'Dance' Remake Ink

Sketch (and rantings about it) here: [link] (if you are coloring this, you will want to look at the sketch bc there are color changes that don't have inked borders).

So, as usual, while I should be doing a bajillion other things, this piece has demanded my attention like a screaming two-year-old. You can ignore her for a while, but eventually you just give her the cookie so she'll shut up.

Again, this is a "remake" of Alphonse Mucha's "Dance." You can start to see some of the changes a little more clearly here. One of my main goals was to make it so the thick outlines didn't flatten the image (as it does in Mucha's) but rather add depth. I think I succeeded, except for the ends of the hair. They should appear to be coming towards you, but I couldn't bring myself to make the lines thicker towards the ends, it just looked silly. Oh well. I'll do something in the color version to make it clearer.

I've always thought that this was the most "vulnerable" stage of a piece, all bare skeleton. The sketch is diaphonous, so you can pick whichever line is right, and once the color is on it looks fabulous enough that you don't notice the flaws. But still, I'm pretty happy with it.

I haven't decided how I want to color it yet. To scrounge up ideas, I'm submitting this to the to see what other people come up with. If you're coloring this, please give me credit in your desc and provide a link to your version in the comments here (I'll probably fav it). Please, please don't steal this. It would make me very sad. And make my paranoia worse.

22.5x14.5", Sepia (India Ink) Faber Castell Pitt artist pens on 25% rag vellum paper. 4 hours to ink (+7 hours sketch = 11 hours work so far).

Colored versions: