Hey guys, today I will be doing an interpretation of Skoll and Hati at the dawn of Ragnorok after they have devoured the sun and the moon, this will be a double feature instructable showing you how to paint both a galaxy and the Skoll and Hati painting in one, if you want to follow along with me, here is where you can find a replica of my sketch for you to print out or draw out yourself: https://pin.it/hoqUNff

Please note that I do NOT own any of the YouTube videos provided, and all credit for those videos belong to their respected creators, I am using it for educational purposes only.

Supplies

For this painting, you will need:

Your image or item you will paint on
White Primer or any other white paint
Black Acrylic Paint (Doesn't matter what type of black variation)
Titanium White Acrylic Paint (Any other white variation should work fine as well)
Burnt Sienna Acrylic Paint (Any other brown variation should work fine)
Ultramarine Blue or any other variation of dark blue
Round Hog Hair Paintbrush Size 4 (This is a preferable size going any larger may lead to undesirable results, and make sure it is a brush you are willing to sacrifice)
Soft sharp-pointed round Paintbrush
Soft Flat Head Paintbrush (A flat head hog hair paintbrush or any other will work too )

Step 1: Preparing Your Art Work

For the first step, it is advisable to paint a base layer on your working surface as it makes it easier to add surface texture, subtle color shifts, and a tangible depth. This will also prevent unnecessary bleeding of color through your canvas or paper. It will also hide your pencil lines or print lines, offering a light stencil to follow along.

Step 2: Making of the Galaxy

For this step, you will see a cloud-like shape just behind the wolves, taking your black paint and flat head brush, carefully paint along the lines and filling in the area in solid black, and let it dry. To create the smoke-like effects surrounding the galaxy dust cloud, dilute a smidge of black paint until it is like liquid and slightly transparent, now just above your solid black cloud, make inconsistent cloud-like shapes above it, letting it dry before you add another transparent layer over it.

For this picture, I am planning on leaving the background White, however, you can paint it whatever color you want. If you are planning on doing so, it is best recommended to do it now as painting it last can be a challenge.

For a Normal galaxy, take your flat head brush and cover your surface completely in black.

Step 3: The Beauty of a Galaxy

Now, taking for solid black surface or black dust cloud choose a point of direction you would like your galaxy to follow.

Pour out about a Pea size of your dark blue. Taking your Roundhead hog hair paintbrush, gently dip the tip in your blue and dab it on either side of your black cloud/ black surface (This will be the far stretches of your galaxy and therefore the darkest part as it has the least amount of stars)

Without letting the blue dry, take a smidge of white adding it to your blue on your mixing plate/ bowl to create a lighter blue dab it next to the previous blue on either side so that they layer each other marginally.

Continuing with this process working towards the center of your galaxy gradually adding more white until the center is nearly pure white, Let these layer dry completely.

Finally, diluting a little bit of your white, take your round hog hair paintbrush soaking it in your white diluted paint, move your index finger towards the bristles of the brush, and dragging it across it to splatter the paint to create stars, alternatively, you can gently hit the base of the brush on your finger over the painting to create the same effect.

At this point, you would have completed your Galaxy! Wonderful! You should be proud of yourself!

Step 4: The Wolves

Preparing your base coats, dilute a pea-size amount of burnt sienna and grey separately (You can mix grey by mixing black and white together, but make sure it's not too dark)

Taking your soft sharp-point paintbrush and dipping it in your brown go over completely covering the back-most wolf in your first transparent coat of brown, repeat his step with your grey transparent mix on your front-most wolf. let dry completely.

This next part requires you to layer your brushstrokes (This is similar to how you would layer your watercolor to achieve textures and depth in color). Dipping your brush once again in your transparent brown we will now create shadow and fur texture. On your stencil/ reference picture, you will see faint guidelines in which the direction of the fur is flowing, taking our paint covered paintbrush gently follow these guidelines to create fur, let dry, and repeat to create the illusion of depth to the fur. Repeat this again on your other wolf with your grey mix.

Here are some YouTube links for further detail:

Finally, add the sun and moon to the corresponding wolves' foreheads, and there you go your painting is now done! You can leave your painting as is or continue with the next step, however, it requires some more advanced blending techniques.

Step 5: The Final Details

For this step, you will require some slightly advanced blending skills. For a quick painting lesson, I will tell you how: Acrylic is among the fastest drying paints, therefore to blend your colors you need to move quickly and have your colors already premixed, when you place your first color it is easier to blend your next color with it in small circular movements and with colors next to each other on the color wheel or close variations of it as for example blending orange and green will give you a muddy color. Here is a Youtube link to show you how to blend Acrylics: How to Blend Acrylic Paint - 3 Blending Techniques for Beginners – Painting Tutorial

Premix these three colors for each wolf: White, light grey, and dark grey (White, Peach brown, and Brown for the other wolf).

Working in sections starting with the face paint the under the eyes, inner ear and mouth white, then taking your light grey paint the edges of the white blending them together. Taking your dark grey paint the snout, top of the head, sides of the head, and outer ear; blending it together with your light grey.

Moving now to the body, follow once again the guidelines provided, shading darker where the fur lines are, gradually going lighter before the next fur lines. Repeat this process on the other wolf

This step is to make the wolves more vibrant and noticeable. You should notice that the previous translucent base you painted with your fur streaks will provide an additional illusion of fur as you should still see it through the base of Acrylic you just painted.

The final step now is to outline the wolves in your color of choice.

Step 6:

And there you go! Your painting is now complete, feel free to add whatever you want to your painting. If you have any questions, I'll try my best to answer them or explain anything in more detail.