unsure how to depict mana drain....

[h6x6n]

Hello all,

I'm working on an illustration (currently doing thumbnails) where I must depict magic casting and magical drain in shadowrun (PnP version). The way it works is that when casting a magical spell, the character casting it recieves damage relative to how powerful the spell is. I want to show little bits of the caster being kind of sucked out/off of him and flowing into the spell (flamethrower, it looks how it sounds) and I don't really know how I should show that, technically. I'm looking for both Painter X tutorials (possibly showing how to create little bits of flesh flying off of a character, or anything else that might work for this assignment) or visual reference for what this might look like.. I have a few ideas for what it might look like, I'm open to new ideas, but I have no idea how to technically display any of them.

[Hyskoa]

A red mage hulked over a blue mage. Red mage has the hand ontop of the blue mage. Powerfull aura on the red mage. Look of absolute power and joy on the red mage, desperation on the blue mage.

Play around with the perspective to showcase the arm.

[Grief]

HP/MP bars of course

[J Wilson]

I think every so often everyone who does sci-fi/fantasy art has a moment where they go "ok, how do I depict THAT?"

In the end, it's always the same answer though. You make something up.

That's what we do after all. Sketch a bunch of ideas. It will come to you. Just stop over thinking it.