RIBBONS - Work in Progress - Sketches & Procreate Timelapse

Hello lovely people,

Here is the first of 3 posts, each talking about a new concept I am working on.

I have 3 ideas on the go, each of which is at the final composition stage.  I am to start work on the final sketches for each in the next few days.

This first one is temporarily titled "Ribbons". I will most likely change that title later on but for now, it is the easiest one to use to keep track of all my different folders relating to this painting, haha.

This concept will be nothing new to many of you, as I have been tinkering with it on and off for a couple of years now.

It started with my Unravelling painting, then a 2018 Inktober drawing, then a 2019 Inktober drawing, the threads slowly morphed into ribbons, and now here we are.

Unravelling, 2018

Frayed, Inktober 2018

Tatters, Inktober 2019

This concept speaks to me in so many ways, that I don't think the painting I am currently working on will be the end of it. 

But as with all things, I need to take it one step at a time, so for now, I will be focusing on the version of this concept that you can see in the sketches below, which are my most recent iterations.

2021 Daily Doodle Diary

April 2021 Sketchbook Spread

For this version, the character will be falling apart into ribbons, but instead of being hollow, and nothing being left behind, in this instance, the skeleton remains. 

Only the bottom half of the person is falling apart, and the skeleton is visible instead of the legs, while the character is holding the ribbons of its own body in its arms. 

Above is one of two very rough mock-ups I created on Procreate, to help me visualise some of the compositional elements I had in mind. 

You can also watch that process in the video at the start of this post. 

My first instinct with this concept was to have the character standing, and use a tall and narrow canvas format.
But when I started my digital mock-ups, I decided to try a different pose first, to give myself some options and get a feel for some alternatives. What you see above was my first digital "sketch". 

While I enjoy the kneeling pose, and the opportunities it gives me to play with the ribbons interacting with the scenery, something didn't feel quite right, so I ultimately went back to my initial standing idea and did a second mock-up, which you can see below. 

Sorry for the blurriness, I don't use high quality images for mock-ups as final quality doesn't matter. 

This second sketch resonates a lot more with the vision I have for this piece, although after mulling it over for a while, I think I would prefer the character to be even less dynamic. I will probably have it simply standing still in the forest, looking up to the dim light streaming through the trees. I might also make it hold the ribbons closer to its chest, in a tender protective gesture, rather than the slightly confused and contemplative pose it has above.

This is as far as I have come with this idea, and the rest of today will be spent sketching out a more definite pose and composition in my sketchbook.
I will obviously share that with you as soon as I am done with it. :)

Thank you for reading and speak soon!
M<3