ina

It never occurred to wich extent the skintones are desaturated. You keep hearing that colours don't really matter that much, cuz it's all about values. And turnes out -- indeed, they don't (to some extent)

I still messed up some values in my study tho

I am a person who usually avoids desaturated colours while rendering skin. Because why would I? My characters will look like corpses. And, well, the game involves chtonic gods, dead people (shades) and olympians, so they're supposed to look unnatural. Still, in a certain light the skin colour is desaturated, so this study actually helped me in an unexpected way.

With that being said, the artist still used more saturated colours in some areas of skin. They are either blended with the midtone colour (they have the same value), or placed on a border between shadow and a midtone. And the light, of course.

You can also notice some random bright highlights on the characters. Why are these highlights there in the first place? My guess is -- to tell your brain, that there are more details, than there actually is, but also to bring more life to pitch black areas or they will look like black holes.

Look how these highlights change the perception of a character (Charon, my mate):

a bit boring vs eye-catching

I'm also a big big fan of character poses, especially of the olympians. I haven't played the second game yet (I'm already in love with Melinoё), but I've seen some photos of the characters, and something felt off. Poses are not that interesting, a bit basic in fact, but there is also something about the way characters are coloured (rendered(?)) I can't put my finger on. They still look amazing, don't get me wrong. It's just I prefer first game's design more.

also look how my art changed over two years. I have definetely become more confident with my brushwork lol, and, well, as an artist in general

Anyway, the poses!! I LOVE how they instantly tell you more about the characters and their personality. Athena's pose is stately and noble, Aphrodite is very flirty. Artemis looks like she is in the middle of a hunt, and her pose reminds me of an arrow in a way. Poseidon and Dio are more laid back, but Poseidon is also flexing with his guns and weapon.

an awful photo of my messy sketches + hands