The Swan Song - Part One

Here is the first of two illustrations for 'The Swan Song' by Ricardo Soler. I'm also posting the progression of sketches, from my first draft, which was really supposed to be the one that I'll submit.. until the last minute when i changed my mind and worked on something a little bit different.

At this point, I was thinking of leaving the piece above as is, but something was amiss and I decided to go back and rework everything, I wanted the two illustrations to align in some way. Also I wanted to do the lyrical staff digitally, so I can better manipulate the musical notes and ribbons. I was anxious and nervous for some reason, probably because this is the first time I'm commissioned to come up with an artwork for a magazine article.

This finished illustration now works better with my second piece. The lyrical staff aligns with the second illustration, and further emphasizes the contrast in the composition of the overlying figure. You will understand all this jiberrish once I post the second piece hehe :) I wanted to mark the first half and second half of the story... where the first half is romantic, and the second resulting from a turn of events that brings the main character to a tragic ending.