Tree Lady

For awhile now, I've had a few recurring characters that pop up on the margins of homework or other pieces, but the one I like the most is the one I so cleverly call Tree Lady. When I first drew her she looked like this:


Back-breaking posture with stylized swirls. Also, lack of arms. I was actually amazed that I still had this in an old notebook of art history notes. She's also the only recurring character I draw that doesn't have a story of some sort attached to her. Tree Lady is purely for drawing exercise and she changes a bit each time. At one point she had wings, which were then replaced with branching arms and spindly fingers, seen here:

Tree Lady's general posture stays the same, though a little less painful-looking each time. Never seems to open her eyes though. I think this was a plan for a clock I was going to make. I have a secret love for mechanical bits and pieces, so there was going to be moving gears and whatnot behind her. But then I just started rolling with her design and started making it into a drawing instead. Here's a more recent incarnation:

She's very unfinished here (note the classy lined paper) but I like the direction it's going in. I think I stopped short because of the realization that I wanted to put her in a more formal media like ink or watercolor. Or would that defeat the purpose of changing her a bit every time I depict her? Setting her in ink might make that particular design canon and that seems silly to do to her. The use of pencil is so casual to me that I don't have to worry about presentation or what is canon for her design. For instance, here she started sprouting another pair of arms. And her usual straight hair has picked up wind somewhere. Will she have legs next perhaps?

Ah well, despite my best efforts, I'm sure she'll work her way into something eventually. She always does.