Wings

Stage 1: Rough

This illustration was inspired by the word "Wings". I began by making some rough thumbnails of ideas.



Choosing to go forward with my sketch of a butterfly I drew comps of a new butterfly and a flower for tho it to rest on to render in illustrator.



Stage 2: Digital Rendering

Bringing my sketches into illustrator I traced a single peddle, gave it a linear gradient fill and added some shadows to give it depth. By copying, resizing and rotating the peddle to those in the sketch I created the full flower.


To complete the flower I made an ellipse with a thick stroke and filled it with a radial gradient the same colours as the peddles. For a little extra detail I made a smaller ellipse with same fill and copied it multiple times.



Next i began working on the butterfly, starting by tracing the shape of the wings and giving it a radial gradient fill. Then by copying and modifying the shape I made inner part of the wings. I made the body is made from different sized ellipses filled with radial gradients.


 

For Final details i added different shades of ellipses and lines with gradient stokes. Completing the butterfly off with some shadows.



To create the background I found an image of some foliage, brought it into illustrator, traced and applied some effects to get the finished image below.