The Demonic Diva, Deathwynd

****FOR CLARIFICATION PURPOSES: It is believed, by one group, that this image contains "Stock" material that should be properly noted. This is untrue. This entire piece was made, from scratch, with material that is default to the Student/Teacher Edition of Photoshop CS6. The Waterfall was created with a brush that resides in the Natural Brushes section of the default cs6 brushes. The rocks and cave wall were created with a variation of rendering clouds and difference clouds in various colors and then plastic wrapping them through filters (while playing with other filters that are defaulted to CS6). The gradient for the lava was created by me. Deathwynd was drawn, converted to lineart using the Pen Tool, and ultimately painted by me and ultimately smoothed with a blur filter, even the orange-ish background was made solely with default filters. Even the lava bursts were default stipple brushes that came with the program. I don't know what else, in the image, could POSSIBLY be Stock, but I'm am disappointed and, actually, a little flattered that someone thinks this is good enough to say that I took stuff that isn't mine. While sad, it does mean I'm doing something kind of right, I guess.****


This is a digital painting that I've been trying to accomplish since I first came up with the concept for Deathwynd. Deathwynd is a succubus hybrid with a tribe of Drow outcasts that broke away from the greater Drow traditions... Drow who were patriarchal, worshipping serpents instead of Lloth. These people, also my original concept, were called the Darkyn and they lived in darker, deeper places than the Drow dared travel and did many dealings with demons... as you can see from this voluptuously wicked lady who sits before you upon her perch.

While her origin story is a fun one to tell, it's probably a bit to racy for Deviantart, but I can tell you a little bit about her ACTUAL origin in my brain: She was inspired by the song "Rev 22:20" by a band named Puscifer and first came to light in a video game called Champions of Norrath (an offshoot of EverQuest). She later saw some refinement with the release of Champions: Return to Arms where I actually first drew the first SKETCH version of this picture. She saw many revamps and tweaks as a fighter in games like SoulCalibur III, IV, & V...a Mortal Kombat character, before ultimately coming to rest in Sosaria as my original character for the Ultima Online universe.