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

Wk 3 Digital Painting- The Head In Color And Painting Fur

My digital painting journey continues....

Continuing with last week's lesson on value study, this week our assignment is to paint portraits in color, using two methods. One is adding colors using layers. The other is color mixing with brushes.

In the first method, I chose William Adolphe Bouguereau's Le Petite Mendiante as my Master study.  In this method, we start with a black and while value study , then on another layer we will add color.  Since I did the value study of a Vienna statue last week, I was pleasantly surprised that I was faster with this assignment.  I almost managed to finish this value study in a day!  (It took me more than three days with the statue.) I was really pleased.....(click to enlarge)

The following day, I added more refinements and details to the value study, thinking that if I do more at this stage, adding color to it would be faster. So I added the wrinkles on her blouse and worked on her tones further, flipping it often to catch any distortions and off-proportions.  I'm really getting the hang of working in Photoshop with it's Distort and Warp tools. I'm still just using two basic default brushes here, brushes 5 and 6.  Now that it's done, it's time to add colors.

So the same day, I added the colors.  Like I suspected, it was quicker. I glazed the colors on top with another layer which is set to Color mode.  Although, I realized that some colors became muddy as we have been told, so it wasn't as simple as I originally thought. I added another layer and mixed and blended the colors normally to achieve the correct color.

I made further adjustments and finished it off the same day. I have to make sure I have enough time to do the other method and there's still the animal paintings to do as well.  So here's the final version.

The following day, I started with the second method, where we start with colors right away. Because I haven't done this method before, it seem to take me longer. I cheated with the color palette where I used the color picker to pick the colors off the original, instead of picking it myself.  I think if I gain more experience with this method, it might prove to be a faster method. For this study, I chose Lord Frederic Leighton's Biondina painting.  Here's the rough version...

Continuing still the same day, I worked on it further, adding details on the hair and clothes and refined the face.  I was trying to capture the likeness, but in the end, the closest I can get her to look like is..... her older sister. haha.

I have to let it go, or I'll never finish the other half of my assignment for the week.

The next day, I now focused on animal painting, where we were to paint two animals - a long-haired and a short-haired.

I chose a cute lion cub for the long-haired animal. I guess after spending 2 days painting directly with colors, gave me enough familiarity and practice that I managed to finish this painting in a day.  I'm really pleased with my speed and the outcome. Here's it is in progressive versions....

Then for the last one, a short-haired animal, I chose the horse.  And just like the lion cub, this also took me a day to finish.

With fur, there are custom brushes that we can use. Unfortunately, my Photoshop version isn't compatible with my instructor's brushes so I downloaded those I found elsewhere.  I'm still trying to figure out how to use those fur brushes. I found them not suited to how I want it to look,because the strokes are in the wrong direction.  So I just used some of it sparingly on the horse, but not on the lion cub.  Maybe I'm using it wrongly, I will have to ask Anne, my teacher about that.

In a matter of days, I think that I'm really adapting to the second method of painting quickly.  This is really exciting for me.  I can't wait to learn more....

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