I started the process by designing the silhouettes of the characters. 

Apollo had to have an athletic pose, confident stand and ascendant rhythm, connecting him to his realm of the sun and also focusing the weight on his head, which alludes to his egotistical personality. 

On the other hand, Daphne had to be athletic as well, but her stand had to be watchful and her rhythm is descendant, connecting her to the ground, foreshadowing her fate. 

As for Cupid, I had decided that to give more focus on the main characters, he would only be seen in silhouette, so I was inclined to search for a more typical cherub form.

The only description of Daphne in the poems is that she was beautiful and she had her hair tied. That gave me a lot of room to work with. I decided to make her face more rounded, matching her silhouette and giving her a more innocent look, and big eyes were sure to be more expressive.

Sadly, since I've made this project I've had to change computers and I've lost some of the sketches, like the first concepts of Apollo's face. 

When the moment came to decide the techniques I'd use, I decided that charcoal would give this traditional feel, but would be expressive and gave me a lot of textures to play with.