Skin and bones

In an earlier post I commented on the need to balance out the bulk and strength of the dress with a strong blocked figure. However as I developed my illustration this similarly didn't feel quite right. Although the block of colour did seem the best way to balance the colour of the illustration, it didn't manage to match the intricacy of it and it really looked out of place within the face.

After trying to work on a face that used just pen tool work I decided that it really wasn't working. Instead I used the paintbrush to create lines. As I started working with this technique, it seemed to be a lot more appropriate to the illustration as a whole. The lines gave the head some bulk to balance the detail of the skirt. The hair is a key part in balancing the image.

But still something wasn't quite right. It seemed that both the line work and the block colour had its benefits but neither were exactly right. So, I decided to have both!! Using the block colour I had worked on originally, I placed the lines on top. I tried to do it perfectly in line but that seemed overly structured in comparison to the slight disorder of the dress. So I have left them slightly off set at points.

As for colour, the lines really had to be black to stand out against everything in the background. And the skin ended up being the basic pale cream colour. I tried grey but it made her look rather sickly!