Princess Aurora

And I know this is posted on the same day here as my Snow White adaptation but Princess Aurora took me a few days to finish and honestly I had a hard time figuring out her pose. Such an basic problem to have but I kid you not I started this drawing over 4 times. Nearly getting full color set before I sat back and thought “ this just doesn’t look like my princess.”

I didn’t want to just duplicate the post from Snow White. Even though I aged Snow White up to be an acceptable Aurora age I wanted something different. You see Aurora was a favorite growing up and sometimes that can work against you. I was being too precious with her and it wasn’t quite right and therefore it was all wrong. So I started again, and that was too sassy, so I started again and that was too frumpy. Frustrating to say the least .

So I put the iPad down and walked away.

And then came back after I looked at some reference photos and what really clicked for me was seeing her mother. Sappy I know. But Aurora looks just like her mother in the film and so I got to drawing her mom. And I really liked it!

So I went with a look from 1400’s medieval England and France smooshed together. The sleeves needed to be longer to show nobility. I wanted the color to be lush and feel rich. And because I’m a purist, I made it blue first. Little Nik was always a fan of the blue dress, because that’s the dress she is in for the majority of the time she is in her princess dress. Why anyone would want the pink dress was beyond me, at 5 years old.

And just like Snow Whites dress I wanted to show a few of her forest friends in the embroidery of the skirt, so we have the owl, squirrel, and the blue bird and the cardinal. And there needed to be a nod to the 3 good fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather in her rings. Again, I love a good high collar and long sleeve for a winter look.

Alright you got me. I did a pink one too.

Couldn’t have Flora mad at me.