This took a little longer than anticipated, but it’s finally finished! So… the final part of the process is by far and away the longest and most tedious. I can kind of switch off my brain a little bit here and just settle in for the long haul. I’m adding contact shadow, detail (like giraffe patterning and cheetah spots), light and occlusion (for volume), and texture. I use line work very sparingly here – usually only for facial features and defining areas that might otherwise lost.
From a compositional standpoint a couple characters had to be adjusted here and there. The painted dog had to be shifted because it’s dark colouring blended in too much with buffalo, but luckily I was able to swap her out with the meerkats. The secretary bird’s look also had to change because… well, it was crap and I didn’t use enough reference for the initial sketch. I also reduced the size of the iguana because it was originally almost as big as the dragons from Game of Thrones.
So that’s it! Hope you enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed working on it!
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