This trend continues into the blocking out of the tones in her dress. (Fig.05) Using the burnt orange to increase the highlights and darken the shadows in the folds of the fabric. I modify the ‘wing’ for lack of a better word (I’m not a seamstress after all) on the front of her dress to look more like a shield and follow the form of her body more closely.
Fig.05
Step 4:
I want to make her dress look less plain and more ornate so I decide to include a pattern to the blue of her upper dress and to the draping fabric down her legs (Fig.06) firstly making another layer so I don’t do anything I can’t take back.
Fig.06
I settle on the design and flatten the blue dress layer and the pattern layer together and adjust it to fit the folds of the fabric across her chest, around her shoulders and down the front of her dress. (Fig.07 & 8).
Fig.07
Fig.08
Meanwhile the cats head follows the same process (Fig.09a, b, c) of laying down tone then slowly building up the detail, including eyes, adding teeth and finally adding a lightly striped pattern to its fur both on its face, neck and legs.
Fig.09a
Fig.09b
Fig.09c
Step 5:
Once I’ve got the two of them completed for the moment I assess the background (Fig.09) not honestly having had much thought about it until now. Using some 3d modelling I establish a basis for shadow and perspective of a sheer stone wall. Once I’ve added in brickwork and the subject’s shadows cast along the stony floor I decide that some wall hangings are desperately needed to fill in the blank space.
Fig.10
As a finishing touch I add in the notion of blossoming trees, somewhere out of sight, by adding petals to a layer above the rest. (Fig.11).
Fig.11
Well the finished product is something I enjoyed and hopefully you’ve enjoyed this tutorial. I wish you all good luck in your own work and for giving me this honour. Cheers
