Woadedfox

Riverside Stroll WIP shots

Added 2021-01-05 14:04:56 +0000 UTC

Here are the WIP shots I saved at points along the process of my recent painting. I'll admit, this one was supposed to be a very simple image, posted for Christmas, but, due to me being busier than I expected over the holidays, and getting quite addicted to Skyrim, it dragged on longer than I wanted it to. Though, that is not to say the piece itself took its time.

As you can see in the first set of images, I struggled a lot with the faces, especially getting them to line up, as I had drawn then separately from the bodies. Furthermore, I struggled for at least four days on Roza's face, trying to get the expression correct, as, if I got it wrong, or had her jeering back too much, it might give it a rather creepy look, and I really didn't want that.

Once I had them down to a point I liked, I could focus on the background. For this, I knew the colour pallet I wanted, as winter scenes are pretty easy for me. I also wanted it set in Russia, keeping in line with the characters, so I chose St Petersburg. Collecting a few images of the city I came across one very nice building which is called St Michel's Cathedral, which is the golden-domed building behind them. Detailing this, the other 17th century buildings was quite the challenge, and very time consuming. Though, I had an image to paint over (as shown) but for the most part, I had to guess colours. I also had to keep in mind the perspective of the bridge, but luckily, Roza and Roman cover up most of the background, so I could afford to be a little lazy with it. Still, this took a while.

In the foreground I also had to mess around with the Christmas lights, as in previous attempts they took too much focus away from the couple, and really, they are the centrepiece.

Rendering Roman and Roza was quite easy, but time consuming too. Overall I think total worktime on this was 20 to 25 hours, or there abouts.

At least it was worth it, I am very happy with this one, and want to draw them both together more often, when I get time. :)