This illustration has gone through a lot of different stages.

The initial inspiration was from binge-watching Project Runway and being reminded of my favorite type of hem on a dress: handkerchief hem, or hanky hem.

This started out as a design I envisioned as something that could be on a runway for fashion– then later a voice kept complaining in my head “this looks way too boring compared to all your other work.”

Most of my illustrations are more inspired by video game character and costume designs, and I don’t actually want to become a fashion designer (though I have been paid to illustrate costume designs before and wouldn’t mind doing that again).

So then I went back to trying to find ways to make this image more interesting for my own taste. This painting went through a bunch of iterations where I found it to be pretty ugly (well maybe some of you might find what I ultimately went with is still pretty ugly lol).

I changed the belt like 10 times again. Why don’t I do the same for earrings or necklaces? Maybe I don’t care as much about them. Then again I’m not sure if I want to turn each of these paintings into like 60-hour ordeals rather than the usual 20-30 hours.

I always do this thing where I leave an in-progress painting for a while then come back to it and keep telling myself “I have to finish it!” while switching between hating the painting and hating myself. The last finishing stretch is like the hardest for me because it feels like polishing can take forever and ever and I’m trying to prioritize putting out more work. I find it okay to rush it a teeny bit at the end because over the years I have pushed my limit on each of my paintings where I spend at least 10 hours on. I just need to get more ambitious with my ideas and then fill in the canvas. Pfft… easier said than done though.

I felt like this girl needed more panache… like literally. So when the royal wedding happened, I saw pictures/videos of hats worn at the event and got inspired by looking at hats made by Vivien Sheriff.

On her head, a hat I put…

Phew, choosing design ideas out of the many hats by Viven Sheriff was really tough. I just loved so many of them.

Here are some close-ups of the complete product:

I went back to my old favorite digital painters, including Linda Bergkvist. One of her greatest strengths was portraying depth of field, which I think kicks everything up a notch in terms of making it look more polished. Glad her artwork is still around for me to reference!

And just in case, here’s a wallpaper you can download:

Yay for more finished work! 😀 Cheers!