Here she is, finally! This took forever. I started weeks ago, but work was really busy, and I had to do it in tiny pieces over the course of a month. In some ways I am happy it turned out as well as it did. On the other hand, it feels a little disjointed to me. I guess that’s what happens when you plug away at something very slowly.
New Planeswalker: Liliana Vess
February 23, 2011 by griffenvalentine
The specter looks like it’s riding a Pokémon.
Oh, man, I wish!
Composition problems
The spectre’s mount’s head steals focus, it’s too high contrast. The #2 & #3 focus spots are her hands. With the directing lines of wing structure, the eyes bounce from top to bottom of the picture. All in all, hard to even reach the face, and not a great payoff once it’s arrived at.
I think their positions and relative sizes need to be reversed, the spectre sub to Lilliana. Like her crazy-amazing hair sweeping down & out visually toward the spread wings? And more attention devoted to making this woman, who traded somewhat more than just her own whole soul for youthful beauty, not look quite so plain. Experiment maybe with making Lilliana’s very skin luminous, to punch it up
I get that the spectre flies and she doesn’t. I get that the tattoos/scars/w/e make facial detail difficult to include without being a mess. Thing is, I feel that, almost uniquely among your illustrations, you’ve allowed the “reality” (yes, fully cognizant of the irony) of the subject to interfere with the artistic quality of the piece.