Golden textures

Now that I’m happy with the composition of the golden threads I want to give them a more realistic, foiled texture. A mixture of photo texture and hand painting works best. I drop in the texture over the gold (set to Clipping mask) and then knock the Opacity down a little. Then I go in with a small brush and add in cracks and little sections of gold that have flaked away.

Wing details

The wings have been fairly blank until this point, but I do want them to have a bit of texture! I’m giving them a dragonesque texture that becomes more skin-like towards the bottom. I’m using a rough textured brush to add scales and then a softer brush on the smoother areas. I’m also painting in a few veins to make them look a little more transparent.