Sunday, February 26, 2017

Another Husky painting - From Sketch To Finish


 Not content with just my Boomer painting, my sister wanted another painting of her other Husky - Fluffy, which  I've painted a few months back before.   Fluffy had grown a bit bigger now, thus a newer painting wasn't a bad idea.  And so...another Husky painting. Digital painting that is.


This time I screen-recorded my process from the start. First,  I sketched roughly in Photoshop,using a photograph of Fluffy as reference.   After roughing out quickly the whole thing, I went through it again in another layer to make corrections and clean-ups.  I was making sure the constructions were solid, as that would helped me in adding the lights and shadows later on.

Funny how my finished sketch looked like a robo-dog. Can't help it. The construction of the form really helps make the drawing look more dimensional.  I just have to make sure that once painted, it must look organic, yet solid.  Just like how it should be, and not like a stuffed toy with no bones inside.





Then just like in my previous posts,  I started the painting in greyscale, concentrating on the tonal values only. Since I'm still learning, this was easier for me.  Later on, as I progress in my learning, I will mix colors directly as I paint. For now, I'm content with this method.

Determining where the light source is,  helped in figuring out where the light and shadows would fall. Having a photo reference also helped, and at this point a necessity for me.

Having another window showing the whole canvas or subject is advisable, so as to not to lose sight of the whole and get bogged down with the details too soon.




 The process of painting the darks and the lights in repeated order was what I did. Building up slowly the intensity of the values, until the point where colors could then be added or glazed over on another layer. Adding and adjusting the details, size and proportion were also unavoidable as the painting progressed.
 The construction and cleaning up work that I did in the initial drawing had paid off at this stage. It helped me not lose sight of the structure underneath, that guided me on how to paint certain forms.  Even a little bit of knowledge in animal anatomy surely informed me in understanding what's underneath those furs.


Here's the finished work. I later combined this to my previous painting of Boomer, as seen in the video.  My sister wanted them together in one painting.  That's the beauty of digital painting and the benefit of layers, which is one of the reason why I opted to paint digitally instead of painting with traditional media.




  The time-lapse video recording of  my process is only 3 minutes and 46 second long.  But the reality of it took me hours,  and in more than one sitting.  I look forward to the day when I can actually paint as fast as how it appeared in this time-lapse video  How I wish I'm really this fast.  Perhaps in 20 years?!!





















Thursday, February 16, 2017

Boomer -Testing My Digital Painting Skills Part 2

My quest to become a digital artist-painter continues. This long-overdue personal assignment is now finally done. After the success of my first Husky digital painting, and as per the request of my sister to paint her other pet Husky, I decided to do this as my next painting exercise.  



I first roughed-out the basic drawing construction of the subject, making sure it's structurally solid and proportioned.  Then as with my previous painting, I started with the values first, as I need to learn and master this before I can become confident with mixing colors directly.  So I laid down the tone first, then the darks and shadows. Then alternatingly painted in the light areas. I did this repeatedly for several passes.






I jumped from one area to the next frequently and making proportion adjustments along the way. The fur took longer than before. This dog got lots more of it.  The front legs and paws also took me longer as there were some subtleties in shapes that can easily be overlooked but would have made it look unreal.






 The face was the most fun part for me, as I'm reminded of this dog's personality which wasn't very apparent in this pose. This dog is really cute and dorky. But he's sort of serious here. Normally, his tongue would be hanging sideways from his mouth, with a really silly look and grin.









Anyways, I screen-recorded my painting process, so here's the sped-up version of it. And also the final result. I'm quite happy with how this painting turned out.