I’ve been going through the photos from my new shoot, and hit upon one concept that I was excited to begin. Before the shoot, Gia and I discussed a few ideas we would try for, but this one happened by chance as we shot. I saw a glimpse of the idea during one of the sets, so I mentioned it to her, and we both started working out how to make it happen. Wardrobe was the biggest trick, since neither of us had planned the idea, and we didn’t have an outfit for it. Luckily I only use the photos for reference, as the hodgepodge outfit would look odd on its own. We got a variety of shots, but this one stuck out the most, so it makes the cut for at least this first painting (there may be more from this set of photos in the future).
The concept, if not the title, is “Devil’s Bride”, so she’ll be dressed in black and red, with a dark purple background. I finished designing it, so next is drawing it on the paper. For those that like deckled edges, this paper has them on all four sides…
model -Gia
Tag drawing
starting new artwork today
work progress – finishing up the painted areas
I started the day mixing black acrylic with a bit of white to give it an ‘off-black’ shade. I used this to block in the hat and boots. This form of acrylic paint works a little like gouache in that it can be re-wet and worked with for a short time before becoming permanent. I added some white acrylic to my brush and blended it into the black for toning and highlights.
While I waited for that to fully dry, I used black gouache in a wash on the skirt, building up layers to darken and contour it. I painted a blue-gray gouache on the back half of the belt, then blended black into it. I stippled the black into the front of the belt, creating its texture. Then I painted the fringe with gray gouache, adding little lines of black for shadows.
Back to the boots and hat, I re-wet the pink I used for the vest yesterday and painted the stitched design on them. I didn’t like the way the board’s texture was showing through in the painted gloves, so I mixed a dull tan acrylic and painted them again, this time solid. I then added some white to the highlights and brown to the shadows, blending them in before the acrylic could set fully. Next, I painted highlights on all the painted areas with white gouache.
To complete the painting portion of this piece, I covered all the skin areas with textured gesso so they’ll be ready for oil pastels tomorrow.
I ended the day using colored pencils to finish the rope. It ended up being a mix of ochre, gray, and dull yellow, with a little bit of dark brown for the darker shadowed areas (by the hands)…
finally back to work
What a lull of a week! I was completely tapped out of ideas, concepts, and inspiration. Without any ideas in mind at all, none of the photos popped out at me all week. I think it’s time again for new photo shoots, if I can just get a model to respond to an email.
After a week of nothingness, I had a glimpse of a thought, so I checked a photo set that might work. Sadly, nothing fit with my idea, but I did see a photo that conjured a different concept. I’ve been working on the design for a couple days, and finally feel it’s ready to begin as a new painting. This one will be a slight departure for me, as I plan to add a caption to the final image (only for prints, the original art will have no text directly on it). So, I’m thinking the style will be a little more illustrated/cartoon, although not going too far from my usual realism. It’ll be interesting to see if I can push myself into this new style, or if I’ll revert to the safety of what I’ve been doing.
For now, I have the drawing on the paper…
model – Gia
back from Comic-Con and starting new art
What a week! It was great fun, but it’s good to be back. The convention gave me a few new concepts to play around with, one of which I’ve been working with since I’ve returned home. Since the concept came after any photo shoots, I didn’t expect to find a pose with any ease, but was relieved and surprised to find one that felt right within a few hours. Next, I designed the look and feel of the idea, adding make-up and wardrobe to the photo. I’m still working on what to do with the background, but likely it’ll be fairly simple, as the image itself has plenty of patterns to keep the piece busy.
So, with the design complete, I’ve drawn it onto the board, ready for masking tomorrow…
model – Amber
packing up, and starting new artwork
With less than two weeks until the convention, I’ve been striving to get everything ready so I don’t have to run around at the last minute. This weekend was finishing off the print work, plus starting to pack up the big box. It becomes like a puzzle, trying to figure out which pieces will fit where, making the whole box solid and everything inside safe. I have it laid out in one configuration that looks to work, but the final test is actually packing. that’s something I only want to do once, so I’ll wait until I’m certain there’s nothing else I need to add or change.
Meanwhile, I did find time to start a new art piece. This is an image I’ve had for some time now, but it wasn’t until now that it struck me just right, and I decided it would look good. Before drawing it on the board, I knew I wanted a toned background (light tan), and since it would be light, I decided instead of going through the whole masking process, just cover the entire board first.
So, here you’ll see the drawing on the colored background. I’ve darkened the image to try to bring out the pencil lines for you to see. In future photos you’ll see it more in its true color…
model – Kneely
note – supposedly, I now have the blog adult-locked, so I will no longer be censoring the images.
preparations for Comic-Con, plus new artwork started
These last few days I’ve been busy packing and preparing for the upcoming Comic-Con in San Diego. Things are coming along smoothly, and I have no doubts I’ll be ready for it now.
When taking a break from all that, I kept searching for concepts and ideas to paint next. I would like to get two more done before the convention, although they’re not required by any means. I struggled for a long time trying to find something, then I looked back at a set I shot 8 or 9 months ago with model Mackenzie. The theme was a ladybug, but I didn’t really know what to do with it. I started looking at the poses, then slowly the concept bloomed in my mind. I designed the shell ‘wings’ and tried them on one pose, but something wasn’t right. I looked around again, and found a better pose (now knowing how the wings would fit). The outfit was already black and red (and gray, as well), so it didn’t require much work at all. I came up with a color scheme for the background, tweaked this and that, and now it’s ready. I have it drawn on ill. board tonight, ready for masking and airbrushing tomorrow…
model – Mackenzie
new concept/design drawn today
After the last piece, I wasn’t sure what I would do next. I’ve done quite a few detailed backgrounds lately, so I was hoping for something light and fun this time. With all the excitement and talk about this year’s World Cup, I was inspired to create a football (soccer) theme. Since I hadn’t done any shoots with that sport in mind, I searched through numerous models and sets to find a pose that felt right for it. I found one that was very cute and sexy, and wouldn’t require much work (just creating the outfit). I researched uniforms, but I knew I couldn’t use anything regulation, as that’s just not very ‘pin-up’. So I designed my own, with no affiliation to any team or country. I added a ball and goal to complete the theme, and got it drawn on the board this morning. This is one of those new test boards I bought a few months ago, and since I haven’t bought any more, I believe I wasn’t too impressed with it. Hopefully it’ll be good enough to work for this piece. It’s a bit brittle, and you may notice a chip off one corner in the photo (it came that way, sadly). It only goes in about a quarter inch, so I don’t think it hurts the overall piece, and can be easily covered when framed.
I should get the background masked and airbrushed later today…
new artwork begins
The last few days I was bouncing between finishing the previous piece and designing the next one. The concept of Medusa had been in mind for a couple months now, but I wasn’t clear on the vision for it. This past week it came to me, so I started working on the design. The problem was I had no poses that fit what I wanted. One was close, so I used the majority of it, but then pasted in body parts form a few other poses to make it work. Luckily I don’t move my lights too often, so the lighting from set to set is comparable, making body matching much easier. With the pose working now, I started in on the background. I found some reference images of ruins, and also used Animation:Master to build and render the scene to get perspective and proportions correct. Still, the background is only a rough idea of what I want, but I’m thinking this might be advantageous for this project, to give it a more rustic, loose feel. To add to that feeling, I’m using another new paper, this one very rough, off-white, and has deckled edges. As with every new paper/board, I have no idea how easily things will work, so remains to be seen if I’ll like this or not.
So, here’s the drawing, ready for painting…
model – Kneely
new artwork begins
Last night I got the final piece to the puzzle of the composition for this new piece. I was watching a show about the solar system, and in it they showed a slideshow video of the moons of Jupiter orbiting it. This gave me a better idea of the scale between the moons and Jupiter, and I saw how I might change my design a bit. This piece takes place on Io, with Jupiter in the sky, and many portrayals of this imagery would show it not much bigger than our moon. I had it a bit bigger, but still small enough to see it in its entirety in the sky. I’ve enlarged it 4x to nearly fill the sky now, and although still far from an accurate scale, it helps fulfill the composition of this piece. So, satisfied with the design, I’ve finally drawn it on one of my illustration boards, ready for paint…
model – Gia
New concept designed and drawn
The one good thing of that week and a half that I didn’t ‘work’ was I got a lot of concepts started. This one had been partially ready for about a month now, but I wasn’t certain about the whole design until now. What still remains unknown to me is how I will handle this piece. It has many elements to it I don’t often deal with (scenery, unusual skin color, glasses). The skin is the most perplexing for me. It will go from blue to flesh in a smooth blend, along the entire length of the body. Airbrushing is an option, but will mean all the skin will need to be airbrushed instead of my usual oil pastels (which I really like for their texture). It does have a advantage in this case though, as there will be a lot of hair hanging over the skin areas, which is always difficult to deal with using oil pastels. Before I start, I will do some tests on scrap paper to see what looks best (I haven’t done blue skin before, let alone blending it into peach skin, so I need to see what oil pastel/colored pencil combination will create the right tones). The scenery isn’t really confusing to me, it’s just not something I do often these days. To keep focus, I’ll quickly blend out the scenery into the background, so it shouldn’t be much of a much.
In the mean time, I do have the image drawn on the board, ready to go…
model -Kneely
