Thursday, July 31, 2008

Desert Assassin finished


Here is the finished illustration. I'm content with the face. It isn't Genevieve exactly, but the character does have the expression I was striving for. I learned a lot about using models, color temperature and paint application on this one. I also discovered most of the colors I chose to use were too transparent and fought with me.

Friday, July 25, 2008

90 min sketch


Here is a short portrait I worked on while watching tv with Jim (gotta do SOMETHING while baseball is on. lol).

Monday, July 21, 2008

Desert Assassin second layer


Here is the next layer of paint. I've finished the sky and skyline and her face. I'm tweaking the hair later and now I will focus more on the skin tones and her clothing. The painting is 18 X 20 in size, and ment to reproduce down to a pocketbook novel size of 6 x 9 or so.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

First layer of color


Here I have applied the first layer of oils to the underpainting. I've established lights and darks and a color temperature theme for everything but the figure. I've got to let it dry for a few days so I won't remove the glazes when I go back with thicker paint.

Now that I have a plan for the the surrounding area, I can create the skin tones that will reflect the colors around the figure.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

second assignment from illustration masterclass


Here is the final sketch for my next illustration. The assignment was about a young girl who was sold into slavery as a child and is a trained assassin on a planet that mixes middle eastern feeling buildings with space influences. She is supposed to be wary, smart and skilled in the martial arts. She has to have long wavy black hair and a slender build. She is supposed to have facial scars where she cut herself to hide her own beauty. I dont' know if I will paint that in, if it turns out o.k, I will want this to go in a general portfolio and I don't think I want to get labelled as a combat artist. That's a whole different genre.
I tried a method we learned in a lecture called 'frankensteining'. Its when you take a few hundred model reference photos (yes, I used Genevieve) and take pieces from one photo and put them together with pieces from another. It gets really tricky combining pieces of humans together. I'm not skilled enough in photoshop to do it YET, but I am determined to master that tool this year. This blasted sketch took me a week to do because of all the trickiness involved with the frankensteining. I would get it looking fine, then a family member would come critique it and say "oh, her head is 'way too large" or "her left eye is all wonky" or " what's wrong with her hand?" arg. I think its as good as its going to get right now, so on with the paint.

I will post my first finished assignment from the class this week. I have to color correct some small details and get it high resolution scanned for the magazine contest, then it will be ready to post.