One Hue Challenge - Albiona Whittaker

After all that work on the Elle series this year, I was pretty wiped out! There was still one more day set for blog content so I decided I would do something simple; a winter themed illustration using just one hue.

Wanting to do a wintery illustration, Albiona Whittaker was instantly the character I wanted to draw. Despite being a character who is completely white, she has two colours for tints, these are grey and blue. I chose to use blue as my colour since it would be a nicer turnout than grey.

I got Albiona sitting on some snow and having her faced towards the horizon below while she looks back at us. I wanted to convey her shy personality but make her look welcoming of our company. She's got some wintery accessories; the woolly hat and fluffy boots.

I call this the one hue challenge and not one colour challenge because I used three blues to put this together. Sketching and shading with the lightest blue, followed by refinement and additional shading by the mid-toned blue. I am thrilled with the shading in this piece, it felt so authentic! Even the snow looks really good, and I was able to add a sun in the illustration, to which the shading successfully aligned with.

The third blue, cerulean, was used to add contrast to the outermost lines of Albiona, which would stop her blending in too much with the background. Then I added a thick border with all three blues which I chose for Albiona's hat to break out of, adds interest to have little fragments of an illustration break free from it's borders.

I actually got this done in a matter of two hours, which is pretty quick for me! I was only doing this as a warm up for some more drawing as well so it was nice to get a finished piece like this done in so little time. If you ever want to get started on some drawing but don't feel ready for a bigger or more challenging piece, why not grab a colour and just see what you create with it? It's an exercise that can encourage creativity, resource and improve your speed if you don't take too long working on it!