Anatomy of a Swordfight

Last month I was comissioned to make a painting for a friend's birthday. The assignment was to depict a pirate and  ballerina locked in a dancey swordfight. Who doesn't love pirates and ballerinas and swords? An artist's dream come true, really.

It was a lot of fun, so I'm showing the development process from concepts to finished painting. 

I started with some concept sketches. 

After looking at the concepts, I needed to bump up the ballerina factor, which resulted in the final line drawing.

Once the final layout was approved, I brought on the paint.