Work on Dancing Nina

I've also been doing some concept work for Dancing Nina, which I realised I have posted none of on here.

A few sketches of Nina with a skull mask and those little wing thingies ballet dancers wear. I like the idea that as the film goes on this mask becomes more apparent until her whole face has just disappeared and it's only skeleton (although, skipping the grimy muscle parts :P ).

I also did some sketches (I have more in my sketchbooks but I'm terrible at remembering to scan them in..) of both Nina and Death with wings instead of arms. These ones here are more like bat wings instead of birds, as bats are mentioned in the original poem (by Halina Poświatowska, but good luck finding that on the internet). Wings are always elegant and I was particularly inspired by the final dance scene in Black Swan when Natalie Portman goes all feathery.

Another aspect of the poem are the colours purple and gold ("When death came, purple - golden, golden - purple as solitude") so I tried using those colours. I dismissed it pretty quickly though, it's not as grim and morbid as I'd like.

Another sketch with Nina hanging from fabric, as it entwines around her.