Pretending it's real/ Using styles

I'm working on brushes and effects just to play with some more styles in Photoshop. Here are a couple quickies that I've churned out this week.
The first is a snow leopard, a little cartoony, drawn up with a layered graphic marker effect.
Next I tried to get a shui-mo hua effect, which is an east asian washed ink style, and with the right color effects I managed to get a look that's reminiscent of gold paint. Also a snow leopard.

Lastly, I'm playing with a new technique I'm developing that takes 2 fundamentals into play: 1) you can make something beautiful/refined out of scribbles so long as your composition is sound, and 2) the colors of the paint spectrum (not light) are all comprised of red/yellow/blue with varying shades of brightness (black/white. I outlined the process in a couple pieces below. Start with a cool blue base layer, add a layer of muted-tone shadows on top, add a third layer of warm yellows & reds on top. Merge all 3 layers, apply Photoshop's Cutout filter. Lastly, play with tones until the color is balanced.


I. Snow Leopard (graphic marker effect)


II. Snow Leopard II (shui-mo hua style)


III. Pygmy Jerboa (RYB layered)


IV. Phoenix (RYB layered)




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