Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Illustration: Fairy

This is a submission requested by a publisher. I didn't get the job (story of my life) but I do like how she looks. It was requested that I do a cover from a sketch they sent, which is why there is a little girl up the top. The whole process was rather rushed, as I was asked for the sample mid Tuesday, for Thursday morning. And I managed to finish off the job I was doing before I started, as well. =) 


The first version I did in watercolour (with some sparkles added in Photoshop), but as it didn't sound as though they were particularly enamoured of the medium (they said they 'didn't mind watercolour if it wasn't too pastel'), I also did another version digitally, using the lineart I'd scanned before I started painting. I don't usually like to have such shiny digital work, but looking at other things the publisher had produced I thought it was the best way to go.



Since I could only show half of the fairy in the final artwork, I also sent along a the sketch I did when working out the basic look:


I may clean that sketch up and colour it for my portfolio, I quite like her....

I hadn't drawn a fairy in something like 10 years, and I'm pleased to see that they've at least got more graceful since then. I remember drawing a fairy when I was about 8, in an after-school art group, which the art teacher and my mother dubbed 'The Pragmatic Fairy'. I think I've at least escaped that moniker here! 

Altogether (initial sketching, draft, colour study, linework, watercolour and digital) about 13 hours. 
I used Artline Drawing System pens for the linework, Winsor & Newton watercolours for the painting, and Adobe Photoshop CS6 with a Wacom Intuos 3 for everything else.

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