dagger

 here I sketched out a rough shape of the dagger and then filled it in with a flat colour so I could make use of clipping masks to add the shading. 

Starting with the blade and other metal areas,  first I roughed in shading and then used a painterly textured blender which helped make the blades metal look more rough and realistic. After refining the shading I went back in with edge highlighting to exaggerate the sharper edges and this made the piece look more developed. 

Then moving on to the wooden handle,I did the same process here except I used a multiply layer to add a wood texture which, along with the dark wood gradient map I used to add colour, made it look very realistic and is the part I am the most happy with overall. the final touches were the red ribbon that hung from the handle which was just a simple red line with some maroon shading on which set it nicely in the image. I do think I could have worked more on the lighter areas of the blade by adding some scratches as it would make it look more worn.

revisions after feedback

here I added more of the blue light to the dagger and I also added the same back lighting as the doll to warm up the dagger so it matched the other items more in the inventory screen.