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Description
Safira is doing some belly dance practice, and so am I.

-----

Well, for awhile I've been trying to work on and improve on a method to doing semi-transparency in some of my artwork (you might've noticed a few journals/comments lately looking for help).

It's a bit sad to say, but despite the fact I actually consider her one of my 'primary' OCs, I tend to very rarely draw belly dancer / harem girl / thief / assassin (?) combo character Safira. In fact, the last real pic I did involving this barefoot, boomerang-wielding beauty was three and a half years ago in a summer pic. <: And even then, this gyrating genie-esque girl wasn't even in her preferred style of costume.

So...this one's a bit of me trying to experiment and practice on probably the major reason I've been avoiding her: yep, the transparencies of her veils and outfit (mostly the pantaloons). While her top is usually also slightly see-through I kept it opaque this time for simplicity (to focus on the other major spots) and, eh, to keep the mature filter off. >:

Rambling...

I know in my head what I want to do, and I've looked at tons of similar character designs to see varying styles, but am having a hard time coming up with a good method to actually DO what I want.

I can see three basic things to keep track of:
1 - Dynamic transparency. For instance, you can see 'through' the pants better right around the hip slits or at HER right knee (which is bent forward almost against the pant leg) and see less of her legs at the thicker puffs right above her anklets. Or seeing more around her nose and less as you go down the veil, further from the skin of her face/neck. Here I tried doing this by having a base low opacity layer over the relevant body (which I colored/shaded normally) areas and then tried to 'build' color gradually atop the areas where the semi-transparent material would be further from her skin.
2 - Coloring the material itself. There's typical shading and lighting of the veil/pantaloons themselves to keep track of, but combined with #1 I'm having a hard time pulling it off efficiently. Here I did something similar: I gradually built darker/lighter shades of color on separate layers above the 'built up' parts I did for #1.
3 - Extra highlighting/glows for edges and to the overall lighting of the scene. Separate from the above two elements and more opaque than either, I may have overdid it though. <:

All three phases had opacities lowered depending on what the material was covering. The background veils were lower than her pants for instance.

I mean, I experimented with other thing, though they somewhat affect the overall design. See, I'm also considering refining and/or revamping the entire look for the character if necessary, although I love how she looks right now.

Character-wise (maybe it'd help if I actually posted her already-written stories), Safi there is obviously a flashy entertainer type. Belly dancing, wielding some blades as she dances, trying to be eye-catching/popular. But (going by her high-fantasy-with-Arabian-Knights-flavor background) she once was involved with a 'bad group' of thieves and rogues to learn agility and some 'skills' as she was growing up, although she had some selective morals. Something...happened...and she left that life behind to become a dancer, and ended up mixing some bits of what she learned and trained into her dancing style to 'stand out more'.

Of course...sometimes she still has to fall back on those old 'talents'...

Relevance to the art stuff? Somewhat in design going forward. It's very deliberate that she likes her semi-transparent belly dancer / harem look...she lets you see through SOME of what her life has consisted of. She wants to show off, but only just enough for your enjoyment. There's also the deliberate way she wears a veil which works technically as a mask. It's not meant to be as 'mask opaque' as say Vermilion Crescent's veil, since the latter was blocking the fact she has FANGS whereas Safira is fine with you seeing her red lips etc.

But all this translates to ways I could simplify drawing/coloring her, but only if it fits the character design/personality. I mean, I could REALLY simplify things and make her veil/top/pants totally opaque (think Shantae's genie pants). Or ignore the dynamic transparencies and make the relevant areas only slightly transparent all over (which would make the normal shading/lighting done more typically with things just slightly lowered opacity). I also played with layer styles a bit before this version and found a few interesting options, though they tended to make the veil/pants seem totally transparent (aka the linework beneath of her body stayed fully solid to our view while the skin/whatever changed tint etc).

*sigh*

Sorry for writing a book here, but I could just use some advice. The methods I eventually went with on this version weren't too difficult overall, but I'm not sure I got it 'right' in how it should look in doing so. I'm confused and assistance would be appreciated for whenever I try to do such effects again.

Anyway...Safira is still a stepping, swaying hottie.

Description
Safira is doing some belly dance practice, and so am I.

-----

Well, for awhile I've been trying to work on and improve on a method to doing semi-transparency in some of my artwork (you might've noticed a few journals/comments lately looking for help).

It's a bit sad to say, but despite the fact I actually consider her one of my 'primary' OCs, I tend to very rarely draw belly dancer / harem girl / thief / assassin (?) combo character Safira. In fact, the last real pic I did involving this barefoot, boomerang-wielding beauty was three and a half years ago in a summer pic. <: And even then, this gyrating genie-esque girl wasn't even in her preferred style of costume.

So...this one's a bit of me trying to experiment and practice on probably the major reason I've been avoiding her: yep, the transparencies of her veils and outfit (mostly the pantaloons). While her top is usually also slightly see-through I kept it opaque this time for simplicity (to focus on the other major spots) and, eh, to keep the mature filter off. >:

Rambling...

I know in my head what I want to do, and I've looked at tons of similar character designs to see varying styles, but am having a hard time coming up with a good method to actually DO what I want.

I can see three basic things to keep track of:
1 - Dynamic transparency. For instance, you can see 'through' the pants better right around the hip slits or at HER right knee (which is bent forward almost against the pant leg) and see less of her legs at the thicker puffs right above her anklets. Or seeing more around her nose and less as you go down the veil, further from the skin of her face/neck. Here I tried doing this by having a base low opacity layer over the relevant body (which I colored/shaded normally) areas and then tried to 'build' color gradually atop the areas where the semi-transparent material would be further from her skin.
2 - Coloring the material itself. There's typical shading and lighting of the veil/pantaloons themselves to keep track of, but combined with #1 I'm having a hard time pulling it off efficiently. Here I did something similar: I gradually built darker/lighter shades of color on separate layers above the 'built up' parts I did for #1.
3 - Extra highlighting/glows for edges and to the overall lighting of the scene. Separate from the above two elements and more opaque than either, I may have overdid it though. <:

All three phases had opacities lowered depending on what the material was covering. The background veils were lower than her pants for instance.

I mean, I experimented with other thing, though they somewhat affect the overall design. See, I'm also considering refining and/or revamping the entire look for the character if necessary, although I love how she looks right now.

Character-wise (maybe it'd help if I actually posted her already-written stories), Safi there is obviously a flashy entertainer type. Belly dancing, wielding some blades as she dances, trying to be eye-catching/popular. But (going by her high-fantasy-with-Arabian-Knights-flavor background) she once was involved with a 'bad group' of thieves and rogues to learn agility and some 'skills' as she was growing up, although she had some selective morals. Something...happened...and she left that life behind to become a dancer, and ended up mixing some bits of what she learned and trained into her dancing style to 'stand out more'.

Of course...sometimes she still has to fall back on those old 'talents'...

Relevance to the art stuff? Somewhat in design going forward. It's very deliberate that she likes her semi-transparent belly dancer / harem look...she lets you see through SOME of what her life has consisted of. She wants to show off, but only just enough for your enjoyment. There's also the deliberate way she wears a veil which works technically as a mask. It's not meant to be as 'mask opaque' as say Vermilion Crescent's veil, since the latter was blocking the fact she has FANGS whereas Safira is fine with you seeing her red lips etc.

But all this translates to ways I could simplify drawing/coloring her, but only if it fits the character design/personality. I mean, I could REALLY simplify things and make her veil/top/pants totally opaque (think Shantae's genie pants). Or ignore the dynamic transparencies and make the relevant areas only slightly transparent all over (which would make the normal shading/lighting done more typically with things just slightly lowered opacity). I also played with layer styles a bit before this version and found a few interesting options, though they tended to make the veil/pants seem totally transparent (aka the linework beneath of her body stayed fully solid to our view while the skin/whatever changed tint etc).

*sigh*

Sorry for writing a book here, but I could just use some advice. The methods I eventually went with on this version weren't too difficult overall, but I'm not sure I got it 'right' in how it should look in doing so. I'm confused and assistance would be appreciated for whenever I try to do such effects again.

Anyway...Safira is still a stepping, swaying hottie.