Dark Lord Vale

I don’t even have the console for this game QwQ

It was actually hard finding examples of scale textures in the Arcana. The artists clearly enjoy drawing fur and feathers a lot more. But yeah, the key point is that the scale texture is painted and not lined. Few is any of these examples have individual scales outlined.

For very fine scales like with snakes, there is absolutely no indication of scales, instead basing it off common knowledge that snakes have scales and the vibrant colours/patterns. For the World, the scale texture covers most of their body, but it fades out, especially around important areas like the face, to keep it from being busy. It's also painted as being much larger than real life for clarity.

As a middle ground between these examples, I'm going to reference the way they paint bird feet, which is to paint large scales and add an occasional shine to indicate the more reflective texture. Also, while not scales, the Hanged Man shows how they indicate texture without lining, by adding highlights in a distinct shape. This gives the impression of the individual feathers without having to draw them.

So, for a humanoid design, to keep the texture from being distracting, I'd add scale shapes on areas which would act as highlights, eg. on the cheeks, shoulders, any curves or points

sir please stop eating plastic

sir do you really have to do this right now

sir *intense stare*

my good sir stop that right now

sir why are you just standing in the way

(warningly) sir...

please listen to me sir