One of Erozion's worst fears are needles. One night while he lay in bed, he had a terrible nightmare where he couldn't move, and three giant needles are stuck into his back. This nightmare was a result of him having a medical appointment the next day, one that required the assistance of three medical guys: Atonius, Orpheus, and Kakadeus.
I was inspired to make this picture from an already existing desktop background (see below). The very minute I found this image, I saw a pitiful Erozion in place of the white blob figurine, and knew I could make a perfect picture out of it.
Another interesting thing is that the desktop image just happened to have three needles; which to me was perfect, because I feel that in Erozion's nightmare the three needles represent the three medical experts who commonly do the check ups; those three being Kakadeus, Orpheus, and Atonius.
When completing this picture, I felt pity for poor Ero. I feel that I did a pretty good job at expressing pain. With the additional tears and gaping mouth, my picture seems to express the pain of Erozion perfectly; so much in fact, I felt like giving my character a hug. ^.^
The process
(link to desktop image)
The way I did this picture is by drawing over top of the original form (above), adding more body and detail, then slapping in some color and shading. The part that took longest to draw was Erozion's mask, as for the rest, it went fairly quickly.
The original figure expressed a face of pain, but not quite as pitiful in appearance as the one I added over it. I was aiming for that face that says tears and whimpering, with heavy sobbing and a pitiful plea of wanting it to stop.
After completing the basic image, I played around with the lighting to see if there was a way to change the feel of it, and make it more nightmarish. Indeed, darkening the image did the trick, but since I like having
several options,I changed the lighting several times before settling with the main one at the top of this post.
I feel that both the images above and below, add a different emotional impact to the picture. The one above makes you feel less intimidated, but does portray the feel of a medical appointment with it's different shades of blue. As for the one below, it has a slightly darker feel, almost like being in a surgery room with its darkened background and concentrated lighting.
But out of these two choices, I chose the darkest one as the main picture (shown at the top of this blog post), since it has a gloominess to it; and it's darkened tones gives the picture that heavy, nightmarish feeling that helps you feel Erozion's pain and fear.
