Are you brave enough to approach, or even to gaze?

Self Critique: On the scaly patches on her shoulders and neck, the transition between skin and scale isn’t that convincing. The torso is a bit longer than it should be.

This gal here is Euryale, the OC of my buddy Jax. This commission came about as a result of a bounty I put up a back in 2018 over on Twitter that was fulfilled two years later. The idea for Euryale was to make gothic heavy-metal inspired demon girl, taking most inspiration from Medusa from Shin Megami Tensei IV. I asked what style of snake skin to go for, to which he suggested the California Red-sided Garter snake. I couldn’t quite replicate the snake’s exact pattern, but I did take after it’s coloration. Since this was gonna take some effort, I did her concept sketch digitally rather than traditionally in my sketchbook. Once the design got final approval, it was off to start the pic proper. The idea was to really emphasize the size of the snake tail and its potential to wrap around someone. Since this was to have no other variants (save for the piercing, which was added after completion due to both of us forgetting), Jax suggested she’d peel off one of the pasties. Only challenge to that would be how to make the sheer material react to itself with the chain lifting it up.

The one major hurdle was the snake scales and the snake hair. Regarding the snake hair, since I didn’t have much knowledge of how to draw their heads, I traced a 3D model of a snake that I had downloaded from Clip Studio Assets. The good thing was that I was able to open and close the mouth as needed. There is one snake that I left alone as a running gag from the concept sketch if you look hard enough. For their scales, this was done using brush material that I also got from Clip Studio Assets. And thanks to the new Liquify tool that was added to Clip Studio Paint, I was able to more efficiently warp the scales based on direction, girth, and proximity to edge. The question then was: how do I shade this? Since the base color was multicolored, obvious choice was to filter shade. But what about the highlights? The snake hair served as a good place to experiment with this part. I did some softer, more uniform highlights for the scales. For the direct light, that’s where I’d individually plot down some splotches where the light was strongest. Once I was satisfied with the result, the true test would begin with the snake tail and the larger scales there. I didn’t want the direct lights to look so soft, so I used the Rough Wash brush to fill in the brighter spots, and gradually let up on the pressure further away from where the light would hit.

The figure in the background is actually a small Athena figure that I had bought during my trip to Indiana in 2021. I grabbed a light, illuminated it, and snapped a photo. I then manipulated the colors, shadows, and rim lighting to what you see now. To round out the pic, behind Athena are a couple of textures that CSP came with.

Done on Clip Studio Paint. Body-chan traced for construction lines. 3D model of snake from Clip Studio Assets traced for snake heads. Scale brush from Clip Studio Assets used.

Euryale is © Jax_Spade