Art Challenge: Friends and family

This work was created for the "Friends and family" jam at The Drawing Board.

Description:
"This month's Jam is all about the non-powered non-costumes supporting characters in the lives of our favourite heroes - husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, bosses, pals etc."

I usually try to find obscure characters when I participate in the Drawing Jams. I think this guy qualifies: Zorro's servant and aide, Bernardo.

Using References and the Making of "Assassins"

As I mentioned in the very first post of Digi's Stylings, I use references in most of my work. I've heard the pros and cons of using refs, but I still come down on the side of using them. To me, the idea is not to try to paint a copy of the reference material, but to use elements to enhance my work. Unless I'm painting a portrait of the subject of the reference, my finished work should have quite a bit of distance between it and the original.

In my opinion, we all use reference. Whether it is from a photo, screen grab or observing the world around us, I consider it all "reference." Some references have been internalized and I can rely more on the information in my head. Other things, I need to look at to get them "right."

As for the making of "Assassins:"

This is one of those "accidental" paintings that seem to happen from time to time. I was searching through DeviantArt's Stock Image Library when I came across a pose that I liked. This pose had nothing to do with the original subject of my search, but I decided that I wanted to sketch it. This pose eventually turned into the Marvel character,Elektra.


I decided that she needed an adversary. A quick back story of two assassins tracking each through an abandoned building gave me the theme that I needed begin composing the painting. I decided to use additional refs for the two added elements. The other assassin's pose came from the next ref.

I looked through some industrial photos to create the environment. I used elements of the third ref and some custom brushes to create the atmosphere. Now that the basic elements have been laid in and I can start thinking about color. I'll make the coloring process another blogsclusive.

Here are links to the stock images that I used.

• For Elektra's Pose
• For the other assassin's pose
• Background

Note: I'll notify each stocker that I used their work once I post the finished piece to DA.

Sites I Like: Sijun Forums - SpeedPainting IV

Speed Painting is an exercise, primarily digital, in which one paints on a time budget, using already developed methods to create a piece.

While it is cloudy where the term was first coined, it appears to have been started on an art forum by the name of Sijun with 'The Speed painting thread', which still exists and has planted offspring on other art communities such as ConceptArt.Org and CGSociety.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Started on September 30, 2002, SpeedPainting IV is probably the oldest active speedpainting thread on the web. As of this posting, there are 997 pages of art. To be considered a true speedpaint, no more than two hours can be spent working on the piece. The artist usually works with broad strokes and very little correcting. You have to get your meaning across using very little detail. Though, some artists can get an amazing amount of detail done within the time constraints.

I came across one of the earlier versions of this thread years ago, but none of them got to be as large as SpeedPainting IV. There is some truly wonderful, imaginative and draw dropping work sprinkled throughout the thread. Some of the artists have been contributing so long that you can actually see their artistic progression.

The work in the thread has provided me with inspirations and education. Since these are not polished pieces, a lot of the work process is discernible. This has helped to figure out somethings artistically, without completely reinventing the wheel. It will also bruise your ego. When someones speedy blows what you were working on for days out the water, it can be a bitter pill to swallow. After you rinse the bad taste from your mouth, hopefully you'll take it as a challenge to practice more and do better on the next painting.

Take a look at the thread (I hope you have a fast connection, 'cause there are a LOT of images!), you'll probably recognize works from some people who've gone on to being premier digital artists.

Enjoy!

Draped Figure - Self Critique

I came across another set of steps from a painting that I did years ago. It was painted in Painter Classic or Painter 5.5, back when the programs were owned by Metacreations. If I remember correctly, I was reading "How to Paint Like the Old Masters" by Joseph Sheppard. This would have been one of my first attempts at using an under-painting before applying color. All of the work was done on a single layer. Painter Classic only allowed work to be done on one layer. Painter 5.5 used "floaters" which I hated and avoided using like the plague! I would've been using a Wacom ArtPad II.

The reference was a small black & white photo of an artists' model that I found on the web somewhere. I believe that she was a model for a famous sculptor (Late nineteenth, early twentieth century?), but I can't remember who. Part of the challenge was to come up with a color palette.

The process:

1. I created a simple sketch using the pencil tool.
2. Painted the shapes for the background, which were drapes.
3. Blocking in the figure and draped chair.
4. Adding highlights and began to refine the figure.
5. Added color to the drapes and draped chair.
6. Finished the figure.
   

If I was doing this painting today, I don't think that I'd change much about the actual mechanics. I would add a deep red to the shadows of the blue drapes and dark blue to the shadows of the red drape. The figure's skin would have been created with more colors and some reflected light from the red drape. I'd work some of the skin colors into the hair. I'd choose a color for the main light source and lightly glaze parts of the figure and environment to unify the painting.

Hopefully, I'll run across more of these to share.

Advancing the Alien Sketchie

I try to draw or paint something daily, but didn't have a lot of time tonight to do anything new. I decided to work on one of the sketches that I posted yesterday. I went with the alien being.

I created a simple background environment (Using a couple of custom brushes to help speed up the process.), gave the figure some hard and soft edges, adjusted the shadows and mid-tones, did a little more work on the highlights and called it done.

I liked using gray tones for this piece. I think that the coloring gives it kind of a 1950's science fiction movie feel.

More Sketchies

Time for some more doodles. They run the gamut from dinosaurs to elves to aliens.

Lately, I've been adding some gray scale to select sketches. I think these little value studies are helping in my color work.

New Reality Series: American Artist

“Bravo has announced its developing American Artist, the working title of a new reality competition series for aspiring artists that is produced by the Sex and the City star and her Pretty Matches production company.”

“Each episode of American Artist will follow contestants as they compete in art-themed challenges -- such as painting and photography or sculpting and industrial design -- that are designed to stretch their preferred mediums.” Reality TV World 7/21/08

I don’t watch much reality TV outside of the “Cops” style shows, but I may have to tune in to see an episode or two of this one.

You just know they’re going to probably serve up all of the art stereotypes: The brooding artist, the starving artist, the tortured artist, the misunderstood artist, etc. In other words, the most quirky artists they can find. Still, it may be fun to watch and I believe this would be the first show to focus this aspect of art.