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[PompiPompi]

I am working on the mythological creature called Gallu.
It's basically an amorphic shadow creature that has the shape of a bull.
I was thinking of making the bull look like it's made of dark shadow\fog\smoke, and of course red glittering eyes.

This is what I have as an outline for the bull, but I don't know how to make it look like fog\shadow\smoke which won't look like an incomprehensible mess.


I might just make him have special shading instead of drawing the fog... not sure.
I also don't want to use transculency, which makes it even harder.
Any tips, suggestions what to do?

[Bones]

here are two examples.

[PompiPompi]

Wow, nice.
I tried something before seeing your answer, I am not sure about the shading:



(I should probably pick even darker colors, heh)

[Happy Shabby Games]

Cool design but I think it might be the black outline that's hurting it. It looks more like water. Try removing the white spots, the outline on the back where the fog is trailing off, and the outline on the pieces that are separated from the critter. Some nice browns/blacks would work well too like in the examples Bones posted.

[PompiPompi]

Well, the thing is, all the other characters have external black outline, so I don't want to get rid of it completely.
However, I did forget to "soften" the inner black lines like I did with other characters.
I hope this is better?

[HöllenKobold]

Isn't the black outline supposed to suggest a sense of solidity though?
I think you could stretch the style for this instance.

[mankoon]

You definitely can lose the outline and retain the style. Conveying what it is you drew is more important than style in this case. You can keep the outline on the horns mouth and bottoms of the feet( where there'd be shadow).  I don't even think your fire should have an outline. Fire is not a solid. You need to sell these substances to the viewer so you could even make the horns turn brighter red at the tips like they've been on fire for a long time.
Shape will help you sell the smokiness. As it is now your smoke shapes are more like spikes  when they should be fluid. Try some fat and short hills of smoke rising off of the shape of the bull and some thin and curvy shapes like what remains after smoke lifted off. You probably don't need as many tongues of smoke as you have either. 
However If you plan on animating this I might have mislead you. The animation itself is more important that a single frame for the smoke effect.
Hope that helps.
<Edit> I thought about the outline thing. If the line was lighter than the inner color it would probably read as a gas substance still.

[PompiPompi]

Well, I didn't get rid of the outline, heh. This is the result, I think it's pretty good:



I had to fix his back right leg, because it made his pelvis look too small:

[Rob Rule]

I'm an advocate of removing the black outline, but if you feel that it's essential to your style, perhaps you could intermittently break up the outline with the inner colour?

[xrabohrok]

It looks like it is made of oil now, I think you should drop the outline.

[PompiPompi]

Sir, put your hands up and drop the outline! (jk, heh)