Process: 🔞Shibari Karlach (BG3) (Patreon)

I had SO much fun drawing this. I'm getting a lot more comfy by now but I'm still not 100% settled on what brushed to use and which I like the most.

I thought I'd also show you which brushes I used in case you wanna know. Also, as before, the CSP file (.clip) is attached to this post and in my cloud.

The Rough Pen one is just a direct copy of the standard CSP Rough Pen (I accidentally made a copy and also accidentally deleted the original one so.. that's what it's called now lmao). It's also the one I use for some practice linework.

The inky brush is by MYNQZO (pretty sure you've seen that artist around). I'm not 100% settled on that one. I think I need to get used to it or adapt it.

The So Fluffy Brushes I found on the CSP store for free. They're REALLY nice for blending, definitely can recommend!

The soft airbrush and spray are also CSP standard brushes.

You can download the mentioned brushes here from the CSP store:

So Fluffy Brushes on CSP Store (it's free)

MYNQZO brushes (Free too)

Ideas & References

Lots this time and not everything used. I really liked the top left bondage pieces (I had saved them from a long time ago). But the color ultimately didn't work for Karlach. I really liked the colors from that one top art piece (by @butchbulk) and went with that color palette.

Also I LOVED how Godiva Ghoul draws tits and really wanted to give soft big areolas like her this time.

For the shibari I was just really lucky that there's an account with tons of incredible rope work on Bluesky (@texas-shibari). The pieces are heavily explicit though, so be aware. Or maybe it'll motivate you even more, who knows.

Sketches

I went with a simple pose and adjust Karlach's face twice. Ultimately I scrapped the looking downward face.

If you know Baldur's Gate 3 and Karlach's backstory, you may understand why I found a demure/submissive in combination with ropes to be in bad taste. If Karlach is in ropes (even artistic shibari), I wanted her to still feel powerful.

Linework & Coloration

I REALLY liked the black linework. I was very close to leaving it as this. But I also wanted to practice and test out coloration in CSP, considering I'm starting the tarot now.

Initially, like the top left reference/inspo, I wanted to go with a dark purple/blue-ish atmosphere. But I pretty quickly scrapped that. I didn't find a red that I thought fit Karlach and I didn't want her to look muted.

I went with pink/yellow and put in a base red. After also putting on some soft shadows, I pretty quickly realized I wanted to have some really strong colors (middle piece). Right is just some minor adjustment with her hair color (more blue-ish, darker).

Karlach with the yellow background already doesn't look 'realistic' in color palette, so I tested out a very light yellow as linework for the ropes. And I LOVED the end result.

Afterwards, just more details on the respective layers - scars, some more blush, coloring in some linework (because black is too harsh for my taste) and adding some minor details on top (line single hairs).

And the final layers in CSP. I added some speckles on top and adjusted the background with a soft gradient. Honestly, it also would have looked nicely with just a blank color. But there were already so many details on Karlach, that I thought the background needed a little enhancement as well.

Et voilà! Enjoy!