In Progress
This is the first character I have made in Maya, and one of the few characters I have ever made. But the first draft wasn't a spirit – it was an angel. However, I thought the wings would be too difficult for a beginner like myself. So I decided to draw a flower girl instead. She had tendrils swirling around her legs, and a blossomed flower in place of a bun. Her outfit was also backless, with another flower center in the lower back. I got bored with that, and started sketching a demon with a long, thick braid running down her back, and a criss crossing top. I gave up on that character, and began sketching a water nymph, before going back to a flower girl.
I wanted to make her mysterious, so I made half of her face a flower. Was she slowly being taken over by the greenery, or merely emerging from it?
The facial disfigurement disappeared when she became a Rubenesque forest spirit with a pin up do. But, that fell through as well, and I went back to a more statuesque, lean figure.
Making dress designs was one of the most fun parts of the sketching process. Originally, the forest spirit had a long, elegant neck, with a petal choker, off the shoulder dress, long dramatic sleeves and a corset. The corset and choker both had a horizontal orientation that would give her a commanding presence.
The sleeves were quickly removed – they took away from the drama of her décolletage. The original corset was very snug and rested right underneath her chest. Throughout my sketches, it came and went, depending upon how I felt. My sketches were very stylized, and I made her dress bigger, badder and more dramatic with each iteration. I added trains, corsets, and ruffles to my hearts content. But then I had to take a step back and think, would a forest spirit really wear this?
So I cleaned the drawing board, and made her dress an upside down tulip. I transformed the lacing of the corset into tendrils that swirled around her body. The final look was simplistic and elegant.