Firstly using a 3px airbrush on 0% hardness with 30% opacity I created a rough outline of structural features of what I was planning with certain edges smudged and blurred to create some depth and tactility to the piece...


The layer was then duplicated to add volume and enhance the outline...


The refinements and finer details were then drawn in using the same settings as the outline, however the brush was on a setting of 1px instead with the zoom tool utilized for optimal precision...


To complete the dark nature of the piece I used two layers completely covered in black using the fill tool with the opacity at 100% and the blending option set to 'soft light' emphasising the contrast and details of the piece helping to finalise this stage...


Several more layers were used in creating these steps to make it easier to manage the errors that I made, but the changes from layer to layer are very minimal so I only showed the substansial changes in terms of tools used to produce the final artwork.