Phobia Series (1)-Original Illustration: Emeraude/Spiders+Progress Pics

About a month ago, we took a trip to Poland with my family (parents + three little sisters). It was great to be able to spend some family time in a very peaceful /a bit abondoned place. As I had some time to spare there, I was thinking of some new ideas for a series of illustration. I remembered a photo I had seen of a girl blowing up a huge bubble from a bubble gum, and thought it would be cool to incorporate people worst fears inside (or at least what they say/think they're worst fear is). I asked my sisters if I could snap a few picture of them, and ask them what they were most scared off. 

"SPIDERS!", said 8-year-old Emeraude.

And so this is how this illustration came to be:

Here are the two photos of Emeraude that I took:

My pre-sketches:

I then cleared the table, sharpened the pencils, got the reference picture ready and got out a big sheet of A1 drawing paper:

I sketched the outline, then worked my way into more details, gradually adding more values, as I completed Emeraude's face and hair:

I then started adding the spiders: 

Got my hands really dirty: 

I used an eraser to create the web like texture. 

And finally ended up with the final product! Here are some closer shots for details:

Thanks for reading! More to come soon!