Throne of Glass Aelin 8 year repaint

Any Sarah J Maas fans here? I got my first real start as a fanartist online doing oodles of Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses fanart under my old username, Lilith-Luxe. I actually STILL see my old ACOTAR and ToG fanart popup in reposts online, and have had some people who were familiar with that old work surprised to find out I was the same person lol.

It been almost exactly 8 years since I painted the original piece below! I think this was one of my most popular pieces at the time, and it really encouraged me to keep trying. I even had a few people send me cosplay photos dressing up as my depiction of Aelin! It was around that time I quit going to community college and decided to pursue art no matter the cost in order to make it my livelihood. I'm very lucky I was able to tough it out, and my then boyfriend and now husband supported me on the craziest decision ever to dedicate my life to doing something a lot of people never believed I could accomplish (myself included).

I was inspired to do this repaint as I've been re-listening to the audiobooks lately and remembered that ironically this method of greyscale painting, then adding color overtop is almost identical to the technique I used when I first started digital art, and in the original. It was interesting to compare how I'd go about something as simple as a portrait with so many years experience in between. I remember thinking this portrait was my magnum opus at the time haha! Why I was dedicated to torturing myself with a lot of front-facing portraits back then, I will never know as I STILL struggle with the angle.

Thank you to those of you who have been supporting me for a VERY long time, and to those who are supporting me now. It means the world to me. Despite feeling down lately I'm trying to remember how proud of myself I'd be if I knew 8 years ago where I'd be now.