Portrait Process

Man, I haven't updated in so long! I've been super busy with contract work lately but as soon as I'm allowed I'll be able to post everything I'm actually getting paid for. Fortunately, I've had time for personal painting as well so I've focused on portraits.

Besides quick exercises to express emotion in faces I've been experimenting in different ways of painting in PS. This portrait was done entirely in grays at first and then overlaid with color. I used a variety of layer filters to achieve the color I needed as well as just layering detail upon the original image.

Mini-Paint

So I decided to go ahead and paint my zombie. Kept it pretty simple. I'm still not sure what kind of style I enjoy while painting digitally. This falls under the "make as many small dashes as possible" category. At first I tried copying Leyendecker's style but failed miserably. Maybe next time.

Quick Sketch

So I've been wanting to do a zombie lately but I keep getting distracted by other projects. Did a quick sketch to fill my need temporarily.

A figure...again.

So I wanted to paint a plain portrait just onnnne more time. Did the figure without a background at first and then quickly added in a cave...for some reason. I would like to explore a cave location more...with tons of different light sources, reflective light, water, everything. I would be a good challenge for me. Why do I always paint massive hands?

Kitty!

Just a quick warm up before I get into a long piece. Based it on a photo of a kitten playing in a field. It's funny that something that took less than 45 minutes is better than most of my portfolio right now. :( This must change. Quickly.

Redo!

So in my daily quest to overhaul my portfolio as quickly as possible I decided to redo one of my old pieces. It originally was a mock book cover and while it makes me cringe looking at the original, I like the composition. So! Below is the touched up version. Underneath is the original to give you an idea of where I came from. On to more stuff!

Wedding Present

So here's a fantasy illustration I did as a gift to my friend (the groom). The final was giclee on canvas at 20" x 24". It was gallery wrapped with a 1.5" red border. The colors came out great and looked way better printed large and in charge. I only paid $94 in total (forgetting the amount of time I put into the actual painting) which was crazy cheap for the quality I received. I'll post a pic of the actual print itself when the photographer gets back to me.

Maybe next time I'm invited to a wedding I'll remember to bring my business cards!