Commission Work: Cayden & Elowen from Fear the Flames 🐉🔥✨

Hello everyone and happy Monday! ☺️ 

I wanted to start off the week by showing you some behind-the-scenes for a project I’m currently working on! I was recently commissioned by Olivia Rose Darling, the author of Fear the Flames 😍 I was SO excited to receive this commission because I adore Olivia’s writing, and she was kind enough to let me share the whole process with you guys! 🥰

Olivia asked for a character sheet of the couple in three different poses, and at first I wasn’t sure if it would work (I’ve never drawn six characters on one canvas before!!) So I did some sketch tests to see how it would look and eventually discovered that I CAN fit six character poses on one sheet 😂

The poses:

 She requested a pose with Elowen looking up at Cayden with wide eyes while she holds a dagger to his throat, and with Cayden gripping her hand while looking down at her intensely. I made the pose slightly diagonal with Elowen’s hair flowing out to add to the ✨drama✨ Next — a kissing pose! I’ve never drawn a kiss scene before (unless you count the one I did for Dating a Vampire 🙈) so this was fun!! Olivia wanted to have it look like the characters are on a bed, and she also wanted Cayden’s tattoo to be visible here: Elowen’s name on his ring finger :) This angle will also feature the scars on Elowen’s wrists and the scar on Cayden’s face.Finally,  she wanted a pose with Cayden sitting behind Elowen, smiling at her from the corner of his eye while she reads a book :) He’ll be shirtless while she wears a lavender night gown 👀💗To help the author see the poses more clearly, I added color to the show the silhouettes :) I’m planning for there to be tiny glittering sparks of fire in the upper left area!

At this point in the process, I’ve sent the sketches over for Olivia to decide if there are any revisions/edits to be made, so now we wait! This is the part of commissions that requires soooo much patience, because I really want to start painting, and I also have to be prepared to potentially erase a whole pose (or more) to fit the client’s vision. My fingers are always crossed that the revisions will be small, but it’s also good practice for me to be able to adapt and recreate things if necessary :)

Once the sketches are approved, I’ll start coloring! I’m going to record that process for you guys so stay tuned for it 😍

Love you all and have a happy week! :)

~Lydia 💌