The making of "The Green Fairy"

Absinthe is a liquor made of herbs historically referred as "La Fée verte" (the green fairy) and it was very popular in XIX century, so it has become an iconic element in Steampunk and other recreations of the era. I do not drink alcohol (except for some random cider or perry ;-) once or twice a year) so I confess I've never tried it, but I liked the "Green Fairy" as a concept and as I have many friends into Steampunk fashion I decided to make my own Green fairy (though with no reference to the distilled elixir! ;-)

So here are a few steps and details of how I made it

I always start with a pencil sketch. :) This is the preliminary sketch. I decided later on that legs were a bit long and changed  a few details on the pose (still I am not sure if maybe I had to leave it as it begun) but well this is the original pencil draft. I wanted the style a bit steampunk lolita/mixed with fairy.  I always make the draft in pencils, for any reason I don't seem to be able to draw well on tablet, though this time I'll add the color with digital painting and not traditional media as I'm more used to. So let´s scan and add some colors with the tablet. I only use brush which is the an airbrush one changing opacity and flow all the time.

Here a few instragrams I made with my cell during the painting process and first color layouts

Above: first layers of flat colors. Below starting to detail face traits and hair. Sorry these pics are a bit blurry they were shared by my instagram account and thus are not scans but cell-pictures

I wanted to go for a quick conceptual character design sketch, background will be kept grey or minimal

Here a detail of the face, It was fun to paint all those golden freckles. Color was chosen to be a bit "cartoonish" and vibrant and not entirely realistic. The dragonfly and waterlily in the chest is a  cross reference to one of my songs "The Call of the nymph" that deals with dragonflies and waterlilies :)

Below: finished result

And here in my gallery you can watch it  in bigger resolution 
http://priscillahernandez.com/fineart/the-green-fairy