Nyarlathotep from sketch to completion

With the modern look in mind i took elements from my mood board to start things rolling, though i did have a first idea to base him around turkish travellers and dancers like this fella and the clothed figure i found whilst researching nyarlathotep

But he's not any where near egypt nor what i wanted from the design.
heres the sketch i had roughly done based on the clothed figure

I was going for a soft yet arrogant look for him, something that will draw you into him before turning to insane or possibly just killing you

began fleshing out the body, giving him a suave cocky pose

I played aroun with the position of his head angle, sent it to a couple of friends for their opinion, and it was a resounding looking to the left, as it was anatomically correct to counter balance the hips

     

then onto inking him. i wanted to colour this piece with cell shading similar to a comic book style or online comics, as it is a pretty popular nowadays as its relatively easy to render once you've found a light source.

I lost alot of the facial emotion (as you can see below), as it often happens with inking a piece, it was a rough ink, as i wanted to keep my motions as much as possible, and try not to make it look so static

between the lines above and lines below, ive increased the hand size and lowered the belt and bellybutton to increase the size of his torso, as the suit pants are high waisted, it looks strange without the full attire

currently working on the colours to give him. working with blues, turquoises, golds and browns

Marking the colours down I added a Multiplier layer with a red and blocked in shadows and erased them till i got to a good balance, and did the same with an Overlay layer with a light yellow

then i added a mask for the hands, shawl and legs, darkening and lightening the bottom, it really made the image stand out with the block cell shaded colours

Overlaying a papyrus texture, because whats more Egypt then papyrus? added shadow on the floor for grounding him so he isnt going to float off into eternal space, and putting a glowing orb around his hand so signify that yes indeed he is dangerous and quite magical

I wasnt so sure of him at first, disliking how much of his expression and general feel left after i inked him, but slapping some colour on there really pulled him into life.. or.. unlife... or eternal life.

however you want to call it, im very happy with him.