With my entry to the Pirates and Booty contest on Hentai Foundry I thought it would be nice to do a little process. This is the finished image for those that just got here. There are many entries with very high quality and I wish everyone good luck (for me too, haha).
In the beginning I had some difficulties setting the initial concept because I really didn’t know from where to approach the theme. I could have done a considerable number of different things here and my first ideas were 4. One to have a big orgy with some captured ladies and Captain’s Larissa crew. A second to have Larissa and her Quartermaster doing something sexy. A third would be the capture of the Japanese pirate who was the original owner of the Pet Kraken and last, the Kraken and Larissa. I discarded Larissa and the Quartermaster almost immediately because I felt it wouldn’t have enough impact. I started by gathering references and even did a photobash (pasted references on top of each other) and a complete sketch drawing
I spent more time on this than I wanted, but in the end I figured this piece wouldn’t have any strong focus points, even with all the hardcore going on. I had to go for another piece. I tried the same theme again but with less couples, so I could focus more on perfecting it.
Again, I love these sketches I made, and if it were for me I would go with either of these, but for the contest I needed more fantasy. I also drew the scene with the original owner of the Pet Kraken
This was a strong candidate and I wanted to do it but only if I had time, which unfortunately I didn’t. The Kraken sketch was much stronger and more creative so I had to go with it first.
For the Kraken scene I departed from a beautiful sex scene with Gabriella Fox (below on the right)
The heavy makeup, the camera angle and pose drew me in immediately and was perfect for my Pirate Captain. The other references were a bit complimentary. I had about 150 references I collected from exploring the other scenes, but these were probably the most relevant. I wanted Larissa to be offering herself and I didn’t want it to be rapey. I wanted her to be happily surprised. I think I may have drawn the main tentacles too big, but if they’re going to hold her in the air, they needed to be like so.
The sketch phase is always when I have the most fun and probably the most important of my whole process. Perspective, scale and object mass is very important when drawing. I needed a Captain, her treasure and a Kraken. For the Kraken, I didn’t want it to be a known cephalopod and I didn’t even count the number of tentacles, it had to be a fantasy and mystic, almost alien creature without being already done anywhere else.
The line phase I usually do for the main characters and it’s only to provide boundaries for the base colors and layers. I start by laying down the base colors and finding what the lighting conditions are. The Kraken is blue to counter all the warm colors in the scene including Larissa’s skin tone, and Larissa’s hair is a sort of aquatic green-blue to convey some sea-quality to it. Her coat is some sort of ripped double breasted coat she probably stole from an upstanding captain. I wanted to make her a mini skirt, but I thought that would bring too much confusion to the belly area which I wanted to show a bit of inflation from the tentacle.
Then I kept painting the main zones of the scene, but mostly the Kraken, you can see its main palette up there.
I kept adding contrast to the Kraken, the shadowed part needed to be considerably darker than the part facing the light. Then I started painting Larissa and her clothes. The black round symbol on her hat is a red neptune with a trident, that’s when I invented the name of her ship, the Bloody Neptune. Also added her necklace of teeth and painted her rings and golden cup (no rings on the right hand because it’s her sword hand) and detailed the core point of the image, the huge double penetration and the bulge on her belly which even passes under her belt, pretty outrageous but should also be arousing for someone, which is the whole point of this.
Then I added the wood texture on the back so it doesn’t look too monotonous, but that’s only one of the two textures I used. I also started to work on her treasure and all the background objects and to think about what her treasure could have. Definitely gold and more gold
This was the most time consuming part. each piece of gold doesn’t have much detail, but I detailed a few individual pieces close to the center and left the less defined gold the edges. I also did the gold reflection on the kraken and a number of texture details on the main tentacles. It was during this phase that I felt there was not enough magic being thrown around and I added the glowing sac and some lovecraftian looking symbols to the main tentacle which can even be seen from inside her womb. Also notice the whole secondary light from the glowing sac, it’s very subtle, the light is not strong but it reflects on Larissa’s right side and helps her stand out from the Kraken. I also made some important changes to Larissa’s face, including the heavier make up and freckles.
The last phase is where I make some level corrections and apply filters. Multiplying some dark colors to darken the darkest areas and using Normal light colors to lighten the lightest parts. Also big soft brush on the windows for bloom effect. The last filter is usually a two color gradient overlay which I tend to overuse to bring the piece’s whole palette together. From this filter I only left out the glowing symbols light which was being shifted too much to purple.
The last details were the liquids and the corset’s texture. Any questions and comments appreciated
