Checkmate Timelapse and Process

This picture was done mostly on a whim, which is also why the timelapse started a little later in the sketch. 

I think the most interesting aspect of the process here is going from an idea to a finished design, which is quite a personal process. When I started I just had a prompt in my mind which was "I wanna draw chess pieces but as hot ladies". Not much else. As you can see at the start of the timelapse, the idea was more brutal, with the queen being more of a cold hearted executioner with bloodlust minions. Reason for that is that I was taking the chess game too literally, where the pieces are out there to kill other pieces out of the board. 

As I was developing the picture however I came to realize that I wasn't a big fan of the idea, mostly cause it felt a little violent and outside of what I would usually draw. What I did then, was just asking myself how I would like the end picture to look like. Being a horny mf myself I just realized that I wanted to draw hot girls doing hot things, so I switched direction of the design towards a less violent dominatrix design. This is also where the design of the pawns, which I had been struggling with quite a lot at first, came together and I actually ended up liking even more than the one for the queen. 

This new direction is less "canonical" for chess, but I think we'd all agree that it is more fun in the end, and ended up with a design that I much prefer. 

I guess this shows that in the end you really to find what you care about and what you'd like to see more than how you think you should draw something, cause in the end it is going to give better result. I suppose this is self evident, but to me it's something i still struggle with a lot so it's worth reiterating.

Regarding the more technical aspects, I had already a very clear design in my mind, with the towering queen and the two pawns on the side, which is relatively solid and remained basically untouched for the whole illustration. This is a reminder to myself that having a strong design in mind from the start saves a ton of grief in the process lol. I am pretty sure I would have never been able to finish this one up in one day if it wasn't for the original strong design I went into.

The reason a solid structure helps a lot is that it gives solid scaffoldings for the whole picture I can rest upon, allowing myself to focus on other aspects of the illustration, like shape design and solid drawing. 

Only thing I'm not very satisfied with is the coloring, I feel like it's very cold and it could be much better.