Day of the Dead Raphael

HEEEEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!! He looks so deliciously sinister!!

This is the result of... a lot of things. ^_^ ~Delectable-Decadence were talking about doing a Day of the Dead themed fan art trade, and Raph with his face painted up calavera/sugar skull style instantly popped into my head. Plot bunnies strike artists too, ya know... So of course I *had* to do it!

Also, I've been wanting to try and figure out how to do softer cel-style shading. So I cruised around some tutorials on here to try and figure it out. This one helped some, and this one helped a little too. I still don't know what settings to apply to my brush to make it work right though... I end up getting hard edges that I have to smooth out...

I also wanted to try and learn how to draw the TMNTs a little better, especially their eyes and head-shapes. So... YES. This is a conglomeration of a bunch of different stuff I wanted to try out.

I like how the shadow across his face makes him look like he's coming out of the darkness. I might do the rest of the guys in this style eventually too. We'll see if that plot bunny lets me go or not... haha.

Here he is without his face paint: [link]

(Edit) Yup, plot bunnies got me.

Here's Leo: [link]
Here's Donnie: [link]
Here's Mikey: [link]

And the foursome: [link]