Christmas Countdown!

Hey everyone! Welcome back!

So its less than a week until Christmas day now! But no rest for the wicked, as they say - Not only will I have one of my busiest weeks at work with everyone having Christmas Parties and such, I also have a few presents to finish getting and a picture to finish - yeah, I'll admit that I've never been the best at being on top of Christmas shopping. But I usually get things done.

Speaking of the picture I'll be doing for Nadia, I should give an update there. Last time I showed my sketched concept for the image. This time, I have a lot more done.

Firstly, the line art was fun - after drawing images such as the one I drew for Nogitsune, specifically the hair, I'll admit that drawing Rodessa's hair was the most fun. She has a lot to work with after all! lol. I also made a few adjustments from her initial design on the dress, giving it some sleeves. I thought that it added a little more to the outfit. I also adjusted the perspective on the arm, as it was a bit off before.

Oh, I should probably point out the pushy that she is holding dressed as a reindeer. I do hope that Nadia will get the reference. Unfortunately, can't say who it is without spoiling, but you're welcome to guess!

I also did the flat colour:

Even having just the flat colour does tend to make the image stand out more, I think.  I made sure to follow the colour references that were made for Rodessa in the past, specifically for her hair, skin, eyes and lips. After all, I want to be sure I get Nadia's character as good as possible, since so far I haven't done much in way of art for Pandora yet, minus some base drawings and images of certain spoilerish characters that can't appear online yet. (Don't worry, they will appear eventually!). And I've been doing some practicing of Rodessa, to be sure that I can get her design correct once it comes to my turn.

As for the background, I just went for something simple this time. The image is essentially like a Christmas card, and the space left behind will have words as a season's greetings, so I didn't want a background that would clash with those words. Hence it was just a simplistic snowflake design. Admittedly, it reminded me of wrapping paper a little bit, but I did think that Rodessa's colour scheme would also stand out against the cooler blues and whites.

Now I have the main part of the image to complete - the shadings. While flat colour makes the image more obvious, adding the lights and shadow will help to make the image really stand out. This is the bit that always takes me the longest, since it does add the most detail to the characters. Should be fun! But hopefully my day job wont make it difficult for me, since I have less than a week left. So, cross your fingers for me! I'll let you know how it goes :)

Until then, have a Merry Christmas and I'll see you next time!

Tara