First sunny summer days - and hazel eyes

First sunny summer days and hazel eyes...

Summer dress made of blooming buttercups and closed dandelions,
and suddenly those faded leaves are nothing but layers of memories.

This floral dress was made of blooming buttercups and closed dandelion flowers. Also decayed gray leaves as well as the fresh green leaves found their places in this illustration.

This floral dress was designed to have a same kind of style than the spring themed dress from the previous article. But this time the theme was instead early sunny summer with strong yellow color along with shades of green and brown.

Also this floral dress had faded leaves in it, bringing that extra sense of layering to this work. And this time the faded leaves were combined with blooming flowers and some vivid green leaves of the buttercups and dandelions.

This work was designed as a continuation to the spring themed floral dress, like it would be the next step after the spring. Just like in the Finnish nature, when the wood anemones and wood sorrels are fading and the spring turns into summer, but the dandelions and buttercups are then already starting to bloom.

It is always interesting to follow that magical cycle of the nature, and follow how the wildflowers have their different times to bloom. And it is also very fascinating, trying then to capture those brief moments and transform them into the floral dresses.

When I searched the wildflowers for this floral dress, the sunny day was changing already into early evening. The strong yellow color of the buttercups was beautiful in the evening light. And when I was picking up the last flowers for the dress, the dandelions were already starting to close up for the night. I wanted to add also a bit of the atmosphere from that moment to this illustration.

And for that reason in this floral dress the dandelion flowers are also closed and allow that way the buttercups to be more in the centre point. That was also a way to keep the amount of yellowness in balance, because the bright yellow of the buttercups was such a strong element in this work.

The closed dandelions were also having those nice darker color that are seen only when the dandelion flowers are closed. That particularly shade of color also matched with the faded gray and brownish leaves, and the same color was also repeated when I was coloring the character´s hair.

In those closed dandelion flowers there is also that a bit of striped look, like the yellow and dark brown would be playing together. I also aimed for that same striped look in the character´s hair. In addition the hair is also having very light highlights, like the parts would be sun lightened. Also the softer light brown tones were important when coloring and finishing the hair of the character.

In addition I designed this character to have a special colroed skin tone, not only pale like in the first sunny summer days… but already starting to have a bit of  those golden tones from the sunlight. That was also a one way to emphasize that mood of first sunny summer days in this illustration. In the end also the other colors of the character were adjusted to match the floral dress.

This time the character was designed to have hazel eyes, following that warmer summer theme and at the same time matching also with the colors of the floral dress.

The aim was also to capture a bit of that mystery of hazel eyes… When one can´t really tell whether the eyes are brown, greenish brown or even a bit golden? In this drawing I was aiming to color the character´s eyes with that special tone that one might see when the summer sunlight reaches those hazel eyes.

And in the end the whole character with her floral dress was having that same impression than her hazel eyes…  That burst of warm golden colors in middle of the greenish brown colors.

Wishing warm and sunny summer days to you all!

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