Reference Photos

After taking the initial photos I took I ended up drawing out some designs using one of the scenes as a background. I decided that instead of putting a fairy tale character directly in the scene, I wanted to make it a bit more abstract and less obvious because I think this is more intriguing, like a scene from a fairy tale. I decided to take different elements from each of the characters I'd chosen to photograph previously, and settled on using Rapunzel's hair.

After drawing out a couple of initial designs I came to the conclusion that I needed to practice drawing hair wrapped around an object, as reference for the hair being wrapped around a handrail. I just wanted to take some quick photos so I could get on with the project, which is why the quality of the photos, including the framing, angle, lighting, and what the hair is wrapped around, isn't that great. The reference photos were very useful as I'd never really drawn hair before, so without the reference photos I didn't know how the hair would act when wrapped around something. Through taking the photos I discovered that hair is more messy than I had been drawing it, that the hair in my drawings would look more realistic if there were random strands that were out of place.

Although the reference photos served their purpose, if I had lit them better they would have been even more useful because I could have looked at the shadows and highlights created and used this as reference for shading. I used natural light in the photos I took because I just wanted to create some quick reference photos. If I had taken the time to set up an artificial light source to light the subject better the photos would have been even more useful. Also I should have taken some with my hair plaited, as it is intended in my drawings. Instead I drew the plaits from photos I had found on the internet. This made it hard to find exactly the type of plait that I was looking for.