Let down your hair!

As promised, here is the first piece I did for Advanced Illustration:

It's Repunzel, and it was meant to be a book cover or an illustration for a storybook, and also sort of a continuation of the Sleeping Beauty/Briar Rose painting I did in watercolor. I had my critique on this piece in class today and we discussed that it probably would not be most fit for a book, but perhaps a poster for a play. The reason being, since her hair runs down the center of the piece. If the braid had swayed slightly more to the left, then there would be more room for type, and maybe even the painting could somehow interact with the text. My instructor also said I should have added some more contrast (I agree!) and that it was really "stupid" of me to make her hair smushed against the floor like that. he said I should have just let it sway there. I'll agree, it wasn't the best decision, but I stuck with it. Constructive criticism is never a bad thing!

But minor problems aside, I think this piece came out nice. I always have a picture in my head of exactly how I want a piece to turn out and it never comes out exactly that way (perhaps it's just the perfectionist in me), but this piece is good. I like it. Not my best, but certainly far from my worst. I truly enjoy using the walnut ink to accent certain parts of paintings. In this piece, I used it in her hair--the most important part of the piece, since it is Repunzel.

But anyway, I learned a lot from this piece...most of that, things I should not do in the future. I'm not sure yet if it deserves a spot in my final portfolio. Maybe after I make a few changes.