Bug Milk Extraction Plant

hey-ho Steemians!

at the moment i have a project going on
but i don´t want to post images of it yet
so i made this idyllic little scene specially for this blog.

i used the same method that i use in the project mentioned above
and i regard this one as a training session.
also it ties into a world that i have been building since last year called "Murmia".

so three flies in one strike : a fresh thing for you folks, warming up for the final two illustrations of my current gig and more ideas for Murmia ! :)

i present you the bug-milk extraction plant :D

first i made a rough pencil sketch of my idea.

made more detailed sketches of the figures

then i made a 3d diorama of the scene in a program called Game-Guru. it is designed to make games - specially first person shooters and it is excellent to quickly build any 3d scene. it also has thousands of royalty free assets.

transporting myself into the 3d world i tried to find the same viewpoint of my drawing.
i also played a little with the light and ambience of the scene and took a screen-shot.

once imported to photoshop i set it to grey-scale

first i defined the shadows and then i introduced my figures

detailing everything and applying photo textures

adding colors, shifting around the figures until finding their spot - and detailing some more.

at this point i got really tired. what the hell was i doing ? so boring ! :D but i calmed down and said to myself :

"i am painting a simple and idyllic scene about life in the wasteland - nothing to worry about and it will be great ! "
and so i sketched some cute mutant doggies.

it took me about 20 hours and apart from my little low-down in the middle it was awesome fun.
there are some details in the sketch that are missing in the final image but i´m still happy with the result.

and as a bonus here is another character sketch that did not make it into the painting.
the bug-milk-drinker :

he was kindof disruptive to the atmosphere of the image so he had to stay out but he might appear in another painting. :)

while i´m painting i make up stories about it but i try to not rationalize it too much.
the bug-milk-extraction plant thing crystallized during the process
when i made the first pencil sketch i had no fixed idea what exactly it was.

when i rationalize too much i get bored and doubts start creeping in and i get stuck.
so i just paint what i have to paint and decide later what it could actually represent.. uh
if that makes sense ? :D

when i came up with the title and i made a google search
i found an article on a website called Science-Alert.
the title was :

"Scientists Think Cockroach Milk Could Be The Next Superfood, And We Wish We Were Kidding "

:O

so i was right all along this whole thing is real !
but i noped out and decided to not even read that article.
i prefer bug-milk to stay in the realm of art. :D

hope you enjoyed this exclusive steemit post :)
and have a splendid day!

cheers
Hauke