Most of the time, I draw the face first so I know who is in the painting that helps me to know where to take the finished piece as far as color and look. I was thinking about purple birthday wishes that lead to this visual. Maybe it should have been a purple flower, but a yellow one won out. I always love to see how other artists work. I find it a never ending fascination. I didn't show it here, but I always start out sketching lightly what's in my head in pencil. I very rarely use reference and I don't trace anything, unless it's something that I designed and I want to go onto a light box to change a few things. I still work in a very traditional way, even though I do know how to do many things in Photoshop. I truly love the look of hand drawn art colored with traditional mediums. Here, I'm working in Copic markers along with colored pencils , watercolor and gouache for the background. It still needs to be tweaked and cleaned in PS, but this will give you an idea of where I'm going with it. I've outlined the flower and fairy in pen, so to make it easier for me to separate it from the background allowing for other uses for the art. For art licensing, it gives you the freedom to design variations from the main illustration.
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