After over a week now of designing, refining, and redesigning an idea, I’ve burnt out on it and can longer decide what’s good and what’s bad about it. So, to clear my head, I looked for something completely different to create.
Looking through photos, I was surprised how quickly I found an image that I liked, and configuring/designing it was quick and easy. I tweaked it’s color a bit, and found a cropping that was good, and then added a simple but nice background.
I was so energized to get back to painting that I forgot to take a photo of the drawing before airbrushing the background. Luckily I remembered now, or I would’ve gone on to the next step without any photo.
So, after drawing it on the board, I masked out the entire image, then applied a light gray-blue acrylic over the whole background with the airbrush. I next used a sort of periwinkle color, blending it from full saturation on top, down to barely there at the bottom. I finished the background with a mix of pearl, red and purple ‘sparkles’ overall…
model – Kneely
finally starting a new piece
a long week
Since finishing the last piece, I’ve been in design mode. I have an idea in mind, and have been working on it all week. It requires a lot of metal design, so I’ve been using Hash’s Animation:Master to help out. Hopefully all the effort will pay off and I’ll have a new piece started in the next few days.
new art completed – “Purple Passion”
I got busy with other things these past two days, so I didn’t get this finished as soon as I had wanted. I worked on the details, mostly with colored pencils, then using a brush with turpenoid and oil pastels for the final nuances. A few areas didn’t hold the gesso as well as others, so it didn’t take long to over work them. They’re right on the limit of still looking good. Had I crossed that line I would have no choice but to strip off the area and re-apply the gesso and start over on the skin. I think I finally figured out the problem with the gesso – it’s the masking. Although it’s not supposed to leave any residue, I noticed a difference when painting the background between areas that had masking on it before and areas that didn’t. So, in the future, I think I will have to wash down the paper after removing the masking. Although this is my favorite frisket, I may have to switch to another one if this continues to be a problem.
In any case, it is now complete and ready in the store here.
Purple Passion
work progress – flesh blocked in
As I had hoped, I was able to get all the skin areas covered today. I used colored pencils to rough in the contours and colors for each section, then covered that with oil pastels, blending it together with my fingers (and a thin tortillion for the edges). Tomorrow, detailing and likely finishing…
work progress – finished paint step
I started the day painting in the textured gesso for the skin areas, thinking I would get to that step later in the day.
I then continued working on the painted areas. I painted the hair with various browns and black gouache. It’s fairly dark, so not a lot of detail to be done there, which made that quick. Next, I finished the black stripes in the bustier, then painted the shoes with gray, black and purple. Since the background got so dark, the shoes want to blend in, so I’ve added a little extra highlight to the edges.
The final paint section was the color of the bustier, which I thought would go fast and easy. The original design had it a vibrant, rich purple, but when I blocked in the color with watercolor, I noticed how similar it would be to the bed (which was designed to be magenta, but since it’s so dark, it’s more purple). So, I went over the purple with a vibrant pink (‘opera’, although I have no idea why it’s called that). I don’t know if it’s florescent, but it sure looks like it could be. It took a few coats to get it smooth and strong enough, and in doing so, I got a little sloppy, getting some of it onto the black stripes (working in thin layers, the wet paint doesn’t show against the black, but once it dries, it looks gray). So, once that was done I had to re-coat the black stripes.
With the base of the whole bustier finally done, I used colored pencils to add details, shadows, and highlights. For the black bows, I used a silver colored pencils to give it a satin sheen, and also differentiate it from the gray highlights on the rest of the bustier.
So, tomorrow I’ll get to work on the skin, maybe even get to some detail work…
work progress – airbrush and paint begins
Last night I masked out the entire image and airbrushed the background with acrylics. I started with a dark gray and blue-purple over all, then added some black to the mixture for the lower third. Next, I used a transparent black to shadow beneath the bed and a hint of wall behind the bed (shadowing the frame onto it). I wanted the background dark, but I went a little further than I had anticipated. Hopefully it’ll still work out.
I once again foolishly thought I could handle painting a large area with paint and brush. I removed the masking from the bed and started painting a dark magenta over the comforter area. I managed to get the area blocked in solid, so I started the next layer, building up lighter color. The brush started streaking, and I could see no way to easily smooth and blend this. Before letting the frustration get the best of me, I re-applied the masking around the bed to protect the background, then took the paint mix, thinned it down, and used the airbrush to cover it. I think it produces a better texture for this material anyway, so I’m glad the brush didn’t work out (although I’d prefer to not even try it next time and just go directly to the airbrush). I built up soft highlights, adding gray, white and at the end some vermilion. This last color I also used for a streak of light across the background.
To finish the airbrushing, I used the transparent black again to create the shadows of the bed frame across the comforter…
Next step, I started the real paint work. Using a gray wash of gouache, I colored in the bed frame. I’ll use colored pencils later to add detail to it. Similarly, I used a cool gray wash for the pillows. Then I started in on the face. I painted the eyes and lips, then outlined all the skin edges with skin tone gouache (to aid in blending later). Last thing I got to tonight was blocking in the black areas of her bustier and panties…
I used flash for these photos, so there’s a little sheen to it. The final image will look better. 
search, design, draw
I was back to looking through photos after the last piece was completed. I have a concept in mind, and even have a few designs of it drawn up, but I’m uncertain how I will actually get it to work. So, it’s on hold for now, and I look for something else in the mean time.
I found one very cool pose by Kymberly Jane, so I started working on it. It took me 2-3 days to come to the right look for it. Usually my time is spent on the outfit, or tweaking the pose or something. This time I did very little with either of those, but it needed a background (her hands are resting on a chair originally, and for the pose to work, she needs to be balanced against something). I played around with various objects and ideas, but this one seemed to be the best fit (a bed).
With the design complete, I have it drawn on the paper, ready to begin…
model – Kym
New art completed – “Charmed I’m Sure”
It took a while, but I think it is now finished. I worked on details best I could – some areas were worked so smooth that even blushing on the oils was difficult to get to hold. These were small areas of lines rather than areas of skin, so they shouldn’t show at all. toughest spots were the fingers, trying to get as much detail into such a small area. Some compromises had to be made, but I think it all worked out.
It is now available here.
work progress – details slowly coming in
This one is taking some time. Not sure if it’s my mind being fuzzy, or the subtle colors in this one are more complicated. In any case, I am making progress. I worked a lot on the face today, yet it still needs some finessing. The torso and arms are close to complete, as are the legs. Next step is to get the hands and feet completed, and finish up any other little details overall…
work progress – slow going
I’ve been out of sorts for the past few days, so my progress on this piece isn’t as much as I would like. I did manage to get all the skin areas blocked in with colored pencils and oil pastels…
I used the masking to cover each area I went along, since there are many light/dark divisions between body parts. I did the upper half of the body on a different day than the lower, and since the upper half was covered while working on the legs, I didn’t get the color tones to match up by the waist. As I work on details, I will get this corrected, as well as working the pastels closer to the chain and charms there.
