"It's the little things in life which make it magical..."

Tuesday 7 February 2012

Princess Series - Ariel


So here's the basic process of how I create the lovely illustrated ladies I've been posting recently...

First, I sketch a few basic ideas for the general pose, dress design, hair and accessories.


Then, using these basic ideas I sketch a rough draft of the final design layout.


I create a cleaned-up copy of the design on tracing paper, before making a light transfer of this onto the good watercolour paper.


I then re-draw the design on the watercolour paper, ironing out any odd lines and angles, using the light transfer as a basic guide.


Then, I go over the final design in superfine Indian ink, before erasing the pencil markings.


After choosing the colour scheme, I do a light wash of the base colours.



Then, I slowly build up the pigments, adding layer after layer of washes and blending to achieve a graduated shading, leaving base colours exposed where I want the 'light' to be hitting the object.






I then add the finishing touches of pencil pigment to the eyelids, cheeks, and eyebrows, before re-outlining the design which gets faded during the painting process.

And voila! The completed illustration is achieved! The process of idea conception to the finished product takes me about two days, so give yourself plenty of time!


I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial, and found it both useful and insightful.

Happy Drawing.

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