"Allergy Season" (Beauties and Beasts) (Patreon)

     This piece has an interesting history.  Similar to the other B&B post this week, this one has been through several versions. It started out yeeears ago--seriously, like a couple decades--as a large piece I was doing with reference of a model who had posed specifically for this drawing. But back then, I hadn't learned the importance of doing color sketches first, so when I launched straight into painting it I munched it right out of the gate. So I did a second version. That one (along with many other drawings and paintings) suffered water damage caused by our landlord at the time, who was very lucky we never met face-to-face. Years later, the piece inspired an early M'Lady short, and I sketched out a version of the painting featuring the princess  and her dragon from that title. I have no idea what happened to that one.  Gone into the great void of lost art. Then, much later, having developed more of a capacity for cartooning, I sketched the version you see here. As I was doing it I realized it fit perfectly into the Beauties and Beasts series. And don't worry, I'll definitely be doing a color sketch before proceeding to color this time (actually, I'll be doing a complete black-and-white render first, then the color version). However, I can't promise it won't get lost, or destroyed in a freak art-only fire.