Now that she’s had a good bath, how about some tea?

Self Critique: I’m really gonna have to practice foreshortening of arms. The arm to the left was not my best effort, and I was very lost in how exactly to draw the elbow area. Same goes for the armpit/shoulder area on the right side.

Her chilly highness Mei-Ling Zhou is back once again, this time to share a cup of tea with you for Lunar New Year. Before starting up this pic, I was thinking of switching the view over to a frontal view, as opposed to a butt-shot like I did with A Warm Bath With Mei back in 2016. I also wanted the pose to be more relaxed and inviting to the viewer. Besides, Lunar New Year is spent with those you love, right? The pose was set with the body-chan model and the picture was taken at a high-angle from the head. But out of curiosity I wondered what it would look like if the view was from a low angle at the feet. And that’s when it clicked. I kept in mind wanting to have the tea table in view with the tea set, and the low angle still allowed for that.

The design of Mei’s outfit and hair was also an important factor in this pic. I wanted her dudou (Chinese bra) to be transparent, but still have elements of what she’s all about (which is the cold and snow). So I pulled up several references and designed her look in my sketchbook. With her hair, I actually had more wiggle room this time now that Mei Year of the Rooster skin and her Short became a thing, showing off the kinds of hair she can have. However I still chose a hairstyle that’s more familiar, only variating slightly around the ear and near the headress. I did forget one thing, and that was her bracelets, which I spotted a screenshot of when I was looking up references again for Snowball. I did add an anklet for her though. I also decided to keep her glasses on at all times now, instead of making them removable like on A Warm Bath.

Moving on to the background, this was something that I wanted to go somewhat all out on. In keeping with some of the design of the bathhouse on a A Warm Bath, the place was, of course going to be Chinese themed. The primary color scheme here was gonna be red and yellow, and most of this place being covered in a red silky cloth. Bucking the trend of drawing the background last, I sketched up the background during Mei’s 1st sketch phase. And it worked out WAY better than I thought as I was able to draw areas that she’s interact with a bit (instead of looked like she was pasted into position). I also painted in about 90% of the background with the Watercolor brushes, making most this a cinch to work on… except the top of the column. I should’ve made the pattern on that separately. Thankfully I learned my lesson the moment I moved on to the tea table.

Happy Lunar New Year!

Done on Clip Studio Paint Pro. Intuos4 Tablet used. Body-chan model traced for schematic skeleton. Drawn freehand the rest of the way.

Mei-Ling Zhou, Snowball, and Overwatch are (c) Blizzard Entertainment.