Exploring

Here's a new piece for my Middle Grade Illustration portfolio:

This started out as a quick pose study I posted on social media. When there are good full-body photos of kids doing stuff in the newspaper, I often like to use them as pose studies, to kickstart some sketches in poses I might have trouble with, or not have done before.

Here is that original sketch: 

The girl I used as a reference did not look like that, she wasn't wearing that, she wasn't even climbing through vines - but she was useful as a starting point!

I asked what people thought she'd found, and was given the suggestion of 'a tree kangaroo'. I liked that idea, especially as I'd been thinking more along the lines of 'hidden civilisation' (always nice to get a fresh perspective with fresh ideas!), so I ran with it, and just generally had fun making everything really lush and jungly. 

Adobe Photoshop CC on a Wacom Cintiq Companion 2, using Kyle T Webster's brushes - specifically the 'Perfect Pencil' and the 'Watercolour Broad Wash Grainy'.