In Fig.03 you can see that I continued working on the posture and decided to turn her head to have her engaging with the viewer a little more. I also started to flesh out her costume design a little bit. She's a Barbarian so I want to avoid anything too refined and dainty looking. I wanted to make sure that the costume design reflected the attitude I was trying to portray. I also wanted to make sure that compositionally the costume elements worked together and reinforced one another. This will become clearer as the painting progresses.



I often use a Frazetta trick when doing a painting by flipping the painting upside down. When I do this it should still look pleasing in an abstract way. I did this as well as mirror the image many times throughout the painting process. This helps you see the image in a new way with fresh eyes and helps you spot problems that would have previously gone unnoticed. I'm careful not to flip too much though, as this can lead to you subconsciously balancing the composition too much, removing some of the dynamic tension (Fig.04).