The last few days I’ve once again been looking through photos in search of new ideas/concepts. I have a few muddling around in my head, but not sure if they’re ready yet. While looking through images from Stacy’s shoot, I saw some with a cute expression and the phrase ‘charmed I’m sure’ came to me. So, with that now a focus, I was able to pin down once pose that I felt worked best. The photo set was nudes, so I considered adding an outfit or accessories, but nothing seemed really useful or necessary for the concept. Instead, I gave her a simple waist chain with some charms attached, and a rabbit’s foot on a bracelet. The background will have a very subtle (hopefully) rainbow flowing toward her…
Tag drawing
new image designed and ready today
work progress – still struggling
Okay, the face is getting better, but it’s been so over-worked that it may never be all that it could be. That said, I may have managed to get somewhere near what I originally intended. We’ll see.
For now, here’s the face from this morning, after I blocked in the oil pastels with the improved eyes and mouth…
Meanwhile, to take my mind off the frustration and also give me a fresh perspective, I’ve found a new image to paint next. The pose interested me, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted from it. I played around with different hair styles, colors, and crops, but her hair and color always won out. It was a full body shot at first, but cropping it to the hips felt better (the legs, although nice, didn’t do anything for the pose nor the design). The bra has a leopard print on it, and I’ve changed it to an aqua-green color (from the original tan-orange), but I didn’t bother drawing the spots yet, as I may still change it to some other pattern (maybe)…
model – Gia
I was able to mask out the image and airbrush the background tonight, but didn’t get a photo of it yet. I’ll give the details for that tomorrow.
new concept designed and ready
It’s been nearly a month now since I first drew it, so I think it’s time to begin that vampire design I mentioned back then. Looking over the design I built using both photoshop and Hash’s Animation:Master (highly recommended for the home animator!), the background is going to require quite a bit of masking levels and airbrush color passes. Hopefully I can get through it without damaging anything along the way (like pulling up paint with the masking)…
model -Kneely
New concept designed and ready
I once again spent the last few days going over photos, hoping to find something to entice my next painting. I had a few concepts in mind, but was having trouble finding poses that would fit properly. I kept returning to this one photo of Mackenzie, but it took a while to find what I wanted to do with it. Not having much luck designing within Photoshop, I took the photo and hand drew the pose on paper, then played with it that way. Even with a tablet and pen, I still don’t feel as natural drawing in Photoshop, so using actual paper and pencil works better. It might even tap into a different part of my mind, because it wasn’t long before this concept started forming. It’s not often I can free flow an idea without having any preconceived notion what it should be. Even with it ready now, I’m not sure what it really is (sci-fi, cyber-punk, steam-punk, video game fantasy, anime?). I like the look, and the colors will be fun, so I’m going to go forward without it being fully explained…
model – Mackenzie
new concept ready and drawn
Okay, after going through many photos and playing with a handful of ideas, I’ve focused in on one. How does a sexy teacher sound? Well, that’s what this one will be, featuring my new model, Stacy Lee…
designing new project
I have this loose rule with my work, I try to never paint the same model twice in a row. My reasons – it keeps a variety in my gallery; it keeps the images fresh to me, as I’m not ‘redoing’ the same face; and it spreads out the photo shoots to last longer. So, with that in mind, although I have a drawing ready to be painted from last week, I avoided it due to it being the same model I just painted (Kneely). I will get to it, but will put it aside for a few weeks, or until I cannot create any new ideas elsewhere. I was close to feeling this way, but managed to push through and find something else that might be fun.
The image I came up with is a sexy maid concept, from a shoot I had a few months ago (with Percolate). I had trouble with the pose and outfit working in a way I liked. I ended up piecing together a total of 5 photos to create this one. Photoshop is a great tool for playing with ideas, but it’s still tricky to make it all fit together in a believable way (lucky I don’t move around much during shoots, so my perspective and position are relatively the same in each photo). One issue I had was her left hand – she wore black net gloves, and the hand is right in front of the black net skirt, so it seemed to disappear. I liked the black gloves, so avoided changing it at first, but in the end I made it white net instead. Other things I altered were the skirt’s height (which meant I needed more leg to show, so I had to find bare legs in the same position), and added the right arm (original only showed the elbow). I’m sure I could have simply drawn these adjustments freehand without photo reference, but I feel better if I can find real reference, as I feel it keeps the model ‘intact’ and eases my view of the lighting. Had I not found reasonable pieces to fit, I would’ve ‘faked’ them then…
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model – Percolate
New concept designed and drawn
Still uncertain what direction to go for the next painting, yesterday morning I decided to research and the Hindu Goddess. It came together surprisingly fast, but I wasn’t positive I wanted to go with it yet. So, I bounced back and forth between it and the vampire nurse idea the rest of the day and part of today.
I feel both are about ready now, and still undecided, I went ahead and drew them both on boards. Now that I could see them at full scale, I feel the goddess is what I will do now. So, here it is, drawn…
model – Kneely
Based on Lakshmi, Goddess of wealth and prosperity.
New concept designed and drawn
Today I started in a different way than my usual for designing. Typically I look at the photos from shoots and let the pose and/or look inspire an idea for me. This time, I had an idea first. I thought of the title “Devil’s Angel”, perhaps with a tag line “So Good she’s Bad”. With that in mind, I looked through photos searching for a pose that fit the concept. I wasn’t sure what exactly I wanted it to look like, except it had to be sexy, with a hint of innocence mixed with devilish.
I finally found something I thought might work, so I worked the photo, designing the look I wanted. I think the pose, mixed with the vibrant colors I plan to use, will give this a good look.
Here it is, drawn on the 22×30″ illustration board…
model – Chelsea
work progress – finishing the paint step
Today I worked on completing the painted areas, starting where I left off yesterday, the garters. I used black gouache, thinning it a little toward the right edge for highlight. I then used the same paint for the shoes, again thinning for lighter areas. Next, I used green watercolor to paint the bottle, mixing in some black for the base and shaded areas. I added some light ochres and yellow for the foil on the top of the bottle.
I decided to once again airbrush the stockings, so I masked them off, then used a mix of flesh tone acrylics to form the shape of the legs. Once dry, I removed the masking, then began the tedious task of drawing in the pattern with dark brown colored pencil.
To finish the day, I used white gouache to highlight the shoes and bottle…
New concept designed and ready
After that big project, I’m happy to move on to something new, and since I had a shoot last weekend, I have plenty to work with. One set we did was a New Year’s Eve party motif, and although a bit late now, I think it’s a fun image…
model – Mackenzie
