Wednesday 7 December 2011

Wolf-Speaker finished


The finished Daine. It looks pretty different from the WIP version for something I only spent another couple of hours on. I added her forearm of course, and the bird-and-animal elements are a whole extra layer (or several?). But it's also amazing how much difference adding colour and tone to a face can change it.

Unlike often, my Alanna pic for instance, I didn't change anything about the face with the paint layer. I only wanted to add a thin wash of tone, not enough to fully conceal any cover any misplaced pen lines, so I stuck to what I'd drawn with he acrylics. But the colour brings volume to the skin, and expression to the eyes and mouth that give the face a different dynamic. More vulnerable that I'd expected, perhaps, less guarded. She lost much of the imperiousness I intended to give her, as Daine at the height of her power and self-posession.

And I could have worked on and regained that, but I was reluctant to overwork the paint layer, and furthermore I like how she looks like she's listening.

I placed the two birds and the monkey to look like they're whispering to her, and I think her slightly abstracted, attentive expression sells the idea that there's communication going on.