teal ermine
I’m seeking general feedback and also specific guidance on: 1. Making the free handed magma lines look more recessed. 2. The best color for the horns. 3. Volumetrically shading the muscles. I attempted highlighting and then painting lines but needed to cover up the highlights to neaten up the lines. I’d prefer not to start over, but I will if needed.
4. Color for the tattered wings. Thank you!
dense elk
1 and 3: The effect you're trying to create is not easy to pull off. To create the illusion of depth, the trick is generally to use a stark contrast: a very light, sharp line next to a very dark, sharp like. It's not that bad when you use the usual single light source (say from above), but your problem is that the light comes from the inside, so every magma line is a local light source. It will also make volumetric highlight very tricky.
What you have on his right arm is actually a good start. The way I see it, the best you could do would be highlight every black "island" with a gradient of dark ocher to black from the edge to about maybe halfway to the middle. You could also try with just a line if dark ocher on the edge of the islands and on the veins, it might be enough to look convincing.
Also, I'd try to avoid having the same effect on the organic part (the magma in the arms) and on the armor(chest and leg plates) at the same time. The colors tells your eyes they are essentially the same material, but the composition of the figure itself tells you that it's clearly not the case, and it's confusing.