Bank Holiday Weekenders

This personal commission was a real challenge, with the reference taken from a low quality phone camera.

The reference image was taken from a combination of shots, but each had a different light source which made this project extra difficult.

As usual this image started as a line drawing using the easy grid method.

I started with the hair as usual in order to void leaning my hand on the drawing. KT's hair was dark in this reference and was darker than the body reference and so I started of with a lighter tone to make it darker later on.

As usual I then completed KT's hair to frame the outline of her face.

To avoid loosing the outline of the facial features I added tone to KT's features before the main tones of her face.

Adding the skin tones really helped to add some depth to KT's face here as the dark features were looking a bit flat.

Moving onto the body I needed to try and blend the skin tones of the two reference images together. Also I needed to add extra shade tones where KT's hair and upper body would interact.

I then moved onto the lower tummy area as this was in shade and provided some much needed turning plains.

The rendering of the upper arm was very light and due to the light which made adding depth here quite difficult. I added some darker tones to this area later once tone was added to Bill's arm.

Will's arm added another opportunity for some more turning plains. The darker tone also helped to add some shape to KT's body. Bill's body was difficult to balance as the reference image had a dark skin tone.

Adding Bill's skin tones was rewarding as it helped to define the outline of KT's body and added some more depth to his body. Again balancing the dark skin tone to look caucasian was difficult.

Bill's face was probably the most difficult single part of this project as the light in the reference image was opposite to the rest of the references. This also make it difficult to define his lower jaw against the shaded skin tones.

Bill's hair helped to frame his face and add contrast to the reverse lighter tones. It was quite hard to show his thinner hair in profile too here.

To help consolidate the references I then added darker tones to balance the image before sending it to the happy couple.