Girls out of hoods

I've been suffering from a lack of inspiration. Or, more honestly, a lack of accomplishment when trying to execute my inspiration. So I decided to get on with doing what I had been putting off: revamping old veeps. Since I've been doing witches, and the apprentice girl is one of my favourite from the pre-blog batch, I made a move on her.

There she is, on the right. The swoosh is a bit clunky and there's more lines than whitespace on the hat but all in all: woo.

I was thinking she was some kind of wind witch or apprentice that lived in the forest. A little bit red riding-hood.

Which was a nice enough idea.

I thought she'd end up completely redone, but in the end it was just small tweaks. One thing I was sorry to lose was the swoosh running from behind her legs to in front of her hand. Shame. Even tried to do it on one of the new witch girls but it just wasn't happening. I'm not displeased with the foreground swooshes now you understand, just something that might also have been cool.

So! I borrowed some leaves from a green man and that was the first variant done. Misc swooshes for the others. I'd have liked something different for the third, but I was at a loss for another way to represent a gust of wind or foresty power. I have a couple of failed experiments banked in case they're good for something else.

You know, except for #1's skirt these are pretty androgynous. #2 especially; fey but not necessarily feminine. A bit Peter Pan maybe, or a bit lost boys.

I'm happy with the level of outside-the-lines detailing on these. The shaping for the swooshes, #2's crinkled cape and #3's leaf-trous. Perhaps mushroom-head's spots would have been better as colour detail rather than linework, but that's just doubt speaking.

Things I don't like are mushroom head's cape. The shading is a bit forced, and the lines down the side are mysterious in their purpose. I reckon that'll be somewhere to pay attention if I come back for another pass.

Colour schemes came easier than I was used. I'm glad and surprised to have three coordinated and appropriate schemes here. It's been a stumbling block more times than I'm happy with.

Yeah, all in all I'm rather happy with these. Hooray!

Now, who to do next? One of the pirates would help flesh out that "tribe", or I've some knights I rather like. A woodsman archer with a novel pose that might fit with the witches. One of the early ones with plenty of room for improvement?

Undecided!

Second dose

Revisions!

Turned out I was frustrated enough with the poison-pickers that I took another whack at them. Not just colours, but linework too. Number three, the only one I was really happy with had the privilege of remaining unchanged.

Number two got an extra line or two to make her sash's path a bit more obvious, and raggedied to look less like an apron. And a hat of course. A hat that screams "witch!".

Number one's still a bit dodgy in my eyes. The strange poofy hat is... strange and poofy. But I'm much happier with her mantle and torso now. The colours aren't ideal, but I can live with them.

I even put some extra crease detailing on the cloth. Nothing for number one unfortunately, but I'm much happier with these three as a set. They look witchier to my eyes. Even if you start swapping parts about. I've a feeling you could swap legs and torsos separately; they're not built for it, but it wouldn't be a huge mod. Perhaps even the unique details - mantle, gloves and cloak - could be moved about. Possibilities!

Even with #1 not totally satisfying, I'm content say these are as done as I need them to be.

Pickled Peppers

I like the idea of these, but they're somehow bypassing the part of my brain responsible for inspiration. Especially the colours. Drab drab drab. I think I wanted an ecclectic look for the witches but they're turning out too mundane. I need to come up with more distinctive motifs. At the moment they just come out looking like random women.

Third one's ok though. I like her hair.

My thoughts were to give them all something that could be delicious/beautiful or poisonous. Apples are a sleeping beauty thing, you see?

Number one is so brown. What went wrong? And number 2's sash/apron defies human logic. Gah - I'm just moving on.

Bleh. There'll be something salvagable here I think (unlike some of the university wizards which I will no doubt scrap completely) but I don't want to look at these any more right now.