Expressive Painting

In issue 20 of Corel Painter Official Magazine, artist Zhu Hai Bo AKA zhuzhu penned a feature called "Paint Movement" which was about expressive painting. After reading the tutorial and viewing the reference images, I decided to try it for myself.

I've recently started taking Detroit Style Ballroom Dancing lessons. I wanted to try to capture some of the motion of the dance in a painting. I looked up some vids on YouTube, screencapped a few scenes and used them as the model for the figures.

I started out doing a few gesture drawings, until I got one that I liked. I didn't stick with the instructions completely, opting for a little more definition. I used only the brushes suggested in the tute.

The attached image was finished in one sitting.