Tuesday

IF (Illustration Friday), 10/17/14 the topic was Trouble.  This was a tough subject to capture for me, because I was uncertain as to how I was to portray 'trouble'.  After some sketching and my usual procedure of researching the word itself, I finally came up with an idea.  The subject I decided to illustrate was that of Dawn Summers, the younger sister of Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  I was a long fan of the show, and have already done some pieces inspired by the show.  This particular piece was inspired by one of the more prominently known episodes, 'Once More, with Feeling'.  In the episode the cast is enthralled by a demon who causes the whole town to sing, and dance out loud, divulging their insecurities and secrets aloud.  After hearing that her sister Dawn, has been captured by the demon in question, Buffy says aloud "So, Dawn's in trouble...must be a Tuesday".  This particular line was very poignant, as Dawn was always abducted by one villain or another in the show constantly, and the show itself was primarily aired on Tuesdays.  The piece itself also went through many overhauls.  Initially I was only going to paint Dawn, and some omnious shadow or hands behind her in attempt to illustrate her constant need for rescue, but the compositions were too boring.  After some more sketching I came upon a better layout, which illustrated my primary focus, but also told some of the story about who Dawn is/was.  The photo reference was tough to come by since the actress who played Dawn was quite young while on the show, and began to physically change over the few seasons she was on it, so I had to decide what age I was going to portray her as.  While I took much longer on this piece than normal, and there were several ups and downs, I have to say I am very pleased with how it came out.  The piece is entirely digital, done in Painter.

UPDATE 3/26/18:
To purchase this image, please visit my etsy store here:
The Key (Tuesday)