heyho!!

yeah... a bit behind on the artbook again, hehe, but I'll hopefully catch up in the next few days, so be prepared for a ton of updates >w<

either way, i took part in a drawing contest again! this time from DarkLove_3120 with the topic "horror" .... yeah I haven't drawn any properly scary/gory stuff in a while, so I desperately wanted to take part :0

not all too sure what else to say here, sooo... let's start with the sketch!

initially i was indeed inspired and motivated, but as soon as i sat down in front of that canvas, i wasn't too sure anymore, what i wanted to do. after a while of google searching i then ended up with that sketch above... i wasn't the biggest fan of it at all, but trusted in the process of me changing things, as soon as it comes to the lineart.

and yeah!

that's precisely what happened >w<

as always the face got lined first. and whilst i was doodling along, I realised that the nose more or less was the nose of Mystos, an OC of mine.
and since mystos was wayyy to perfect for this prompt, as he is the god of fear and patron god of the nightmare clan....

so i just erased most of what i had and finally put my ideas for Mystos down on some visual format, other than my imagination.

the main idea is essentially to combine quite the amount of fears into one thing.
So we have a crown, representing greed and the fear of someone more powerful harming you, spikes, for that good old needle-fear, skulls for death (duh), with spikes through the eyes of each creatures skull..... because it was cool... ngl.... also added some good old body horror in there with that mouth-thing on the other side of his face and the pieces of flesh, that are like cobwebs between the spikes (small anecdote to spiders btw).
The ear was inspired by the fear of unnatural and foreign things, and a tiny bit of the deep sea (but that was just a minor reference, similar to the spider thing).
His "heart" is more or less glued with them flesh-strings into his ribcage as well (sadly the lineart isn't in these exports, but you'll see them in the flats QwQ), to show fear of what's inside of us, emotions and how vulnerable we are.
And last but not least, he himself is just a half-skeleton, symbolizing the future, decay and sickness.

... did i have too much fun with his design? maybe... either way, I imagine him to talk like a whispering in the night... dry like leaves in the wind, silent and calm, yet with this slightly unsettling vibe to it, you know? when he walks, it sounds like bones cracking, when he laughs it has the same feeling as with nails on a chalkboard....

basically he is just the personification of every single nightmare out there, but i sadly couldn't incorporate them all into his humanoid design QwQ

Yeah... but since it's supposed to be creepy, I went ahead and also made the background darker and some of the lineart white... just to get some eerie effects and contrast in there.

Then it came to the colours. Since the colour of fear-magic is this purple-red is tone, I decided to keep the palette in that colour range, leaning a lot into the red, as it's the secondary clan colour.

Goal was to make everything rather dark, and get the emphasis on the spikes/teeth and heart, as the whole thing would otherwise get a bit too busy.
I also had a bit of fun with glow-effects, to get a secondary focal point, other than the face, as soon as light would be added in.

And then I got to the shading.... tbh I had a lot more fun that I like to admit xDD

no clue what it is, but shading stuff like this is always just really satsifying and fun ^-^

anyways. i was indeed tempted to make his heart and eye the only light sources in the image, but then decided against it. simply because i think it would be a bit creepier, if we had some external light source from the right. As though he came to haunt you and you just turned on a light or so, only to reveal the terrifying creature at the end of your bed.

yeah..... other than that, I also decided to add in a bit of blood dripping, since... idk.... it just felt right >w<

And there we have it!
I hope you guys like it as much as I did... ngl drawing sth like this was indeed hella fun, even though I think I could've done a better job especially at the shoulders.... but hey! I'm happy with the result and the process was good, so why complain? ^-^

>>pats you guys, gives you a big fat hug, extra blankets and a hot chocolate<<