_{Bound to silence, yet laughing at the living}

In the domains of chaos, where Craniax the Quick extends his will over the remains of those who were once human, an impossible presence wanders: Wailsworn Specter. A shadow with the face of a woman, sculpted between grotesque and beautiful, whose laughter seems to float beyond sound—like an echo mocking fear itself.

According to the lore, Wailsworn do not heal. They offer no comfort. Their absolution preserves but does not heal. Craniax keeps them as instruments, tools that cleanse the rot from souls but leave the pain untouched. Because pain, according to him, sharpens the mind. And she... she laughs as she carries out the order.

𓂃✍︎My first ghost??🤔❓

Wailsworn Specter is the kind of entity that needs no scream to be terrifying. Her expression is a perpetual mockery, a smile you can’t tell if it comes from madness or clarity. I don’t recall painting another ghost for Splinterlands, so I put real effort into this illustration—aiming for a result that looks both solid and ethereal at the same time.

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⏰ CREATIVE PROCESS

✏️ Phase 1: Sketch & Lineart

The first step was to define her silhouette. I wanted the shape to feel light, almost floating, yet carry that subtle sense of silent threat. I think the twist toward the camera gives her a somewhat bold look, and I tried to emphasize that each time I refined the sketches.

🎨 Phase 2: Grayscale

Here, I began working on the grayscale values. I love this phase because it's where you truly see if your creature has "visual weight." Even though it's a specter, I needed its forms to feel tangible—as if its body still remembered what it was like to have flesh. Initially, I focused on detailing the lower part of its body, where the bandages fade into the air, and then defined its more solid form from the waist upward.

Perhaps the only thing I missed was darkening the background at this stage, because the result looked incredible—and I want to achieve results like this more often, even if it requires a lot of detailed work.

🌗 Phase 3: From Gray to Color

This part is my favorite—I have the combination and process down very clearly. First, I do an initial pass on a layer using the Multiply blend mode with a highly saturated light color. This way, it doesn’t darken anything but rather lays down the first hint of color. Then, I switch to the Overlay blend mode to intensify those color tones and move the character further away from gray. This is complemented by the Soft Light blend mode. In the images below, you can see the difference between using only Multiply versus adding Overlay and Soft Light.

🌟 Phase 4: Final Touches

Finally, I showed some love to the magic. What I did was add a clipping layer so I could paint freely inside the circle, so there's no big mystery here—it was just about painting and intensifying the effect using the Hard Light blend mode. And speaking of Hard Light, that's what I used to further liven up the specter's colors, playing with that duality between blue and green.

One subtle tweak I made almost at the last minute was liquefying the specter's face, as I felt the eyes were too far apart. Now that I've mentioned it, please go check the process photos to see if you can spot the difference! Another subtle adjustment was adding a hint of orange to the face, aiming to add more volume and break up the cool colors.

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Do u like the result?

Let me know in the comments! 👇

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