Alouette

Commission piece for War Patriot of his toon: Alouette

LJ

The three panel thing is very cool

Great work, LJ--I think this is one of your best ever. And I love the character design. The colors are beautiful and the pose is graceful. It's win all around.

(I seem to have a thing for archery characters)

I had saved several archer references after doing my last single figure piece, but they did NOT work for this character. She needed to be tall, I had crouched references that seem to take the energy out of her... While great for male characters, a crouched pose only served to hide the female form... plus she had that mini skirt, and I was torn from making it billow or be form fitting.

So I went searching through a lot of bad poses before finding that perfect photo reference for the upper torso. Sometimes all it will take is the right haircut or the right lighting to inspire what I need. And I have read that a good colorist will not fake the light if they can help it, so photo reference is essential.

I try not to copy likenesses, as I prefer the characters to look like " I " drew them, and not a camera. While she could have been any number of blonde actresses, in this case I just altered the model, because again the light was what I liked.

As for the tryptic design, I did so much work on the face, I wanted to share a close up of it.

Ooh, very lovely
Great pose!

LJ! Beautful colors, love the panels, and just an all around beautiful piece!!
And once again you have made a piece that is just flat out pleasing to the eye!

She kind of looks like a young Susan Sarandon. That weird association aside, really great piece. I like it a lot.

Ha! I love SS, I think I'm the only one who saw White Palace in theaters... anyhoo... I didn't think to use a celebrity likeness this time out because her character is all about the bow, so it couldn't look like SS carrying a bow, had to compete with what was done before... especially with a collector like War Patriot, you don't want to fill up his gallery with a rerun.

lol ok ok...

*giggles* You know that saying...."Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." In this case, that is true because my eye doesn't see the beauty in the photo but it does in Alouette and your sketch!