Zargooran Amongst Rage - Painting Progression

OK, so I've titled this 'Zargooran Amongst Rage', mostly for the red/orange colours surrounding him. Despite being in this form for a number of years now, his image is mostly just description. Actually making his image is a lot harder then I thought. For one, his form is mostly ghost like, a large man-sized form consisting of what looks like a universe contained within. You can make out a body shape and head shape, with arms that sometimes come from the form. The only thing that stands out from his body are two large red eyes, but the are just red, no eyeballs, no pupils, nothing. The universe moves as he moves, so stars are never in the same place.

So yeah, it sounds difficult, but I really need to start bringing this image out more. While animation would have been a better option, I'm no good at it, so instead I'll give it a go with the only medium I seem to have a little skill with; Paint.

1st Part

Using mostly water mixable oil paint (with a dash of acrylic paint), I started by giving the board a brush of various dark blue/purple mixes. After I was satisfied with the result, I used a large fan brush and some white paint and lightly flicked it to get some stars into the mix (though I feel I may have over done it). Left to dry.

2nd Part

This next part never made it, but was a good learning curve. I needed a rough silhouette image to design the stencil. I decided to get a shot of myself in various poses and from there, used the Paint program to go over it with a silhouette design. From there I copied the image as best I could to the card. The image you see was the first final choice, but was later scraped because I still felt unhappy with it. It's still a great idea for getting character poses right, but it just wasn't the right one at this time.

3rd Part

(you'll notice two large dots...that's because I forgot to remove the blu-tack from the painting before I took the shot.....facepalm)

Deciding to go for a more simple silhouette, I created the stencil from card and used the tiniest amount of Blu-tack to hold it. Looking back now, I should have done the background first and then do the star body second, but like I said, learning curve. The thing I found with the oils though is that the water mix ones tend to rub off when applying new layers. While the red was fine, it was the oranges and yellows I had trouble with. In the end I decided to get some Acrylic paint instead and mix it in. This did improve the mix somewhat, but it still took multiple layers to get it just right. Stencil was then removed to see what needed to be fixed up. Left to dry.

4th Part

Touched up around the edges, both with the red/orange/yellow on the outside and dark blue on the inside. A few more star flicks on the bottom and eyes on the head and he's done. OK, so I could improve the star/space look and the eyes do look like they need more work, but given I have work tonight and I need to get ready, I think this will do.

Not bad for someone who hasn't really put paint to canvas for around 10 years. Again, not ment to be a master piece, just a bit of fun testing paint and visually creating a character which is rather difficult top create visually.