided that the colours on her dress would be darker than their outlines as well.
As I went down the layers, I got lighter in colour, which I think gives her dress an interesting look. As I'm trying to associate her with the moon and night time, I think her dress has the same colours as a twilight sky, which wasn't my original intention, but I'm happy with how it turned out.
Once I'd added the finishing touches to the girl, I moved onto the background. The first this I did was place the moon so that her head is in the centre. Once I'd gotten the position right, I turned the visibility on the girl and the moon off so that I could work properly on the background.
I gave the background a vertical gradient, with indigo at the bottom, and a darker shade at the top. I then went around with a tiny brush and created stars around the top part, as I had a plan to obscure the bottom half of the background. I also added a faint layer of fog, which frames the moon in the centre.
Bringing the moon back, I added darker spots to it to look like craters, and a shadow across it to create a crescent, which is what I drew in the original picture. I tried out darker shades for the shadow on the moon, but I felt that it took away too much detail from the surface of the moon, so I dimmed and used the blur tool to make the shading less dramatic.
I brought the girl back to add some shading to her. I started by going around with light turquoise and shading all the areas. However, since I used a lighter colour, the darker colours were affected by this.
I decided to keep this, however, and fade it down I used the smudge tool to spread it around like silk, so that I could her dress some texture. I like to think that the light parts of her dress are from the moonlight, which fits with the concept of a 'Moon Goddess.'
Back onto the background, I changed the brush and the opacity, and started creating more fog and mist around her. I started with the corners, and used black to shrink the composition down, as I felt it was too open. This was my way of narrowing down the image. I added more dark fog around her skirt, to further contrast with the glow I had planned.
I used a large, circular brush with soft edges to create the giant glow effect over the moon. I added another glow effect over her eyes, which isn't really visible, but it does draw more attention to her face.
The final thing I did was add a shine to her jewellery and belts, which really make her stand out more against the night sky. I even went onto the layers of darkness I created, and erased them from the shines, which really brought the whole image together.
This is the finished image. It turned out a lot lower quality than I wanted, but I still think it's an amazing piece of art. I so much fun creating this, and it helped me become more aware of what I can and can't yet do in Photoshop.
If I could redo this image, I would definitely try out different shading, as it doesn't have the exact effect I wanted. It does, however, make her look very ethereal, which is something I'm proud of. Another thing I would change is her skirt's position, as it doesn't look quite right how it is.
Overall, I think this project turned out very well, although there are things I would change. I'm sure to try lining my images in Photoshop with different colours in future projects.
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