Shirayuki

Skip Beat does not belong to me, this is a fan work.

All credit for the manga goes to Nakamura Yoshiki.

I colored this page at the request of Rurikokitty. I had seen the picture shortly before and thought that it would be fun to color, but would take a lot of work. And I was right! I've been working on this picture off and on for the past few weeks. It has a whopping 82 layers (and I know I merged down a few along the way). But I learned a few things along the way (partly because I got bored a few times and just started playing around/looking at tutorials). I finally know how to use patterns now, which is fun...

Anyway, the title of this deviation comes from the Japanese word meaning "white snow" and is as I understand the name the use for the Snow White fairy tale.

I have some reasons for the way I colored this picture (I usually do, but today I'm in the mood to enlighten you). In the original image it was quite obvious that Kyoko's hair was not black, as Snow White's is in the original story. I decided to color it the light reddish color that she usually has. I think I succeeded in picking a more natural shade for her hair color than I have in the past, so that pleases me. Snow white is traditionally colored with contrasts. Jet black hair, crimson lips, porcelain skin. She is usually dressed in the primary colors of red, blue, and yellow which again contrast which each other. I decided that the change in Kyoko's hair color would unfortunately totally throw off the traditional scheme. I still wanted to use those colors, however, so they were all incorporated into the coloring of the bed. I decided that I would take a different approach in my coloring of Snow White herself. I chose soft, desaturated variations on the traditional colors. Not only do these colors work well with Kyoko's coloring, they also separate her from the bold colors I used in the rest of the picture, emphasizing her deathlike slumber. She turned out looking a little more like sleeping beauty than I had intended, but that's fine.

Yashiro and Ren I dressed in bright colors both because this is traditional for the dwarves in Snow White and to emphasize their liveliness beside Snow White's stillness. I thought the red and yellow I put Yashiro in suited his energetic, cheerful personality, while Ren's blue and green suit his hardworking, dependable, and reserved personality. The tan undershirt and leggings add a touch of earthiness to remind you that while Snow White is a princess, the dwarves are merely peasants.

I don't always put this much though into my color schemes, but generally most of the colors I choose have some thought put into them. My husband recently gave me a book on color theory, so I've been thinking about it a little more consciously recently and I just thought I'd share. Hope you enjoyed it!