trying a new process

I read about a technique last night for drawing fairies: it involved drawing family members and making them into fairies. That isn't something I'd have thought of on my own.

The process suggested drawing with a very fine, hard lead pencil from a photograph: in this case, a picture of myself holding my youngest son not long after he was born. I elaborated quite a bit on the hair, obviously. And also the thighs, since when you're the one wielding the image it's better than Photoshop. Believe me when I admit I'm not this hot in real life. (In real life I was wearing an oversized V-neck top and grey sweatpants.)


















Using subjects from life and flowers from imagination,
I chose freesias, because freesia is one of my favorite flowers.

...And then building the drawing ever so slowly up with delicate, gentle layers of colored pencil:


















Erasing some of the color back out for highlights if at any point any part of the image starts to overshadow another. Which, of course, happened.



















Then inking in, very carefully, the contours and subtle shadings.

After that, using a sepia wash in watercolor to build up the tone.



















Then I built in some blues and greens to make it more three-dimensional. I also added some white blobs on wet to give the appearance of stardust.



















Voila.