Bettie Page

This was originally posted as a sketch on my sketchblog, but I decided to colour it up as a further tribute to the late Dave Stevens. Also Illustration Friday's current topic is Homage and I thought this was a fitting homage to Bettie and to the masterful art of Dave Stevens which I've always admired.

Coloured from the scanned pencil sketch in Photoshop. After adding flat colours, shading was added in low opacity washes with a hard brush on a layer underneath the pencils. The pencil linework (with the white background made transparent) was colourised. The layers were then flattened and some of the obvious pencil strokes were blended with the smudge tool to give it a more painterly look.

Young Sophia Loren

From a recent drawing jam over at The Drawing Board.