Cleopatra: Final Illustration

Cleopatra: final illustration

The final illustration of Cleopatra, shown here, is more compressed than the final rough sketch, and the quality of the line is much tighter. Although I love the free-flowing gestural sketches that came before these, the final drawings had to allow for problems of reproduction. The line quality and thickness would have to be uniform so that details wouldn't be lost in reproduction. The illusion of transparency in forms is one of my favorite devices, and it shows. Here, I have used it in the Egyptian-style dress. The dress is a more antique style than what Cleopatra would have worn. I mentioned this to the client, and would have changed it, had he wanted a more accurate representation. He liked the style too much to change it. Historical accuracy wasn't that important; and besides, Cleopatra was fond of donning costumes anyway, he said.The figure below shows the final rough and the final illustration side-by-side for comparison. I made slight changes to further compress the image so that it would fit the page layout.

Cleopatra: final rough (left) and final illustration (right)