Wk 5 Digital Painting - Big Master Study

For this week, I only managed to do one part of the assignment, which was to do a big master study, with at least 1 full body figure and a landscape background.  So I chose William Bouguereau's Homer and his Guide (1874) for this assignment. 

I decided to start the painting in tonal values, to prevent me from getting distracted with colors at a stage where I want to accurately capture the correct proportions and likeness of the original.  I placed the characters and the dog on separate layers so that any adjustments later on would be easier.  It seemed that this is a slower method. It took me 5 days to finish Homer, the boy and the dog. But it only took me a day to add colors to them. I wonder how long it would have taken me if I used the other method of painting them straight in color. 

For the background, I decided to use the second method and it took me just over 2 days to finish it, together with the additional characters and dogs in the background.  Since they are secondary characters, I can be a little less accurate with them. These extra characters are on separate layers as well. I also divided the background into 3 layers: BG, middle ground, foreground, so that  I can paint them in broad strokes.  I used some custom brushes for the clouds, rocks, ground.  I didn't attempt anymore to match exactly  the original background but just tried to capture the essence of it, as I don't have the patience to.  Same with adding the texture of the basket. I hand-painted it as I haven't discovered any PS tricks yet to do it quickly.

For Homer, the boy and the dog, I used a custom brush called Tyrion from the Shaddy's brushes collection. I'm liking that brush that it's mostly the only brush I use.  I tried to capture the likeness of the original, but for the details like their hair, and the dogs fur, it's not an exact copy. Again I have no patience and don't see the point, except to just capture the essence of them.  Even for the color palette, it's just an approximation.  I think I got it pretty close.

I wasn't expecting to finish this assignment on time, but I did.  But I ran out of time for the animal studies.  I knew that that would be the case, so selecting this painting is a chance for me to at least have some animals incorporated in it already.

Here's my study for the week in progressive versions... ( click to enlarge)

To see previous weeks, click here : Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4