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CovenOfZodiac: First Array

Those who know me, know that I avoid people on the covers at all costs. I like to play the I'm-not-a-fan-of-people card, but reality is that I don't know what to do with them or how to edit them, so THIS was a challenge.

We are supposed to make our vision of Hecate and since I never much thought about Hecate, I had no vision.

For the sake of contest judging I'm leaving this in full size.

There were two things I wanted from the start, movement and play of light. The best way I know how to create movement is with just chaotic flying of everything, so that's direction I went with. I couldn't deal with too many new things, person was enough of a novelty.

That's all I had. This girl whose pose I liked and some flying cloth. Everything else just was just built as I went, because I apparently don't know how to make a witch. She looks like some sort of a sorcerer, right?

There was idea of a raven ghost on her shoulder but I couldn't make it work. It lacked definition and the glow just burned everything around it. Snake around her was another option but I'm still recovering from looking at snakes so that was a no almost instantly.

So I hit a bit of a wall because I had no planning beforehand or a sketch that I usually start with. I'm not kidding but I sat in front of the computer for an hour looking at this lady among flying cloth not knowing what to do. Because of the strong light from the top left corner I couldn't include some sort of magic trails (I don't know what's that called). I am of opinion that it would look very messy. Maybe if I've planned two light sources before, it could've worked.

Ravens are a classic when it comes to witches so I just had to. And tarot cards are that witchcraft attribute I had to include as it is stated in the prompt. I chose Tower, Hanged Man and Death although they are not legible, but just so you know if you are interested. Why? Because I hate Tower with passion. The most horrifying card to have in your tarot readings. And I wanted two others at least to seem more ominous.

I will post this on my dA later with all the necessary links.

This is a little bit about how I choose resources for those interested.

The model: I was looking for a portrait that was plain enough to be a good basis for manipulation but still not static and turned fully to the front. I had some other options but the lighting of this one worked the best.

The background: Because I didn't have much of an idea what my color palette should be, I needed to find some generic background image to solve that problem for me. It weirdly rhymes. I knew what colors I didn't want which were: green and pink/purple. I had the vague idea it would be fun to try and go with lighter colors in the orange/red spectrum mostly because those were colors I connect to witches.

Details: those were chosen as I would get an idea for something. So there is not much thought behind choices. It was just figuring out whether it can work as whatever detail I saw it as.