So after attempting to re-do this several times I finally did it! I'm generally really pleased with how this turned out (don't know how long that'll last though...) The entire process was actually really straightforwards and I don't think I hated it once, so I thought I'd do a breakdown of how I did it here!

After doing my Sargent studies I had decided that I wanted to paint Jadis as if I were painting her portrait in real life. I thought this would be an interesting way of capturing her personality as well as her design. I started off with some really quick sketches exploring different poses; I knew I wanted her to look powerful but still sassy as hell.

I was struggling for ideas so I turned to existing Royal portraits. I quickly noticed that the women looked reserved while the men looked a little ostentatious; "Look at me look how powerful I am!!!". While the Queens of old didn't need to do this, I felt like Jadis would act like a King, and would want to look like that in her portrait so I changed up some of my poses for her.

With the help of my trusty camera and my inner sass I took some photos of different poses which helped me visualise them a lot easier (plus I really enjoyed it but don't tell). I felt having Jadis holding some kind of weapon really helped give her a strong pose.

With the pose decided it was onto the final! I've come to realise the more I paint that I really benefit from giving myself some good lines to work from. I know some artists work better blocking in the shapes but I always find myself getting lost and frustrated without lines. This way I work out all the problems before I tackle painting.

I whack in the flat colours to give myself a good base and then go straight to the face to avoid intimidating myself (sounds silly I know, but if I try and do a bit all over I kinda get overwhelmed and give up) I noticed a lot of the royal portraits had some kind of deep red drapery or something relatively interesting in the background so I added some into the top corner.


Using my reference as I paint I usually flip my canvas quite often to check for errors.


I then work my way down the painting to block in good details and then jump around adding more where needed. I have a lot of references available, some I use more than others.


And finished! (approx 2 days on and off painting) I used a photo of a sword hilt because I was struggling with design as well as rendering to the standard I wanted as well as a texture pattern for the dress to make it look more interesting! I do feel like the Sargent studies I did helped this painting which is always a good sign!

Now that I've done the two Jadis versions to a level I'm happy with I hope to tackle more Narnia creatures and characters! What would you like to see me re-design?