Scene 3: Nina's impossible feet

This scene has now been divided into several parts to help me focus on one movement at a time and achieve better results- bite size! also it's changed a lot, mainly on whim... After re working scene 2 so that Nina's spin ended with her balancing on the knuckles of her feet, the following scene required a bit of a re-think. 

Here's a very old test to remind everybody what the full Scene 3 used to look like:

Using youtube reference, trying it myself and asking others to try while i watched i quickly realised moving from knuckle of foot to sole with no help was painful, un-natural and probably not recommended. However Nina's body being impossible is not news to me. Having decided that Nina could and would complete this maneuver i decided to have her express more pain while doing it and to give Death's presence more of a purpose by making him pull her upwards by the wrist- ohoho foreshadowing! I also wanted to make it as obvious as possible what her feet were doing when they would be covered by her dress the whole time.

Some painful looking videos i used as reference for some movements i was attempting to realistically draw: 

What the first part of scene 3 looked like to begin with:

With timing change and more exaggerated movement- legs visible through dress:

Final keys that i handed to Robbie to inbetween, invisible legs again:

Shout out to Nuria again, my timing guru!

Sketchbook research (photocopies from "Classic Human Anatomy for artists, Guide to Form Function and Movement, Valerie L. Winslow; observational sketches, postcard from Da Vinci exhibition at McManus Galleries, Dundee)