In Perfect Harmony

Finally managed to start doing new stuff the other week and though Ive been mostly just sketching things (because I have so many things I wanna do and can never decide what to do first), I wanted to finish at least one of them so Id have something to post today, and this was one I really wanted to see in full so I just went for it.

At first I wanted to do a sort of follow up to "Elegy" because that was my favorite pic of 2024 and one I looked at countless times throughout the year, so I knew I wanted something with a similar composition. Phone wallpaper sized (for my phone anyway), having her standing up and wearing some sort of gown and all that good stuff that always leads to a tasteful nude.

And although it still has its similarities, obviously it turned out to be an outdoors scene instead, because once I started messing around with the background I realized I really liked this and wanted to go with it instead. I think it still keeps the original gothic feel I was going for, but I really like that it adds the element of nature and how it all goes together (which is were the title comes from, along with it being a reference to the Within Temptation song from the album "Mother Earth").

It took me a while to nail the pose (especially the legs) and you will notice if you look at the sketch (in the attachments), I actually changed the hands pretty late into it. I care a lot about hands and I felt like I could definitely do better so I thought it would be worth putting in the effort, and yeah glad I did, because they add so much to the elegance of the pose as always.

Theres something really charming about this kind of full frontal view, without fancy angles or anything like that, it just has that classical nude look like the kind of thing youd see in a renaissance painting. Plus the natural breasts and pubic hair always add to it too, its something Ive gotten pretty addicted to lately, lol (currently coloring another pic with the bush in full view).

The colors were another thing that I kept tweaking until the last minute, and after experimenting around a bunch I decided to go with this high contrast look which is something Im always afraid of overdoing. But I think in this case because of the reddish tint and the muted colors overall, the contrast really helps it pop and it also helps create that "otherworldy" feel.

In the end even though it turned out very different from Elegy, I think I actually like this more, but of course I might be suffering from recency bias so Ill have to see how I feel about it in a few weeks/months.

As usual you can expect to see more of my characters, but Ill also be throwing in a few commissions here and there, especially those that are long due. Next up is probably the miqo'te though, since theres one Im already in the middle of coloring.