Here is the final version of the new work, it is my own version of Mercy. There is a lot that can be said about this, so without further ado, I plunge right in;)

This one was suggested to do by many and it is long overdue :P .
I had many ideas for her (and still have) so this might be just the first incarnation in which I tried and learned several things in digital painting.
A short list of things I learned by doing this below:

• Understanding, light, shadow and ambient occlusion ✓
• Painting White cloth in bright daylight (ugh) ✓
• Make mechanical and organic parts look cohesive + believable ✓
• Painting a skin/theme that speaks visually fantasy and elegance ✓
• Painting a living figure in a landscape ✓
• Make materials look believable  ✓
• Not painting Pink Cherry Blossom Leaves ✓
• Hide a silly Stork figure in a painting ✓

Not sure if I got all points right, especially the material part as some of it is meant to look like plastic, other parts like the torso-piece are up for a debate wether it is plastic or a kind of fabric.

Below you see my inspiration/moodboard for this piece:

The main pose was inspired by the Magic the gathering piece of Bastien Lecouffe Deharme. But instead of a dark look, I wanted to go with a Studio Ghibli kind of vibe. Since Mercy is from Switzerland, it had to be mountains in the landscape as well but instead of the realistic landscapes (and due to time pressure) I had to go with a more anime painting Gouache look for this one.

On another note, this piece was a huge learning experience. The cloth and wing-design was done completely from scratch and took the longest time to do. Heck, I could not have imagined that painting white cloth is such a difficult thing. As for the outfit, I wanted it to be consistent and that it could be a top tier skin in the game (just my personal goal, nothing more). I wanted to combine orange, white and black, her regular main colors, to create an outstanding new design. The wing design was inspired by some of my older works:

And below is an animated GIF showing the general progress

Below you find a link to download the HD wallpaper version. This will be available for a limited amount of time only...

All the best,
Oliver