Flashback - L'été (Summer)

You know what? I realised that, since I launched this site, there hasn't been any of the process stages for my older work. I thought I'd give that a go, and also use the opportunity for a bit of a self-critique, so here's the first of my Mechanicals pieces, Summer, or L'été, to give it it the title of the poster it's based on.

Here is that original poster, Les Saisons: l’été, by Alphonse Mucha from 1896. It's a pretty beautiful image, especially the expression on the model's face. I think this actually was one of the prints at my wedding reception that inspired me to do the experiments that became The Mechanicals.

In the pencilling stage, I was just trying to duplicate the model's pose. I had fun with the hair, turning it into cables, and putting plates of metal in to stand for the flowers in the original. If I were to change one thing about it, I would not have added the sheet that I have her leaning on, as it blends into the bodya bit too much. I did use the colours to address that, but it would have been better to pick that up at the compositional stage.

One thing I did improve on in the inked stage was embracing the negative space in the top right corner. There was no need to have a random light fitting there, it didn't reflect anything from the original, and it made the picture busier than it needed to be. I also could have used lighter lines around the face, in order to make the facial features easier to pick out.

Hmm, the background... It was another experiment, and I'm glad I tried it, but I'm not sure it works. I might have tried some lighter, subtler colours, or gone with a pattern, like I eventually used in The Lady. I think it would have been better to err on the side of negative space. Still, it's pretty. I do like the splash of red that her hair makes, and it would have been good to maybe make that pop even more.