Rosa Aeterna (progress)

Another drawing at coffee break. It's an old idea and Exile (a drawing that I did yesterday) brought it back... wanted to do this on that one but was afraid to ruin it. Anyway I'm very happy with this. In fact I was so giddy after finishing it that I broke the coffee cup by mistake... luckily the people in the restaurant know me (as I draw there often and they get to see first hand the progress) so I didn't get kicked out . On my way home I had this stupid grin on my face...

as for the making of... I had the image in my head from the beginning, just without the flying petals and the circular strands of hair that stand out. in fact I kept messing up the left eye so in the end I decided to cover it with hair and that eventually led to drawing the strands. this is the process: though the image can be clear in my head, there are subtle variations that are dictated by the gradually constructed shape (sometimes the deviations are so extreme that you actually go in a totally different direction, but that was not the case here). the title... as most times, the title comes towards the end

Exile