edit on photoshop

firstly i adjusted the levels on photoshop to create a stronger contrast between the blacks and whites of my drawing. 

from my essay, i mentioned in one semiotic image analysis that a halo was used around the 1950's housewives.

'The notation of the band of light surrounding the woman’s head signifies a ‘halo’ evoking a paradigm of a ‘sacred figure.’ This connotes to the consumer that this woman (a housewife) radiates the qualities of a holy person such as recognition, or, has spiritual respect, therefore performing household duties will earn you these qualities. '

because i want to employ a similar quality for the woman i am illustrating i will play around with adding a halo glow around there heads to symbolise there importance. 

i have used a block colour here, though i think it does do its job and gives the impression of a halo, i want it to be more subtle and look more glowing to imply the woman are 'radiating' the qualities. 

brightening the colour around the head and making it gradually darker - thought this would illuminate the head more, however i think this looks odd and looks like there is 2 block colours instead of one gradient. 

after youtubing how to use a gradient i played around with creating a yellow and white one to give the illusion of a glow. i had to use the rubber tool to get rid of the gradient colour that was covering the face. though i like this effect so much more i think it looks odd having a darker colour around the hair area as this is a light area of the head and looks better without something outlining it. 

playing around with the gradient adding a lighter colour (white)on the inside to avoid outlining the hair. 

using a bright pale blue colour instead of white to make it 'pop' out and more vivid. 

using blue in general- i quite like the calmness of this colour, i think it works well with the grey tones of the pencil aswell. however, i don't know weather the yellow is more suitable and appropriate to represent the colour of a halo.