What follows is my preparatory work for my concentration, which is illustrations of my favorite children's book.
The novel, Dealing with Dragons, follows a princess named Cimorene that "refuses to be proper", preferring swordfighting and economics lessons to embroidery and dancing. When forced to marry, she runs away to live with a dragon, and soon finds herself caught up in something of a political mystery.
I loved the book as a child - and continue to do so - because it flouts virtually all of the norms regarding women in fiction while still retaining the setting and traditions of high fantasy.
And, of course, who can resist dragons?
Quick sketch of possible inspiration for the wizards - if ever done again as a proper portrait, the background would be accented with watercolor to achieve a stained glass appearance.
(I'll rotate this when I get a chance) Beginnings of watercolor over full pencil sketch of Concentration 2. Will be completed with gouache accents.
Detail, with the farthest left tower completed.
Rough pencil/watercolor preliminary painting for concentration 12. The dragon will eventually be jade green. The gradated yellow washes will be piles of treasure, and the walls will be textured to suggest dark limestone.
Dragon study for chapter frontpiece.
Another detail of the dragon study.
Figure study for concentration 3 and 12.
Text Work for frontpiece (Concentration 1 in set). Done in Ink. Will eventually be the spines of three books.
Detail of text work.
Very rough preliminary work.
