Week 357 | My Splinterlands Art Contest Entry | Kulu Swimhunter

Hello! ✨

I hope everyone is doing well. 😊

For this week, I chose Kulu Swimhunter, a squid creature with some human features. I am also happy to be on the list of winners from last week.

Hmm, I feel like this creature is already an alien, haha. It has the head of a squid and features of a human, the arms and the legs. It has glowing yellow-red eyes which gives the gnarly vibe of the card.

Kulu Swimhunter

"Kulu Swimhunters are members of a race of squid-like creatures that hunt in packs. They use their multiple tentacles to wield all manner of projectiles, to include spears, coral, and even fish. They are very aggressive and are known to traverse oceans, lakes, and rivers, killing for sport and leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. They do not value gold or glory and will ally themselves with whoever promises the greatest opportunity to hunt and kill."

More of Kulu Swimhunter Lore Here

Art Process

• sketch and lineart

I used a blue colored pen for the sketch. On the initial drawing, my canvas was in portrait mode. I feel like the character was too tight in that orientation, so I edited the orientation to 90 degrees to the right. Now, I thought the framing was better, hehe. So half way to the sketching, my orientation was weird, haha.

I used a pencil texture brush for the lineart. It was hard to put arms and a leg for a squid, so that part was a bit challenging, but it was a nice practice. ☺️

• base color and initial shading

The vision for the background is the ocean. I chose a blue and old rose color for the ocean and floor. I then worked on the eyes of the squid. I wanted to be gnarly yellow eye, hehe. I kept looking for inspo for Pinterest for the background, and found some and just picked from each selected images.

• Adding shades and initial details

Here, I am about 80 percent done with the squid. I used a medium to hard brush for the shading. I used a multiply layer of reddish brown and cyan blue for the shadow and lighting, respectively. I then downloaded some kelp and seaweed brushes from the asset store for the background. I then used a blur brush to soften hard edges.

Final Art

I was contemplating if I should keep the kelps and seaweed in color green and orange, but then I thought it would be better if I color it in deep blue, which is close to the background's color. It worked fine but I kep some kelps color green on the background. I used a droplet brush for the bubbles and then set them to blur so that it would look like they were moving upward. Lastly, I used a glow brush for the light coming from above. I do not like to be over-done, so I just lighting brushed it. To add more details to the art, I added some texture nuances in the background like the fish. The fish is a speacial brush too that can be dowloaded in the asset store.

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Tadaaa! I hope I imparted some knowledge through my art process! 😊 Feel free to ask anything in the comment section, and I will answer to the best of my skill!! 🥳💕

Software: Clip Studio Paint Pro

That is it for this art blog. I will see you at the next one!
📸 All photos are owned and taken by me, otherwise credited. ©️jijisaurart

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