Sailor Cosmos, pt. 2 (Patreon)

Lots of progress made on my Sailor Cosmos commission this week!

I wasn't expecting to color everything so quickly, but I was really on a roll. I really wanted to add some sort of rainbow shading to her cape, and while I love how the right version turned out I think the left version fits in better with the rest of her outfit being shades of white? Idk. Still torn on it.

I'm kinda obsessed with coloring the hair like this, it's very inspired by Barbie drawings from the 70s and 80s (1 2 3) and I've been wanting to incorporate this into my art style for a while.

Here's the doily backdrop:

Yeah, so spoilers - it's not a proper doily. As in, it doesn't make a proper circle if you continued the pattern, and I'm pretty sure the details aren't perfectly symmetrical. I didn't even finish drawing some parts that I knew were going to be covered by Sailor Cosmos, which is why Sailor Uranus and Sailor Venus are missing some lines. But I think once Sailor Cosmos is in front, it's good enough.

In the end, I felt that the doily alone wasn't enough as a backdrop and decided to add some celestial stuff. I was very inspired by InkellaShop but this sort of celestial motif is drawn similarly across a lot of artists.

I tried some other versions where the background was a darker color to make the doily stand out, but I really wanted the pastel and white color scheme to be the main thing so I decided it was ok if the doily blends in with the backdrop.

I sent this WIP to the client and I'm waiting on her feedback now. This version has darker lineart to help Sailor Cosmos stand out, but I do think the lighter lineart gives more ethereal vibes 🤔 Side by side, I think I prefer the darker lineart. What do you think?

And here's they are again with the more rainbowy version of the cape, although now that I look at it the difference is almost negligible isn't it?

I'll still defer to the client, but since she gave me permission to sell this as a print I'd appreciate more opinions too! What's your favorite version so far? Any thoughts on how else I could make her look more ethereal?