Using Photoshop, I increased the dark value of the foreground plants in the composition. By doing this, I wonder if I should do the same for the shadow areas in the rest of the painting so that the figures stand out better.

Some of my loose thumbs and a few tonal sketches done in the last few months. I think I am going to go back to these early toughs in order to come up with my next illustration.

Additional progress on this Illo. The picture is of poor quality, so I'll have to retake it later when the sun cooperate.

This is the work in progress for this illo. I think that the values from the ground vegetation to Jane's hair, to the background differ too much so I have to come back to this and unify it as better as I can.

So this is the composition I am going for this Illo. This is the final drawing rendered on toned paper at a size of 16" x 20". The light source in the painting will be coming from the upper left not the lower right as this picture suggests. I had a strong reflection of a bright object that I didn't notice until I took the pic to Photoshop. Sorry about that.

I asked a co-worker friend of mine to help me by posing as Jane with a costume I got from Amazon and proceeded to take several pictures of her. Over 65 in total. These are the ones that I chose. I also posed as Tarzan after she left, but since I was in my underwear, I will not show ya, ha, ha.

I did over a dozen thumbs trying to find a decent composition for my next Tarzan Illo. I want to base it on Tarzan and Jane's first meeting in the jungle. In this story, Jane Foster, who is an Antropology researcher, hears rumors about an Ape Man in the jungles of Africa, so she sets herself to explore and study what she finds out there. My Jane is a strong and independent woman, so she is fully prepared to carry on with her mission. Even carries a handgun.