Aftyn face study

I’ve been working on some drawings of Aftyn from imagination — full body poses — and struggling with getting facial likeness at that distance. The eternal struggle! After four disappointing attempts at the target resolution, I decided to draw a close-up with the intention of shrinking it down and drawing over it with a simplified rendition. It wasn’t intended for release, but then I ended up liking it and giving it enough polish to post.

I don’t want to mislead: this particular image is referenced. I chose that moment because her face was oriented the way I want, and her smile jumped out at me. In the final illustration, the figure and hair style will be drawn from different sources, the environment will be an elaboration of a photograph I took of a nearby building, lighting will be fudged, and so on. Drawing from imagination is often heavily referenced like that.