Anska paints & reblogs

Starting out, this is my vizref board for the three paintings. It’s all a bit small because some of the images should not be reposted, but I hope you can make out the gist of it. If you cannot: Each couple has a section with head turn-arounds, costume references and a few poses I liked for them. For Karlach’s arm I also needed some additional help.

Because I know nothing about dancing, dancing poses were the first thing I had to look into. Wyll and Lae’zel, I imagine as very athletic and dynamic but also disciplined, formal dancing came to mind. (My main reference ended up being this stock photo by Deagreez on IStock )

Shadowheart and Karlach, I imagined to have a lot of enthusiasm but little skill, so I was looking for poses reminiscent of a couple dancing in their kitchen. I was also looking for a lifting pose as a reference to Shads’s fantasies about being carried around. (My main reference ended up being this one) I ended up needing some anatomy help for the arm as well as for the legs, so I searched my reference library for something helpful. (These are the four large ones on the side, they are from Santine Zillah’s couples 2 pack over on Proko. ) 

For Astarion and Gale finally, I wanted to show as safe and comfortable with each other, like they have forgotten the world around them but still a little ✨ magical. This made me think of slow-dancing, but also reminded me of the scene at the end of Family from Buffy in which Tara and Willow float while dancing. It took me a while to find a pose I was happy with. The sketches above are the ones that I liked best. As you can maybe see, I wanted to play with height difference a little, as I imagine Gale to be a bit of a bean-pole and Astarion more on the shorter side - he has that Miniature Spitz energy - and I liked the idea of Gale using magic to bring them to the same eye-level. To me, Gale is all about lifting others up. (There is no real main reference for this picture but several pictures from this photo set by 4x6 helped me out - generally a pretty good source if you have questions about clothing folds btw.)

The painting process from then on was pretty simple. Earlier this year I had experimented with using layer-modes none-destructively, and while this was helpful, it did not bring me much joy. So I switched back to what I did before and flattened down all layers after choosing my colours and and basic shadows, and then continued to paint on top, cutting the figures apart again when needed. For example it was easier to keep Shads and Karlach on different layers because I was still fiddling with the shape and hold of the Shadow 🍑. Karlach’s fire-effects are also on separate layers because one of my dear friends on discord suggested it would be nice for her floofy shirt not to be ruined. (Firegirl deserves nice things too.)