Illustration Friday: Sharp

"The Flowered Gown"

I thought this week would be ideal for another figure drawing/historical fashion combination illustration so that's what I created.  Originally I intended it to be funny, which in a way it is, but not in the silly way I originally imagined.  I worked harder on it than I had planned and it took on a life of its own.  So I decided against giving it a funny name and present it here as "The Flowered Gown".

I used Higgins Black Magic ink drawn with a Hunt 102 (crow quill) nib on Arches Aquarelle watercolor paper.  The watercolors are from my mixed-up collection of Grumbacher and Winsor & Newton.

Here are the reference photos I used:

The figure drawing site I used is here: (Link)  The site seems to have changed or is being reconstructed because as of the time of this post it doesn't work properly for me.  I'm including the link because the site has been great to use in the recent past and I'm sure it will again soon.  It's weird that the pose is a big Viking guy and I wanted to draw a woman, but the axe was perfect for this week's "sharp" theme and I liked his expression.

The site I used for historical fashion is The Metropolitan Museum of Art's site here: (Gown Link).

Thanks for visiting!