Arms of an Angel-Sylvia Likens

Sylvia Likens was the daughter of a carnie, and their family was constantly moving. Eventually she and her younger sister, Jenny were taken in by the mentally ill Gertrude Baniszewski. Gertrude gradually abused, tortured, and ultimately murdered Sylvia.She was constantly beaten, had over 150 burns on her body, and was even branded "I'M A PROSTITUTE AND PROUD OF IT" on her stomach.

What's really awful about the whole thing is that there were neighbors that kept on witnessing signs of abuse, but they never did anything. You can read Sylvia's story at [link]

Sylvia's story is just so...shocking. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. So I guess I wanted to draw her, just to maybe get it out of my mind. I've never really done a drawing for this kind of reason before.

This took about six days, maybe 30 minutes each day. I did everything except the face at school I used a mech. pencil, woodless 4B graphite, blending stump, tissue, and my fingers.

Like most of my refined drawings, done on mat board. Personally, I hate the effect that bristol has. It's just...With my style, I think paper with a little bit of texture gives them more life.

I thought that the song "Angel" by Sarah McLaughlin (sp?) was really appropriate, so it says "In the Arms of an Angel" at the bottom I couldn't remember if it was an angel or the angel. Oh well.

And, problems with this: I know that I made her look too young. God, that annoys me. The problem is that I did the nose too short. But once I get past a certain point in a drawing, I'm too scared to drastically change what I've already done. If you see any other problems, PLEASE feel free to tell me

And, the graphite shined in the scanner, so the darkest parts may look a little lighter than they should be. I rea lly wish that wouldn't happen, but oh well.

Lineart: [link]
WIP 1: [link]
WIP 2: [link]
WIP 3: [link]

Reference(s) [link] [link]