"I'll Always Love You" LoL illustration

"I'll Always Love You"

 This illustration is an inspiration from the "Life of Lewa" series, a fan fiction I'm currently working on. In the image, Lewa (left) is receiving affection from his wife, Venimbus (right).

The picture is a random scene of affection, which hasn't yet been given a place in the story, but I'll likely find a spot to add it, since I feel every picture made should have a nook that connects onto a unique story, even if it's small. Once I do find a place for it, you'll no doubt be seeing these once random art pieces added to a meaningful story chapter in the future.

The title "I'll Always Love You" is meant to go both ways. Lewa is thinking it, and so is Venimbus; therefore the title is short, sweet, and to the point; a quality I value as part of the affectionate message this illustration is meant to portray.

 The background of this illustration (left) was made by a friend of mine; using acrylic paint and watercolor pencil. You can see her original version before I tweaked its color here Figmentrose- Jungle Background. After seeing the drawing of the two sweethearts, she was instantly inspired, and so taken by the piece that she wanted to see it on a background. This led to her making one for me to use, leaving  the editing and Photoshopping in my hands. I simply copied the image from her DA, tweaked its color to make it pop, then applied the figures, and signed our DA names so all would know the illustration was a two person project.

 Here's how "I'll Always Love You" started, and how I made it step by step. 

Tooth paste advertisement

 The drawing of Lewa and Venimbus was a four step process. 

   One day I picked up this tooth paste advertisement (right). I was in a very odd mood, and had been facing a strange emotional tug for affection. There was something about this advertisement that instantly sparked an idea, and fed that emotional feeling.

First outline on tracing paper

I saw past the two people in the picture, and dreamed of Lewa and his wife Venimbus. This urged an idea I couldn't resists, and I decided to try something fun. I used the advertisement as a guide, and placed a sheet of tracing paper over top of it; then kept the sheets together on a clip board, took out my Lewa and Venimbus figurines for reference, and started tracing their forms over the advertisement.


Drawing over human forms was slightly different since I had to avoid the nose aspect of the heads.

By the end, this resulted with the base pencil image (left). I would have done a full scale tracing, but the paper sheet wasn't long enough to fit the full advertisement.

I made a tracing paper image first, so it would be easier to see while I traced over the image a second time.

 I took my traced image, then placed a sheet of bleed proof marker paper over top. The marker sheet ended up being a tad smaller than than the tracing paper, so

I had to cut off a few of the lower details.

Final image on bleed proof paper, colored with Prismacolor marker

 I then clipped the sheets together and placed them over a tracing board with a light underneath, and drew out the figures with pen. 

     Once I was finished, I started coloring the image with Prismacolor markers, and a few cheap markers for the gray, since the Prismacolor sets didn't have that color. 

      In the end, the results were satisfying, and the characters both portrayed the emotion I yearned for. After that point, I shared it and was given a backdrop, leading to the final illustration at the top of this post. ^.^