SO, after completing a couple other postcards, I was able to move on to a big and fun project! A good model friend, actually, international model who is so beautiful and talented, asked if I could do a postcard for her. What did I say? Of course, naturally!
This was a little bit more challenging however. You see, I am not skilled in the arts of exact potraits or real people. People I make up in my head or reference for my ideas in pictures, sure. But people I know.. somehow, my mind can't translate well the personality and glow of people I know into my hand. It's either realistic and dull, or looks nothing like the subject, but has a glow to it. Ha! You can see below which one it turned out to be!
As you can guess, I was asked to do a potrait, and I was very excited about it, but at the same time, nervous! I don't want a chance to ruin her beautiful face!
I do say though, it was wonderful practice and it came out ALOT better than I expected! I think it's because I put my all into it and didn't give up. :]
Let's start with her pretty picture that I used as reference!
Beautiful right? :D
So. This is how it started.
Step 1; Begin! Similar to how most things start, it started with a sketch.
Of course, I forgot to take a picture of it FRESH, but at least I got one in comparison and ended up getting it all down and filled in a background as well! Yay!
Step 2; Inking!
One of my favorite parts of drawing, making those loose and wiggly lines more confident and permanent! I start with my favorite parts, and also what I worry I will mess up later with less energy. For example, the eyes, lips, face outline and body. 
A close up of how I did the eyes and lips.. in case you were curious. :] And again, in case you were even more curious, if you're familiar with my art, you might notice the lips are different than how I usually would draw them. I couldn't quite get her lip shape just right when I outlined it with pencil and it was frustrating! So I did the opposite than what I would normally do; I detailed the inside of the mouth and where the lips meet! Viola! So much better.
Step 3; Ink some more! Especially those details...
Details like.. the embroidery of the window frame corners...
And extinguishing between darker places in the picture, shadowing...
Then Taa-daa! Almost all of it is complete! You can see that I finished everything in the foreground, like the hair, body, outer frame and some of the flowers right behind the hair. 
And then, whoosh! The rest of it is inked, just like that! Too bad Blogger doesn't simulate work in real time, ha.
Now all the outlining is complete. All there's left to do is get rid of all the grey!
Step 4; Erase!
Woah! Now all the pencil is gone and it looks freaky with all that white space... let's start filling that in!
Step 5; Base color!
The main background is grey, the inner frame blue, the outer frame and white flower stem base are green, the yellow flowers are well, yellow, with the stripes filled in with orange. Now it's time to shade a little more color into the details and color in the beautiful model!
Step 6; Foreground Color!
Alright. The hair is only one color of French Grey, but layered over and over again, along with some quick strokes to show off highlights and reflection. That's how the hair came together. :]
As for the skin, most of it is white, but where shadows would lay is filled in with Blondewood, a great skin tone color.The eyes are a mix of the blue frame color and hair color. And the lips! I used a little bit of Light Peach and Pastel Pink, but see how they don't have to be outline? They pop! So happy with how that came out.. Especially since I'm not used to doing it this way!
Another favorite part of the art making process for me is bolding the outlines! You can easily cover up any slip-ups with color or shape from early on, and give it a fresh look. Plus, as I've said before, it makes all the little detail lines look even better and more detailed!
And then it's complete! It took me a couple days to make sure if came out perfect, and I really really like how it came out. I'm so thankful she challenged me to do better and draw something different from the norm by asking me to do this. :]
A little side by side comparison! :D
Not only is my awesome friend an amazing international model, her and her husband run a photographing business, helping aspiring models expand their portfolio and building up their confidence! She does makeup and hair, and she is amazing! And her husband photographer is so talented as well, check out their website sometime. They did my most recent model shots as well! Like below! Check out more pics here!
And although this postcard is not for sale up on Etsy, you can still check out some of the new additions that have been added since posting here. :] At the usual spot here on Etsy.
Well, that's the end for this post! Thank you so much for reading about postcards made from ink and coffee!!
If there is something specific you would like to see the steps for, or would like to see me draw a certain object or thing, please don't be shy and leave a comment here! Anything is appreciated :]
Much mahalo,
-Leah-TropicalBASENJi
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