Illustration: Shine on Harvest Moon

The Colour Collective colour this week was Cadmium Yellow Pale - a throwback to the very first colour from back in January. I did a watercolour last time, so it was fun to do the same colour digitally, as part of my current Colour Collective series. 

This week I chose the song 'Shine On Harvest Moon', which debuted in the Ziegfeld Follies in 1908. No one is entirely sure who wrote it, it's credited to either Edward Madden and Gus Edwards, or to Dave Stamper.

This was an excellent excuse to go all Gibson Girl this week!

Oh, shine on, shine on Harvest Moon

up in the sky.

I ain't had no lovin'

since January, February, June or July.

Snow time ain't no time to stay

outdoors and spoon

so shine on, shine on Harvest Moon,

for me and my guy.

Want to hear it? Here's a fun version with Jane Powell, Ann Sothern and Louis Calhern:

Here's a little progress animation:

I put this together from screenshots I sent to a friend while I was painting. I started with a rough sketch in red, which is still visible under the black inking in the first shot. As you can see, I start off by sketching in the whole dress for these fadeaway girls, so that I can see where to cut away at the background, and check that the overall shape is readable before I start colouring.

Originally the trim and sash of her dress was going to be white, but I mucked about with my colour sliders on a whim, and decided that an aubergine colour was much more punchy and interesting, and also let the moon stand out more. (The poor moon is already struggling because it is impossible to actually get a night-time atmosphere with this colour!) 

All the wheat and the leaves were created with a large textured brush and the lasso tool, which is a quick way of working for pieces like this and quite fun. 

Adobe Photoshop CC on a Wacom Cintiq Companion 2 - about 4 hours, I think.

Number 9 in this series: