Well, I could do more, but I am going to have to set this one free.

This started out as a much smaller idea. Though, I have mostly drawn Aether smiling, cheerful, or friendly, as I have written before, Aether does not actually smile all that much, which should make it all the more wonderful, when he actually does. So, I decided to draw him in one of his darker moods.

Upon making this decision, I had this vision of Aether shrouded in darkness standing next to a propaganda poster looking irritated. However, my first thought was to make it extra gritty by having him standing in front of a brick wall. (Inspired, I know).

So, after doing most of the initial piece, including tiling much of the background with a brick wall, by iteratively copying and pasting a shapes in a vector layer, I decided this needed more umph. So, I decided that instead of a brick wall, I would incorporate more elements of the world he lives in. And so, here it is!

I don't believe this is a scene in the comic I am writing, but I think it was useful to visually flesh out part of what this world looks like.

Anyway, I learned a lot, while drawing this. For example, I learned the word, "chiaroscuro". For another example, I learned about Krita's transform layers, which are definitely worth knowing about.

By the way, the corresponding Krita file had ~170 layers, and the version you see is the 96th iteration. Because I am crazy.

Comments, as always are much appreciated. Thank you.