I love this artiste’s fashion style, I also find that she looks like a fictional character most of the times. She’s somehow managed to stand out. This drawing was done while listening to “In your dreams” by Outkast featuring the subject.
The image was my version of her Vibe Vixen magazine cover which was in black & white except for the Logo and captions which were in pink. The challenge for me was to have a colour description. Took time out to look at different colour pictures of her to study her skin tones.
Sketched on paper first using a 2H lead clutch pencil later scanned and painted entirely in Photoshop CS4 using a good old fashioned optical mouse.
Heart in the back was designed in Inkscape.
Took all together 15 hours to complete I had loads of fun when painting. Am absolutely delighted with the end result.
Comments critiques more than welcomed!!!
Manu
1 When ever I seat down to draw, to save time later on when pencilling (erasing mistakes). It’s an easy way to have a small preview of the final drawing. The thumbnail sketch is again not meant to be perfect so you’re most likely to deal with the pose, perspective (how the subject fits on the canvas), placement, proportion, and camera angles. This step is one of my favourites when ever am drawing something new. According to the idea in my mind or the clients brief most of the issues I’ve just mentioned are solved here.
2 Using a 4H pencil I refine the details with a clear idea of the image in my mind. Because am heavily influenced by traditional hand drawn animations, it’s rare for me to smudge or shade any pencilled work. It’s always a good way of saving valuable time and avoiding a large PS file. The drawing is scanned into Photoshop and levelled to get rid of the grey areas.
3 Flattening the base colours, this step takes up most of the time. To me it’s also one of the most important, because this is when the colouring foundation is laid and you can again have a small preview of the final colouring. I then lock my layer so that when I start adding shades and highlights nothing goes beyond this shape.
4 With a hard brush set to normal and 100% opacity I start painting the shades followed by the highlights. A rule learned through these trials and errors is start with the darkest shade to the lightest spots of the image. This personally considered the halfway stage.
5 Now using a soft edge brush set to normal and 10% or 20% opacity I start blending the different shades and highlights.
6 With smaller brushes this time set to normal but at 100% opacity I start working on the smallest bits like hair strands, sweat pores and various light spots. I painted the pattern on the shirt.
7 Lastly To give it a sense of the outdoors I painted the blurry light with warm colours.
It took me 20 to 24 hours in between life, meetings and rests.
Voila!!!
In closing, they’re hundreds of ways to paint digitally. My advice would be to experiment and see what works for you and also research. This is what works for me, please if you have a suggestion or query please feel to drop me a message here or via email. Hope it helps as I also got where I am by reading many blogs, tutorials and by just being curious.
Manu
A dream project, yes because I had total creative freedom when playing around with these character’s features and designing their entire wardrobe. This particular one was used to study the costumes. Visit www.adlabzambia.net to see the rest of the team. I really want to discuss the background of this image.
The 2 cars were initially drawn for another project that got cancelled (from pencilling to painting), so when I was working with this image I decided to add them. The walls and windows were inspired by the architecture in downtown Johannesburg. The road was easier as it as painted with a bluish grey then a custom texture was added.
This particular piece took longer than usual because of the different elements and props. Roughly around 30 hours in all.
