Two souls dancing
Four takes on the same idea: a man and a woman held in a dance at the top, their forms dissolving downward into a braided, rising vortex — a tornado without the violence — lit at every point where the two strands touch.
Round 4 — D's colour, C's hold
Her arms up around his neck, hands meeting behind his shoulders, leaning up into him; his arms right around her waist, gathering her in. She rises, he holds. Round 3 D's palette, halo and gold density carried over. Still no legs, still floating.
The one that finally rises
The only one where the braid genuinely climbs rather than pools — a true updraft, asymmetric and wandering, with the gold running up it like a current. Her arms are clearly up around his neck, his fully around her waist. Watch: her shoulder and hair are the most rendered of the set.
Warmest embrace
The tenderest hold — she's clearly lifted into him, he's clearly carrying her, and the golden halo sits right behind them. Watch: the ribbons below settle into a broad nest again, so it reads as a gown more than a rising braid.
Richest colour
Deepest rose and magenta blending, most abundant gold. Beautiful as an object. Watch: almost the same composition as B, and the swirl is the most decorative and least rising of the four.
Strongest halo, tallest braid
The big golden sun behind them is striking and the braid is long and properly vertical. Watch: it drifted furthest from soul toward body — visible chest, more figure detail — and the halo is close to a religious icon, which may be more than you want.
Round 3 — floating souls, no legs, bigger swirl
Round 2's B taken further: bodies end at the waist and dissolve straight into the vortex, no legs and no ground, the swirl enlarged to swallow everything below the embrace, and the figures stripped back to simple soul-forms instead of drawn people.
Cleanest execution of the brief
Completely featureless — two smooth soul-forms, no faces at all, foreheads together. Legs gone, dissolving straight into ribbon. Watch: the swirl kept round 2's teardrop bulb rather than growing taller, and the couple is small.
Most soul, least body
Faceless, weightless, and the arms already start breaking into ribbon and light — the hardest to say where body ends and soul begins, which is the thing you asked for. Gold gathers right where their chests meet. Watch: the ribbons spread outward and downward like a skirt more than they rise.
Huge vortex, but tidy
Biggest, most sweeping ribbon mass of the set, and a lovely trail of gold sparks connecting it up to the couple. Watch: the ribbons settled into a neat concentric nest — closer to the symmetry you didn't like in option 1 — and her hair and profile crept back in.
The most alive
Richest colour, a real halo of light behind the embrace, and the densest field of gold touch points — the "more contact the deeper it goes" idea reads instantly here. Legs fully gone. Watch: she has a suggested profile and hair; he is fully abstract, so the two aren't matched.
Round 2 — option 3's hand, option 1's closeness
Coloured pencil, amber and indigo, glowing gold where they touch. The embrace pulled in tight: chest to chest, her arms up around his neck, foreheads together, a breath from a kiss. Slow sway, not a ballroom step. No repeating coil at the bottom.
The one I'd send
The only one that keeps the featureless soul-silhouettes from options 1 and 3 — which is what made them read as souls rather than as people. Foreheads together, arms fully around, gold touch points thickening right under the embrace exactly as the idea asks. Watch: the base curls into a slightly bulb-like teardrop.
Drifted into portraiture
Beautiful ribbon work and the finest thread-like strands of the four. But it gave them faces and hair colour — now it's two specific people in a romance illustration, not two souls. Loses the thing you liked.
Closest to the kiss
Noses actually touching, her whole body leaning up into him — the most on-the-edge-of-a-kiss of the set, and the vortex is properly off-balance and wandering. Watch: her face is rendered while his stays a silhouette, which reads as inconsistent; ribbons hang more than they rise.
Most tender, gold burst
The warmest embrace and the best single detail in the whole set: the burst of gold light exactly where their bodies meet, spilling downward. Ribbons broad and organic. Watch: the vortex falls rather than lifts, and both faces are lightly featured.
Round 1 — the originals
Warm crayon spiral
Closest to the literal brief. Strength: the embrace is unmistakable, the spiral clearly descends out of their bodies, sparks sit exactly where the strands cross. Weakness: three ribbon colours blur the "two souls" reading, and the coil is a touch decorative.
Pencil study, gold touch points
The tenderest embrace of the four, and the gold contact points read beautifully against grey. Weakness: it's an S-curve, not a vortex — the "rising tornado" shape is mostly lost.
Amber and indigo braid
Best at the meaning: two genuinely distinct souls, amber and indigo, weaving over and under, blending rose where they overlap, glowing dots at every touch point. Weakness: reads as a braid or infinity knot rather than something rising.
The whirl as her dress
Best at the feeling: the vortex becomes the skirt of the dance, weightless, alive, unmistakably motion not storm. Weakness: the duality is gone — you can't pick out two strands, and the man is flat black.