TLDR

I finally finished it! It literally took me days to complete, with it's overall creation time spanning well over a week, but it's finally done! And you know what? For once, I'm almost completely happy with a picture!

Saying that, I'm sure in a year I'll revisit this piece and, hopefully, re-make it again even better. :)

I'm happy that I finally incorporated a character into a background, I'm happy with how the image progressed as a whole, I'm happy with the composition and the lighting, and I'm really happy with the floor!

Now, this has all been a mini project for myself to compare how I've grown as an artist in the past year and, I have to say, it's a LOT.

'Poison Ivy' was the original, and was actually the first time I ever attempted dreadlocks (as mentioned in a previous post). This was way back in the days of not caring about, and therefore not even starting to attempt environments around the character. I generally thought 'green = jungle' and left it at that.

That being said, although the original image is, well, it's really not that great is it? I decided it should be the start of the then-and-now as it DID have potential. I likes the idea of her character, she almost feels like an NPC your could get to join your party in Baulders Gate... I'm rambling.

Anyway, I tried to stay true to the original in many ways. Sure, I substituted the jungle for a forest, and ages her 2 or 3 years, but generally I kept to the theme pieces of the original. The glowing parts of the outfit have been reduced in number but accentuated, giving the same feel of a fantasy forest piece, though ofcourse now the clothing actually had folds and contours!

I did, however, feel the over-bodice should keep to it's original swim-suit material feel, and while I kept the stretched pieces of fabric I've re-positioned them to make slightly more sense now.

The boots are still knee-high silky fabric, but 'cat claws' have been sewn into the end to carry on the colour theme and give an interest point to the feer.

Overall, I feel this piece is generally a more mature version of the original, and, hopefully you'll agree, shows the progression I've made over the past year in terms of environments, character design and skin tones and textures.