tools used:
wacom tablet
hard brush
smudge brush
dodge and burn tool
...more smudge brush
and a wacom tablet
start size is 8.313" x 8.313" at 150 dpi and a rough free hand sketch of pose
choose one i like and fill it in with gray
i locked the layer tranparency and started to model muscles and junk with black and white hard brush and went to town with smudge. also use burn and dodge tool to tweak
add some lower arms. the flesh color is a new layer with a solid masked out to previous gray blocked area with blending mode set to "color."
add some free hand armor made of blocked out grays, shaded with burn and dodge tool, with red fill layer with color blending mode.
block the hair on a new layer. same way. blocked out with gray for basic shape and went to town with smudge tool.
here are the bug parts. chop up the bug butt to make thigh armor, head to make the helmet, bug shoulder to make the shoulders, knees and feet.
add some wings
made duplicate layer of wing and applied radial blur filter for flapping effect. spear is made free hand with brush tool, dodge burn, smudge, and colored like previous part.
add colored background, run it through a bunch of textured filters and done
