Commission Work: Sketching Elara from Heavenly Bodies ⭐️✨ + new video for you! 💌

Hi again! 😍

Today is the official release day for the book Heavenly Bodies in the US, so I wanted to show you guys a sneak-peek of another commission I’m doing for the book! 🥰 This is Elara, the main female lead ⭐️ She’s the runaway princess of Asteria, a kingdom of nighttime and shadows, and she’s the perfect blend of soft and fierce :)

Some behind the scenes of planning these sketches:

The author, Imani, wanted Elara’s character sheet to include an outfit she wore to a masquerade ball, so I looked up the description in the book!It’s SUCH a pretty outfit description, and I kept this in mind while working on the sketch on the far right 😍 (it’s gonna be so fun to paint omg)

The rest of the poses were up to me, so I experimented with some different ideas! In this one, I was toying with the idea of drawing Elara in a sword fighting pose, since she uses a sword multiple times in the book (like when she’s training with the male lead 🤭)

 The rough idea here was a more simplistic, docile pose where she tucks her hair behind her ear :)Ultimately, I went with the pose that was more frontal and showcased her shadow powers — but then I wanted to experiment with some other poses for the masquerade dress! This one felt kinda dynamic, but it still wasn’t my favorite.This masquerade pose was actually the first one I sketched, and at first I liked it — but then felt like it was a bit too stagnant. There wasn’t much personality shining through, and the masquerade ball is a really emotional time for Elara, so I wanted to capture that! So then I changed course and sketched this pose, which has more life because she’s mid-walk, and smiling more animatedly :) Imani loved this, and her one revision was for me to add a moon diadem on Elara’s head on the upper left pose! It’s always a sigh of relief when the client only asks for a small change, so I was really happy too haha 😂

A little tip that helped add personality was that I imagined each pose and expression being aimed at Enzo (the male lead) 🤭 I was thinking the whole time — what look would Elara give Enzo here? What kind of ultra spicy babe mode pose would make Enzo salivate LOL but I think that mindset helped capture Elara even more ☺️

And a fun fact for those of you who have read the book — the bottom pose is Elara wearing Enzo’s crown from that one scene, iykyk 👀💗

Today I also shared the FULL painting process of Ariete, and it’s my first time recording commission work! 😍🖤You can watch the video here! I hope you all enjoy it 🥰

Okay ANOTHER LONG POST OMG but I love sharing behind-the-scenes with you guys ☺️ I hope you all have a lovely day! :)

Love,

Lydia 💌