Finishing Jadis
14:17
I finally finished Jadis! The entire process has been really educational for me- of course there's things I'd do differently but I suppose if there wasn't I wouldn't have learned anything!
So picking up kinda from where I left off in my previous blog post I had just been trying to work out how I was going to manage her pale face since my original design for her had dark skin.
These pictures are of the most part supposed to be a progression of her skin losing its colour but there were a couple of small experiments in there. Overall I'm quite pleased with the look I managed to get for her; I feel her face looks drained but still pretty intimidating/beautiful.
Next up was her crown- I already had the basic shape so it was just messing around with it at this stage. The idea of using animals that she'd turned to stone as accessories was suggested to me and I thought it would work really well for her crown (she's a practical gal this Jadis). So the wing shapes are actual stone wings of poor birds that she's killed. I also messed around with some icicle spikes in the center but decided to go with a stone flower crown type thing instead.
I also made the effort of working out her side profile while I was at it because I wasn't sure how to do her final illustration at this point so needed the visual information to save myself the hassle later. PLUS I found a BEAUTIFUL Indian Bollywood actress named Sonam Kapoor (seriously go check her out) who I was able to use as a pretty solid reference for Jadis' face (especially her nose)
Next up was her all important dress. I had originally started out with a T pose and the intention to render things super realistically and detailed and then half way through a very dull concept I realised it just wasn't 'me' and I should try and develop my own concepting style and perfect that rather than trying to strive for something that isn't really my style. (Do correct me if I'm going the wrong way about this!)
Anyways, the dress was a much longer process than these few concepts. I had this ice trimming idea in mind and thought it would add some cool character to the dress but it just needed strategically placing (obviously). I also needed to play with the colours quite a lot (so many shades of blue and white drives you nuts). I had really liked this turquoise blue dress and a white fur cloak combination but then realised she looked just like Frozen's Queen Elsa.... So I had to let that idea go (pun intended)
Some other ideas I toyed around with were Jadis' immunity to the cold- why make an eternal winter if you are freezing all the time and would have to wear ugly shapeless furs all the time? Doesn't sound like the Jadis I imagined. So I gave her a sleevless dress but a nice fur cloak to fit with her aesthetic of beautiful snow queen.
Now the final illustration! I'd done a few sketches but had a pretty solid idea of how I wanted her to look.
Also throughout the entire concepting stage I've had this ever-growing moodbard which has been really useful in helping inspire ideas and then later on for reference!
The whole painting process went pretty smoothly! I recieved some great feedback via facebook when I uploaded some work in progress pictures which helped a bunch. I'm pleased with the outcome but of course there's things I'd change. I'm looking forwards to what I conjure up next time!
0 comments