Red.

So I thought I'd do a little "work method" post. This is mostly how I work when doing a single image, spur of the moment, eye-candy piece. It generally starts out with a photo, something that catches my eye because of pose, colour, composition, anything. What I like of the original photo decides how much of it I'm going to take - if it's just the pose, I'll change pretty much everything else about it, if it's an expression, again everything else goes, if it's composition most elements will stay in one way or another. This photo was particularly stunning - the eyes, the expression, the colours. Damn I wish I could do my makeup that nicely. So I pretty much just wanted to draw it as it was. As I went along and started inking (mapping pens, ftw!) I started picturing it as just the face, all focus on the expression in the eyes. So when I got to adding ink to the black coat bit, I found myself covering everything up that wasn't the face. Sorry hands. Sorry tattoos. I thought about cropping it but I really love the composition and the contrast between the fine mapping pen lines on the face and total black encircling it.
So yeah, that's how I sometimes work. :)