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Romeo and Juliet

Every summer my mom produces and directs a Shakespearean play performed by community high-schoolers.  She puts so much work into these productions, making the sets, the costumes (ALL the costumes, which is a BIG deal, and they are fantastic!), casting, directing…she does pretty much everything except the posters…because that’s my job of course! 

Here is the poster I created for this year’s performance of Romeo and Juliet:

colorposter

Faces

I was a little rushed on the color work, but I think it turned out pretty well considering.  What I’m most happy with is my initial line drawing:

Romeosketch2

To me it seems to have a life, elegance, and confidence that didn’t quite make it into the color version.

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Edward the Steampunk Gentleman

Edward (1)

This is Edward, one of my littlest sister’s absolute best friends. I hear so much about him I decided I should draw him…that, and he has great eyebrows.

Here are a couple of progress shots:

 
gunMidpoint

He loves gadgets and technical things no one else is smart enough to understand…so don’t ask me what that thing is he’s holding. It started out as a telescope, I suppose now it’s still a telescope…just with a lot of extra features.

Here’s the almost final version before Photoshop tweaking:

Unfiltered

And here is the final product!:

Edframe

Edward’s outfit is based on this and other early 19th century outfits from an excellent costume reference book called “What People Wore:”

edsuitref

I should have done a little more research on cravats though. Apparently there were dozens of different cravat knots with as many variations, all for different occasions, or to send a different message. I guess Edward’s says, “I’ve been too busy with this telescope to bother with a proper cravat!”
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Rachelle

This is a head painting of another friend of Sala’s, the lovely Rachelle.  I actually had her dress up for me over Christmas break and we had a photo shoot.

Rachellephoto

I did a basic pencil sketch to start out with then scanned it into the computer to paint it digitally.

Rochelle012

RachelleProgress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was just supposed to be another study, but I was having so much fun that I ended up creating a mostly finished painting.  She reminds me a bit of Maid Marian so if I were to name this piece it would be “Dreams of Sherwood.”

RachelleFlat

Here are some close ups, I’m rather pleased with the clasp design I created:

Clasp

Face

Sometime I may come back to this piece and refine the border on her hood,  but I’m happy with it for now.  Thanks for posing for me Rachelle!

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The boy who must not be named…

Sometimes I like to sketch people from Facebook, anyone is fair game (watch out, you could be next!).  Last week I did this sketch of one of Sala’s friends:

Brady2

I liked how it turned out, so like any good sister would  do, I turned Sala’s friend into a Slytherin from Hogwarts casting an illegal spell.

Brady

The one on top is more saturated and higher contrast, the one below is duller.  I’m not sure which version I like better so I included them both.

brady1

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the core of his wand is the heartstring of a teenage girl 😛