Splinterlands Art Contest Week 270: Halfling Alchemist

This is my entry for the weekly Splinterlands Art Contest found HERE

From the Splinterlands Wiki: https://splinterlands.fandom.com/wiki/Halfling_Alchemist

Where did the Halflings come from? Did they sail from across the Outers, did they dig up through the ground, or did they simply fall from the sky? No one knows for certain; the Halflings have been less than forthcoming when answering questions of their past. Instead, their focus is always on the future, a future that is ruled by halves.

There seem to be only hundreds of Halflings in total, but with them came an uncanny amount of gold. Their tools are gold, their armor is gold, even Halfling paper is a form of gold. But the halflings do not believe in currency; what they cannot make or take, they simply do without. The most powerful among the Halflings are the Alchemists.

Halfling Alchemists practice a delicate art that they call Aether Shen. In this process, objects (usually weapons) are broken down using alchemical magic to a smaller version of their previous selves. When used as a spell in battle, Aether Shen is incredibly destructive, but when used to enhance the power of an object, it can also do amazing things. The great central truth of Halfling Alchemy is that when halved correctly, any object (or person) can become exponentially more powerful.

Created in Clip Studio Paint Pro on a Surface Pro 4. Here is the time lapse video:

And here is the drawing broken down into individual process steps:

One: Rough Draft

Two: Ink. Used a much thinner brush than I usually use. Always trying something new.

Three: Here's what it looks like without the rough draft layer.

Four: Set the inks as the reference layer and lay down some rough colors.

Five: This is what it looks like after using the "Colorize" feature in Clip Studio.

Six: Shading! Pushed around some paint with a smooth watercolor brush to add some gray tones.

Seven: Duplicate the existing color layer and push the paint around a bit more.

Eight: Details and signature. Added some glowing bits to that flask and put my mark in the bottom corner. Done.