Leilani Evolved

Starting off with some sketches to discern Lei's posing. I was conflicted between having her swim vs standing as she usually is in the water. I landed on having her in the air but not in the water, so I still had above water physics, which also makes her tail, which is used as a stand, even more impressive.

This was the pose I landed on, I am super happy about this sketch, I love the fluidity of the pose, this is what I would love to do as a career, the beginning processes and I think it is what I am best at. These took around 5 minutes each.

Then I added the tail, which gave me the scale of her body vs her tail. At this stage, I was happy with I,t but in the end I tweaked her tail to be bigger to make it even more impressive.

I did a couple of iterations of the hair to see where it would fall, keeping it up made the most sense for how much action she would be doing. I also 'evolved' her by adding many more flowers in her hair, and I love it; it looks like they are growing straight from her buns.

Now came a couple of colour iterations of her tail. I wanted it to feel like the ocean depth, going from a deep blue to the white foam at the beaches on her tail. The decision was between lighter or darker scales. I left this undecided until I developed the rendering more, as I was unsure.

Now I had to decide what she would wear. This was tricky because her wetsuit becomes her skin, and the fish pattern remains, so I had to find a way to put an outfit on her without blocking the pattern. I landed on trying out some shell armour that would go over her chest/shoulder.

The conch shell as a whole seemed a bit too much, impractical and more of a nuisance than protective. I liked the direction just not the outcome.

With the conch smaller, I added the flowers to continue it down, and I also added a mosaic of smaller shells to fill the space. I asked for feedback from peers on this and was met with responses of not being able to see the vision I was going for. I understand what they mean, and it was good insight into how I should be better conceptualising characters to get my ideas across more clearly.

I tried adding some netting, but it felt too cluttered and messy, also slightly too 'sexy' when on its own, an avenue I was not trying to go down.

I had the original Leilani up on the side for reference of the colour scheme as I wanted them to remain continuous.

Trying out how I wanted the tail to look under the scales, this was nice but a bit TOO messy compared to her body.

I tried out some photobashing on the tail for the scales, but the technique didn't quite line up with my art style, so I decided to draw them myself. 

A few different iterations of the scales on her tail. The idea was to have her tail look like it goes from deep ocean, from Lei getting shallower (lightening the shade) until it reaches shore, which would be at her tail. I tried out a few different variations just to see if others fit, using her flowers palette as the colour gradient. After verbal feedback from friends, it was decided that the original blue gradient was most fitting.

Some close-ups of the fish, as this is my favourite part. Her wetsuit becomes part of her skin, and she almost becomes part of the shoal. A future goal I have is to animate this piece so the fish swim down her body as if in a current.

And finally, the final render, the background is temporary, but I am happy with this one, by doing a simple tail, I think she remains the key feature of this piece, as was the aim. I like the net at the top to give just a bit more detail. I think I improved since the 'unevolved' version of Leilani, and I am happy that I feel like I am progressing with my rendering.