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Description
Full view please, thank you.

Whee, another completed commission! Once again this piece features Ryu Okage, a dragon lycan cross who was previously featured in commissions Darkness Darkness - Ryu Okage and more recently Celestial Lucidity.

With this picture Tony asked for another full body with dark colors and a gothic, summoning look. I decided to play with perspective to get in a little more practice. I was having a bit of trouble with the upper body so I used a partial reference from a violent, neato little manga called Deadman Wonderland. After that everything else just sort of fit into place.

I was inspired by the song Menouthis by E.S. Posthumus off their album Unearthed. All the tracks are named after fallen cities and civilizations with a real "old world warlord" epic feel to them, but the one that struck me the most dramatic was Menouthis. Considering who the city was built for I thought it would be neat if Ryu was summoning a hell fire spell named after it. The text on the image says "Menouthis," but in Cthulhu Runes - I used them in a previous picture, but I had to use them again; they're just so cool looking!

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"Menouthis was a sacred city in ancient Egypt, devoted to the Egyptian goddess and god Isis and Serapis. The city was submerged under water in the 8th century AD as a result of earthquakes or a Nile flood. Its exact location is not known for sure, however a city was discovered by an archaeological team lead by Franck Goddio in 2000 and is thought to be Menouthis. - Quoted from Wikipedia

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The fire itself made coloring a little tricky, with so much light I wasn't able to add any foundation shadows, only different lighting textures seem to give the effect of dancing fire shadows. I used a tutorial or two, which are listed at the bottom, that made the fire effects fun to work with. It's a little funny though, I wanted the fire so searing hot white that it kinda looks like poor Ryu's fingers are being incinerated. But they aren't! Trust me.

Finally, for that speckled, pixel painter look, I used the 'Add Noise' and the 'Dust and Scratches' Filters in Photoshop. I don't know what it is about those two Filters by they make a picture look awesome if they're used right.

Tools and References used:
Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Realistic Fire Tutorial
Fire Planet Tutorial
Deadman Wonderland (partial pose reference)
Cthulhu Runes

Copyrights and Inspirations:
Image © Copyright 2008 Raquel Richardson; Please do not copy, alter or redistribute this image.
Ryu Okage © Copyright 2008 Tony Leugers
Menouthis © Copyright E.S. Posthumus
Deadman Wonderland © Copyright Jinsei Kataoka & Kazuma Kondou

Description
Full view please, thank you.

Whee, another completed commission! Once again this piece features Ryu Okage, a dragon lycan cross who was previously featured in commissions Darkness Darkness - Ryu Okage and more recently Celestial Lucidity.

With this picture Tony asked for another full body with dark colors and a gothic, summoning look. I decided to play with perspective to get in a little more practice. I was having a bit of trouble with the upper body so I used a partial reference from a violent, neato little manga called Deadman Wonderland. After that everything else just sort of fit into place.

I was inspired by the song Menouthis by E.S. Posthumus off their album Unearthed. All the tracks are named after fallen cities and civilizations with a real "old world warlord" epic feel to them, but the one that struck me the most dramatic was Menouthis. Considering who the city was built for I thought it would be neat if Ryu was summoning a hell fire spell named after it. The text on the image says "Menouthis," but in Cthulhu Runes - I used them in a previous picture, but I had to use them again; they're just so cool looking!

-------------------------------

"Menouthis was a sacred city in ancient Egypt, devoted to the Egyptian goddess and god Isis and Serapis. The city was submerged under water in the 8th century AD as a result of earthquakes or a Nile flood. Its exact location is not known for sure, however a city was discovered by an archaeological team lead by Franck Goddio in 2000 and is thought to be Menouthis. - Quoted from Wikipedia

-------------------------------

The fire itself made coloring a little tricky, with so much light I wasn't able to add any foundation shadows, only different lighting textures seem to give the effect of dancing fire shadows. I used a tutorial or two, which are listed at the bottom, that made the fire effects fun to work with. It's a little funny though, I wanted the fire so searing hot white that it kinda looks like poor Ryu's fingers are being incinerated. But they aren't! Trust me.

Finally, for that speckled, pixel painter look, I used the 'Add Noise' and the 'Dust and Scratches' Filters in Photoshop. I don't know what it is about those two Filters by they make a picture look awesome if they're used right.

Tools and References used:
Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Realistic Fire Tutorial
Fire Planet Tutorial
Deadman Wonderland (partial pose reference)
Cthulhu Runes

Copyrights and Inspirations:
Image © Copyright 2008 Raquel Richardson; Please do not copy, alter or redistribute this image.
Ryu Okage © Copyright 2008 Tony Leugers
Menouthis © Copyright E.S. Posthumus
Deadman Wonderland © Copyright Jinsei Kataoka & Kazuma Kondou