Explorer

I've wanted to draw art for Zan for some time.  For awhile, I just didn't know what theme or setting to choose.  I've also wanted to have good timing for my draws.  Anyway, I'm delaying no longer.  I'm quite fond of drawings of hers that I've seen in the past showing Zan as an anthro in the snow.  

I think the white/gray/red color scheme complements the snow winter aesthetic well, and I've wondered about trying something like this out for myself.  I hope it's not too similar to what's already been drawn, and I didn't use those Zan/snow pictures as references for this.  I did use her reference sheet, and I almost missed the heterochromatic eyes since some gallery pictures of Zan show only one eye.  I've done several left-facing characters as my last few drawings, so this pose is partly my attempt to have a right-facing Zan who also shows off her red eye marking on her left side.

I used custom Photoshop tree brushes by just_nate and Nyau which I'd downloaded in the past.  Other than the brushed aluminum overlay texture from cg textures and a default Photoshop snowflake brush, the rest of this is my painting and some gradients.

At one point, I decided that black lineart was too strong and changed it to a very light gray.  When I moved onto my shading, it seemed odd that the bright lineart stood out so much.  I was shading as a clipping mask over the base color, and both these were underneath the lineart layer.  I suddenly came up with a new idea that I'd yet to try.  Instead of merging the color layers and lineart before I started to shade (as I did in the recent Thanksgiving Campfire picture- where you can look at lineart edges to see the highlight/shadows on top of lineart as an example), I did something entirely new.  I made the lineart a clipping mask on top of the base color, and this allowed me to shade/highlight over lineart while retaining the option to change the lineart color later.  For the gray markings on the front legs and the red ears, you can see how these colors go over the lineart and become the edge color instead- something I think turned out well.

I'm pleased with the blue shadows of night that I drew here.  I'm afraid the snow/fur colors might not be the most realistic, since I haven't seen an expanse of snow at night in over four years.  I mean, it's white (got to make it really light), and it's late at night illuminated by only starlight or the moon (got to make it really dark).  I feel that the color scheme of this is really my favorite art aspect of this composition, as it conveys the icy cold of night.  

To Zan:  

As I see it, Zan's looking up to the night sky through a gap in the clouds.  She's just made her way through the forest (uh just realized now that the falling snow has filled in all of her pawprints... ahhh sorrry about that), and she continues to explore this new area that she's reached (hence the title).  She's in a mixed plains/grassland/forest environment which features a rather stable altitude.  Also, the collar does read “Piv's” though this became less clear after I added cast shadows to that area.  The gray on the side fur and back legs is just shading/shadows over the white fur, and it's distinct from her actual gray fur markings.  I realize they're close to each other in tone.  

Thank you for your artistic influence as I've developed my skills here.  I kept up with your account months before even joining dA, and I've browsed your art fairly consistently in the last three years.  I feel that your style is really one that I look up to, and there's no denying your impressively prolific output of finished pictures.  I see you as someone who is a significant positive influence, and you're considerate, even gracious, to others such as myself.  I'm glad that I finally drew this for you, and I hope you're having a great Christmas.

Zan (fursona) © =Amathaze 2013