Here's a cropped version of the Naga piece I'm working on currently. Kinda happy with it but I need to play around with the face to give it more life or something. And pump up the saturation and contrast a bit. But I'll have to do that later because I'll be gone for like a week now to visit my family quick and my girlfriends family at some family reunion/birthday party they are having. I'll probably bring the laptop and tablet but I don't know how much time I'll have for drawing. But we'll see.
Oh and my girlfriend and I are making a joint blog: Tough Lovers. Not much there yet but soon there will be and it will contain everything from our art and sketches to random posts and photos to random video clips and so on.
"And when you sense a faint potentiality for happiness after such dark times you must grab onto the ankles of that happiness and not let go until it drags you face-first out of the dirt — this is not selfishness, but obligation. You were given life; it is your duty (and also your entitlement as a human being) to find something beautiful within life, no matter how slight." - Elizabeth Gilbert
I really like the tattoo you added in the face, it's a nice touch it makes the image a lot more interesting.
ReplyDeleteBe careful with going too dark and too light in the beginning (too dark in this case) because it's going to be hard to work things into the paintings when things get too dark. It's usually best to stay within the mid tone range as long as possible before pushing it really dark or really bright. Leave things like darkest darks and brightest highlights for the end.
It might also be a good idea to dig up some reference of the materials you have in here. Like how fabric absorbs light and bounces it off, the same with the metallic gold stuff she's wearing too. Also, since it's metallic, it will bounce light on her body, the same with the skin. The skin leaves bounce light, if you don't add bounce light into skin, it doesn't look fleshy. Areas that usually always have bounce light are places like armpits, breasts, chin, etc. Just look up the reference and it'll make sense.
Taking the time with digging up reference and perhaps even studying the matter before painting might seem tedious but in the end it really saves you time.
Hope this helps, keep working on this I'm sure it will turn out awesome. I loved the sketch from the beginning so I know it has something!
Thanks man! I was actually thinking of digging up some refs of the textiles but I almost forgot the whole bounce light so thank you for that. Going to make it a habit to look at references while painting now.
ReplyDeleteI also realized how annoying it was with having dark areas so early in the painting while doing this hahah. So I'll know first hand next time I do this that I should stick to a lighter colour before adding darker shades.