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 !