I used beautiful Andy again. The reference photo is from the photo shoot we did late May 09. Played a bit more with light this time and I really thought the light was great the way it fell on her. It kind of adds something. Main goal with this drawing was the light and calm expression. The shading is really interesting when the light comes from behind a person. I remember doing some photos of myself in 2005 up against a window and the light in the hair looked really nice and I have been thinking about how light falls a lot lately.
When we did the photo shoot Andy was to imagine a butterfly on her hand and it works very well after adding the butterfly. The butterfly is a scarce swallowtail (iphiclides podalirius), hence the title of my drawing. I decided to try and resemble a real butterfly as my butterflies are always made up. I thought it was only suitable as the rest is realistic + I fell for it in my butterfly book while browsing it, it's just so different and I love how large it is naturally. I did this over 3 days, in between some terrible headaches. I feel so alone.
Made with soft charcoal.
(30x40cm | 12x16")