Bonfire dance

I've always been fascinated by the people who are able to dance while playing the violin. The musician's energy, all the skills needed... It's really beautiful to see and to ear.

I therefore decided to make an illustration out of that, just for me (and for you. and to get better. not so just for me, then... ;p). As you might guess, it took a bit of time to do it, but there it is, just finished : 

It was soooo fun :D

And kinda complicated : dynamic characters (still working on the illusion of movement), bright light coming from behind them, night scene, campfire... But the more detailed, the funnier to color and to draw ! 

The characters and the fire are made using alcohol markers, but for the nice gradient on the back I had to use GIMP, my beloved friend <3 Then I figured ou that a fire is better with actual logs under it, so I quickly added them in digital painting. :p

Aren't they cute, looking furtively at each other while dancing ? <3

Of course, to draw all that, I needed references. First, count a dozen pictures of me standing in weird poses in front of my bathroom mirror, to have the right poses to reproduce x) But beside it, what I had in mind while drawing was a scene from a french comic, Lanfeust de Troy, where two characters scrap next to a fire. Here's a few pictures of it : 

I loved the gradients on the background and the bright contrast between shadows and light on the characters, but it was sooo hard to draw, I was afraid of screwing the whole thing up between each stroke of marker ! But it turned out pretty well ;)

I'll try to make a nice backgroud on the original one (on the paper), but I don't know how to do it... I'll get back soon (in the middle of may!) with looooots of new articles when I'll (FINALLY) be on holiday !