I had almost forgotten how incredibly HARD it is to paint from life. Luckily I had a very very patient model :) Thanks Andrew! As always, clicky for a larger image. About 4-5 hours or so.Must..practise..more..argh.
A quick update on an older painting. Still a WIP, a couple of changes and it will be done! I think this piece needs a little more 'breathing area' compositionally on the right, hmm. Going to work on the top of her head so that space will most likely not be cropped off.
Quick creepy zombie woman who seems to remind me of Cameron Diaz
I conducted a digital painting workshopyesterday and I decided to do a creature to show how to paint various material like skin, horns, slimy surfaces etc. It was fun! (and scary!) but I didn't get heckled or anything and the crowd was super nice and surprisingly I was very comfortable painting with 500 pairs of eyeballs on me( God knows I can't paint even if one person is looking usually). So anyway I only had 2 hours to talk(theory,tips,etc) and for the demo so I got very little done (the color test that I have posted, only worked on the head) but I am happy with the design and I think I'm going to push it as much as I can.Creature design is not my strongest point (drawing sad girl faces is, hahaha) so I'd love any help and advice on the anatomy etc (Davi made a great point about the connection of the forelimb to the body, need to define the shoulderblade/upperarm area)
So once I fix anatomy issues I think I'll repaint the entire thing, I'm quite excited!
Also, here's a quick youtube blending-in-Photoshop video that I quickly made. I'll upload it to vimeo I think, this resolution on youtube makes it hard to see anything!
Here's my DEEP (Underwater-city Utopia) entry. My first ChOW ,yay!. I wish I had the time to color all. Serves me right for starting 2 days before the deadline
The Enoi: The Enoi are a highly evolved race of spiritual and peace loving beings that have formed a eusocial society deep in the underwater trenches of the planet En. The Queen-Mother rules the Enoi Kingdom and the Shaman-King acts as the royal consort. The Queen-Mother reproduces asexually by laying batches of eggs in her womb which are then infused with the life-force that binds all Enoi together, harnessed by the Shaman-King, in a sacred ritual. Enoi young are born hermaphrodites, revealed by the purple coloring of their life-force aura, and upon reaching adolescence, as they mature into a male or female, the color of their life-force changes accordingly to red or blue. Besides the color of their life-force there is very little physiological difference between the males and the females, except that the women have longer tendrils on their heads, and the males tend to be heavier set (which can be seen best in the structure of the cranium).The spiritual development of the Enoi is parallel to the physical development and is marked by the opening of the second eye at adolescence.
So, a friend suggested I should try drawing some cute things for a change. Well...I tried. It might not be cutest thing around though. Oh and the blood on the mouth is from the poor thing biting his lip too hard, he's afraid :(
For those who think they know me...no..it's not a mix of cataract and arthritis :P Just so that this post is not artless, here's an older doodle that I forgot to post :)
I think I need my very own corner in the Intarweb .A certain website that shall not be named for the fear of blockage loves to delete my paintings because of the nekkidness( whatever happened to artistic nudity,? And I've only been doing mastercopies).Another is blocked at work, so not very useful either. Where oh where can I upload images without facing censorship I ask.
In any case,I can't think of a suitable domain name . As much as I love shettyhappens.com (thanks Nirmal) I don't think I want my name or my surname in there. I've been racking my brains and I just-cannot-think-of-a-name! So much for being creative.
I haven't been painting much, work has kept me busy. I keep thinking I'll just forget to paint one day, if I don't practice enough. So when I'm not feeling particularly creative or when I think I just need to push myself in capturing detail and observing better, I usually pick a reference and try to match it as closely as possible. So anyway,I came across this BEAUTIFUL image in photo.net by a very very talented photographer called Dirk Vermeirre. I haven't come anywhere close in matching the softness of his features (and the eyes are oh-so-off!) but in some way I like how the painting has a character of its own ( he's got serial killer eyes, eh?) Reference used with permission And the stages!( a little heavy, please wait + open in a new window :))