Practice

Tonight's effort is based on a photograph of Majel Barrett dressed as her Nurse Chapel character from the original Star Trek series.  This was a fun departure from what I've typically used as source material.

The piece was sketched with a Blackwing Matte pencil.  Color was added using Japanese Watercolors and some minor embellishments were made with a silver Sakura PenTouch and a black Pentel Brush Pen.

The most challenging part of this effort was the hair color.  The source photo shows it in a red light shining on the crown of her blonde hair.  I decided not to incorporate the red because of a test I did with it on the blue clothing -- where it also was lit by that color --and I didn't like the outcome.  But her hair shadows and highlights were a mix of blonde, taupe, copper and white/silver.  So capturing them was a bit haphazard rather than the seamless look of it in the photo.  Overall, though, I'm pleased with the result.