Ocean Gypsy - so far

not the title I was originally intending but it works nonetheless. Anyway, here is a piece I was working on originally for a contest on DeviantArt that I procrastinated on and didn't have finished in time. It's only at the 90% completed phase but I wanted to show it off.

this is my first official vector art piece. I wanted to challenge myself and see what I could do in Illustrator. So, I scanned in the sketch I did on watercolor paper--because I was planning on painting it traditionally using gouache paint.





after scanning the image in, I imported it into Adobe Illustrator and went to town using layers and the pen tool. Once I had the base colors down, I started working with gradients to try and blend shades and colors for a smoother transition--in the case of hair to water.



 At this stage, I still need to add depth to the water and sea foam, as well as the spray from the foam.

Overall, I think for my first actual attempt at vector art, I've done rather well. (note: this is excluding the projects that I did a few years ago for my Illustrator class)