Character art: Bad Fairy

I love to doodle but I'm no artist. Consequently, even the best drawings I've done of my characters were more like cartoons: fun to look at, and useful for fixing characters' visual aspects in mind, but ultimately nothing amazing. So when an actual artist thanked me for my work on Tumblr by making this digital painting of Delia, my Bad Fairy protagonist, I pretty much melted.

Look at this awesomeness.

Click the drawing to see full size.

Stuff I'm totally jazzed about:

• Wow, this artist did an excellent job capturing that mix of cuteness and creepiness Delia would have in real life.
• They managed to present her as very slim (accurate to the story) without sacrificing her youthfulness, and that's quite a trick!
• I love that it's got a fairy-tale feel because of the textures and contrasts. That's really perfect for the book.
• Just in general wow this is an amazing digital painting!

Stuff that's wrong with this:

• WHY ISN'T THIS ARTIST DOING MY COVER ART OMG. :)
• No really. As the artist mentioned in their comments on the post, in the name of artistic license they decided to pull back on the "dramatic" eyelashes fairies have in the books so it would be easier to make her look younger. The decorations like the hair ornaments, the beads, the birds, and the type of hand mirror are just artistic choices, not based on the book.

Information about the artist and the piece:

• The artist is soapybacon on Tumblr. This is where they originally posted it.
• This is an earlier version before it was completed, and though the eyes are darker and there are a few unfinished details, I really like this one too.
• The face and hands were painted in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet, using a brush with a low opacity and the "liquify" tool for adjusting proportions. The hair and the kingfishers were created in Illustrator because the artist wanted a smooth, flat appearance to contrast with the detailed face. And textures were overlaid on the moon, hair, mirror, and background.

I've received some pretty neat character art over the years but this is pretty exciting. :)