Splinterlands Art Contest - Week 270 - Merdaali Guardian

Hey there, good people. Here we are with yet another Splinterlands Art Contest entry.
For this week, I wasn't too sure what to draw for this week's contest, and I didn't know what kind of drawing I wanted to practice and focus on - so that I could choose the card I wanted to draw based on such skills.

After much thought, I ended up choosing Merdaali Guardian. The journey to finishing her ended up being more of a "pattern and brush" one (as opposed to the shade/glow and other types of drawing skills), but it was a much needed one as I realized that I would need to have a better arsenal of brushes at the ready AND have a general knowledge of them on top of that so I can access them as needed.

The Process

The Patterns

Up until this point, everything was the same and more or less in line with the usual stuff, but then I realized that things like her scales, the bubbles and flares, and all those patterns need decent brushes - and while I've had experience making out scales and such on my creatures from previous works, this one was a whole another level.

The Result

And this is how she turned out at the end. There was much that I learned through this piece and I wouldn't have imagined that there were so many details in choosing and using brushes in digital art...

I wish you all a calming and peaceful weekend,
Cheers~~

Original Card Art