Jean-Baptiste

Jean-Baptiste Maunier.

singer & actor.

Love love love his voice.

Doing this portrait helped me realize some things:

1) I'm far too dependent on lines, meaning that I'm not comfortable actually painting. I absolutely need a lineart. I think this is because I'm still used to drawing with pencils, where lines are everything... which is kind of weird because I honestly haven't drawn anything with graphite for ages. But I can't just lay down colors and create a face from there, and I really want to be able to. Maybe I'll start painting traditionally again... the art teacher at school sells cheap canvases apparently and I have a ton of paint in my garage that I haven't touched since freshman year ahaha

2) I'm really not comfortable sketching faces without cheating and using a bit of layered help... this, I think I can change by drawing more with pencils (without gridding... haha). I'm really too reliant on whatever's going to make my life easier and make the subject look more like who it's supposed to be... that's the problem with realism for me, I guess. So yeah. More drawing with graphite, charcoal, pen... whatever it takes. I should probably start drawing from life, but that's harder because of lack of people who will sit still for hours...

3) which brings me to my next weakness: speed. This was supposed to be a speedpaint (that's why it's rough). I was basically thinking of limiting myself to two hours for this portrait.... definitely took at least five or six... maybe even up to seven or eight... which is wayyyy too long... yeahhh I need more practice with that...

4) I have absolutely no idea how to draw/paint hair. None. Whatsoever. At all. One of the reasons why I mainly draw guys is because they have less hair. Seriously. Girls=long hair=no thank you. at least not until I figure out how to draw it correctly. which probably won't be anytime soon.

5) Painting in black and white/greyscale is just as hard as painting in color.

6) I'm far too reliant on the just-add-water blur tool. I need to start experimenting with opacities and wean off the blurring a bit...

Hope everyone's doing well! Thanks for following!

-S.

What I Wouldn't Do For You

Matt Doyle

Broadway: War Horse, Spring Awakening, Bye Bye Birdie. TV: Gossip Girl

I would recommend looking him up on youtube. He has a gorgeous voice.

The lighting in the reference is absolutely gorgeous, so I tried my best to get the same glowy effect. Colors are a lot of fun. On the other hand, painting metal is really hard and I kind of got lazy about those details. I'm happy with the result though! Not quite sure about the cropping though. I might change it later. But, ta-daa! First full portrait of 2011 completed!

CREDIT: Post title comes from the song of the same name by Ryan Scott Oliver, which Matt was singing when the reference photo was taken. Reference photo by Matthew Murphy.

Also, I've gotten an art tumblr! --> shaynuh.tumblr.com

Starring

Done with finals and first semester!

And look how much I painted today! :D

I feel accomplished.

Just need to finish the hair and fix up some of the lighting on his face and I'm done with his head!

post title comes from the song "Starring" by Freelance Whales

perseverance

new WIP.

I swear I'm not giving up on this one like I did with my last one. The reference for this one is one of my favorites. The lighting hits his face in all these purple and blue hues. It's gorgeous. I'm looking forward to playing with colors and tones and blending.

Also, I've found my new favorite brush: fine camel. so inky and smooth. makes the colors seem really bold. I love it.

Finals are coming up. ugh.

Time to study.

Mr. Grint

RUPERT FREAKING GRINT

This took a long time. I've left out his scruff because facial hair is a pain, and I'm convinced that he would have turned out looking creepy in the portrait if I had included it.

This was mostly fun, until I just wanted it finished. Good first (finished) try at digital painting though in my opinion. first attempts at colors, clothing, and more importantly HAIR. which took a long time. and of which I'm proud of even though it doesn't look particularly ginger. I also like how his shirt turned out...

The photo which I used as a reference for this is floating somewhere around the internet. Don't have a link, sorry.

I haven't seen HP7 part one yet. gah.

HAPPY NEW YEAAAR EVERYONE!

Hair

Hair is a funny thing.

What you see isn't really what you get when it comes to photographs. Or at least in this case it isn't. I use the eyedropper tool to get the hues I use on my drawing, and I've realized that you never get the colors that you think you'll get.

This guy is ginger. for sure. 100%

The only colors I pick up with my eyedropper are shades of blonde and brown. So I've been compensating for it by overlaying thin layers of orange hues in some areas.

This is the first time I've actually tried painting hair in Corel Painter. It's not as bad as I had expected it to be, but I'm still far from done. He's not looking too shabby though, so I haven't gotten frustrated yet haha. This has actually been a fantastic way for me to figure out my preferred approach to painting hair.

2010 summary

2010 summary.

dA: http://sunflake.deviantart.com/art/fudged-2010-summary-189377960

months are repeated because I'm lame and don't draw enough to legitly fill up a true year-long summary.

December is my current WIP.

hopefully you can tell who it is by now?