You could try just doing little bits at a time, rather than focusing on the whole huge thing...
take frequent breaks before you get burnt out... try to get yourself excited about what the end result will be and how you will feel about having completed such an epic painting ;)
When I work on a big piece that isn't particularly...fun...I tell myself to treat it like a job. You may not find it particularly enjoyable but it has to get done. Setting up a reward for yourself when it's finished can help too. "I don't get to log onto *whateverthingyoudoforfun* until I've gotten this much finished today.."

Haha, yeah you're right. Here I am thinking painting is a field day for everyone who knows how.

Well...i know this problem. thats why i don't paint very often :/
I would recoment to always paint "the whole picture" don't try to get as much details as possible on one spot and then move to the next....gosh. my english sucks. hope you know what i mean?

I know what you mean. I started painting each scale individually and soon noticed the image was sort of losing its "pop". Also I'm finding that it's near impossible to replicate the same details over and over again while trying to render individual pieces at a time. Thanks for the input!

The more I paint in Ps, the more I treat it like painting in acrylic. I keep my navigator window open, as it's a good way to have a constant thumbnail to make sure the image looks good (like the lighting reads well, color composition is right, lighting is consistent etc.). And then I paint over the sketch with wedge brushes and block things in, not too worried about being accurate, doing washes to bump things up or knock them back, fix colors, etc. It's not until it reads the way I want it to from a distance that I go in to detailing. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YZ5rVBH7b.....shiva+wip2.jpg this was the slapping down of color for one of my pieces. It's really sloppy, but it's more about making sure the lighting's right. I also only used.....maybe three layers? For that piece in the end. One for the white metal, one for the gold, and one for the glow effects. I try not to work on too many layers, or I start to get frustrated as I paint on the wrong ones. Detailing in general sucks ass though. :/ There's no way to get around that. But if you work super huge, and resize it, you don't have to be as exacting. If you look at some of the art for deathwing, when you really look, it's just a bunch of scribbles. http://paladinillumination.files.wo.....hwing_face.jpg but smaller, it looks pretty detailed. So I guess there's small ways not to make it too much of a living hell haha.

durr wrong window

I see I see. I just found the navigation window useful recently. Thanks very much. The wave of relief I felt when looking at that deathwing image...haha.

I see I see. I just found the navigation window useful recently. Thanks very much. The wave of relief I felt when looking at that deathwing image...haha.

An unintentional lesson this has been. Fun work isn't always fun. Even people that are good at detail fucking hate doing it.
Also I'm reluctant to say "thanks for the watch" but I wouldn't be here if not for that. So thanks for the "thanks for the watch" message, and for putting good stuff up here in the first place.
I guess you've spent lots of time studying different types of dragons and lizards and such.
Oh my god burnout. And SMUUUUDDDGE.
Not too much advice to offer, I'm taking this in myself.

Oh man this makes me miss Luna so much :c. The only advice I could give that I've learned in my college is just to play with the mediums. Don't do things the way you think they should be done, just play! So umm try lots of textured brush combos and don't be afraid to show brush strokes and stuff! Sorry if that's not very helpful u.u...

holy shit, you remember Luna? Have we met previously?

Yeah ^^; This is Yaikow. I'm not a stalker, I swear! I just happened to find your art via Chi (I think)...and then I followed you here to your new account.

I know that name. Who were your characters? :O

Shadow Pharoh and Zuazune on neopets XD;

I just found this

http://yaikow.deviantart.com/#/d9wv5k


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA oAo

Would you hate me if I drew fanart of our old characters? This is a serious question, but I am loling over here.

or SOMETHING. Those were good times.

Ahaha, I don't mind, you may do whatever you like! I haven't drawn Shadow in years and I haven't drawn Zuazune in more years XD! Jeez that was all so long ago, we're all grown up now lmao!