My wife has been a phenomenal creative director, making fantastic suggestions on all my art, and suggesting some radical changes on a few of them, as seen below.
In this drawing of Playboy Playmate Lindsey Vuolo, my wife had me darken the shading in Lindsey's skin tones a lot, and add some shading to the corners to 'frame' the drawing, and close it in a bit. But the big change was to soften the "S" curve in her back, and that made a huge difference in the whole look of the artwork. I followed the reference photo exactly on the first version, but my wife pointed out that it didn't work in the art, and that I don't always have to recreate the photos perfectly. It improved the art greatly, as it made it a softer, more feminine pose.
The latest redesign came on my personal favorite piece of art of Playboy Cyber Girl Carlotta Champagne. This is one of the drawings based on a photo shoot at our house; however, she told me she didn't like it as a full nude, and really wanted to see me add shorts to the art, as well as some other changes. She helped me choose some classic "Daisy Duke" shorts as reference, and was instrumental in helping me achieve a sexy, erotic look. She also suggested changes in Carlotta's shoulder, hair, shading, and the whip. I have to say I like it better!
The Marilyn Monroe nude was the biggest project on which we fully collaborated, This was a completely redrawn project, a present for our son. A family member had the original art, one which our son liked a lot, so my wife suggested just redoing the piece as a present for him, but making it better. She had a lot of issues with the original, and worked as art director to have me capture her vision. A truly collaborative effort, this took hours of working and reworking facial expressions, colors, angles, sheet folds. It was a pleasure to work hand in hand with her to create a very large, special piece.
