Forest Elf by chesney
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
This image is a low-resolution, compressed version of the actual image. If you want to see the full image without its "jpegginess", the link is: http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p232/chesneyyoung/fornellelores.jpg
This is actually an image drawn by my boyfriend's sister. You can see her original image here: http://www.partingvisions.com/sae/fornelle.jpg
Anyway, having collaborated with her on several things before (see: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/26828823/?qo=34&q=by%3Achesney&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps --- http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/20474054/?qo=111&q=by%3Achesney&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps and http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/19911589/?qo=114&q=by%3Achesney&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps for previous collabs), I decided to tackle this one, too. I had to take some liberties and I removed the cat because I couldn't think of a good way of doing it and having it fit with the rest of the image, so I replaced it with a butterfly. As of now, this is by far the best collab I've done with her. I've been able to apply many new techniques I've learned since our previous works, and I think it's come out much better than the previous few.
The environment was rather challenging. I wanted it to look sort of realistic without standing out and looking out of place. I tried to incorporate shadows and light where best applicable so that she looked like she was actually IN it rather than some 2D character pasted over some 2D background. The stump was fun. I used some filters to create a bark-like texture. It came out a lot darker than I intended, but I think it worked out better that way. I used several layers of different brushes to create the mossy effect on the stump.
As for the color of her dress, I had a very hard time deciding whether I should keep it green, change the saturation any, or make it another hue entirely. In the end, I decided to keep it green to match the original as well as stick with the forest theme (although certain shades of blue and purple were very appealing to me).
All in all, this didn't take a SUPER long time to do (or at least, it didn't seem to take very long. I wasn't keeping track of time too well while working on it, but they do say time flies when you're having fun, and I was definitely having fun with this the entire time). I realize it's very high-resolution and a large file, but you get to see the details this way!
Additionally, I have uploaded a series of WIPs of this image which can be downloaded and viewed in succession by browsing the WIPs gallery here: http://chesney.sheezyart.com/wip/

Comments (10)
beautiful image...
It is a very lovely image, a hearty hattip to you both!
Beautifull composition and colors.
Wow! That's Really fine, Ches!! The focus shift and everything are excellent! Super collab!
wow! great colors
Awesome image!
this image is quite lovely. Beautiful coloring and the background works well with the character. I like all the effects you used too. Great work! 5+
If all will be such this. This place will be better. ;) 5+
Very beautiful scene.
Beautiful Image!! Fantastic Artwork!!