Elsa of Arendelle Prelim 01

I received a unique commission request some months back from an old high school classmate. I've never tackled the Frozen franchise before, but who am I to walk from a challenge? What you see here is an 11 x 14" 2H Staedtler pencil sketch of Princess Elsa of Arendelle. I first started this project with rendering the character in my own photorealistic style, then, with tracing paper, fleshed out Elsa in Disney proportions to the best of my ability. I also Googled a template to use to create her trademark snowflake pattern. I want this image to convey the beauty and magic of Frozen by showing Elsa manipulating the snow around her. Since one of her powers is levitating snow constructs, I'm going to have the bottom portion of the snowflake glow a different shade of blue and continue that pattern to the snowbank below. This will convey the illusion of snow travelling upwards to create that crystalline shape behind her. And, of course, there will be swirls of snow travelling to and from her hands. So far so good and there will be more as it develops, as this is on the fast track for Christmas.