I’m experimenting with masking and lighting with these pictures. They’re for my upcoming one shot collection(?) Children of Doom, which takes place shortly before the second killing game in Heretics of Doom. The picture in the description is Sietch Jabberwock (aka Sietch Despair), where the Museum Despair live on the desert planet Rakistan. I tried to capture the inviting look of a home at night, with the blurry window glow and barely-visible silhouettes. To make this, I first drew the scene normally, then added the blur-glow to the windows, then applied a mask at around 90% opacity. Finally, I used the soft eraser to create the warm glow effect. I hope it doesn’t look too bad.
Sietch Jabberwock is carved into sheer rock, rendering it invulnerable to sandworm attacks. It is, located many kilometers southwest of Rakinel, the largest city on Rakistan. It is also east of the Western Dune Sea, where few dare to venture unless they are properly equipped for fear of being consumed by the sandworms that live there. On ceremonial occasions the Museum Despair travel to the Dune Sea to pray to their Divided Goddess.
This is Chiaki Nanami, one of the Museum Despair, performing a ritual with a water basin. Water is very rare in Rakistan, ok? You can see the gray stillsuit mask hanging from her neck as well as part of the suit itself showing through the robes. They are ceremonial in this case, but when out in the desert similar robes are worn to protect the stillsuits and wearers from direct sunlight. Generally, they are made of extremely reflective fabric.
Finally, we have here a mural of a sandworm, the god/goddess that the Museum Despair worship. They believe (correctly) that portions of their leader’s consciousness are trapped within the worms, and they often pray to these fragments to grant small wishes, good harvests, and to watch over them and their children.