sketchy 105

After failing to get an illustration started all week, i thought it best to revert back to copying one of the photographs i have taken recently.

For the latest installment, i decided to go for photo-realism. To that end, i spent around 3-4 hours over two sessions painting up a rather inflated photo of Jo. Having finished spending a long time getting the curves and gradients just right, i hacked away at most of the painting with the knife - it didnt seem to make much sense creating something if it was going to look just like the original photo!

The plan long-term is that paintings like this can be created without the need for the original detail - i really like the idea of an image which is detailed in places and really loose in others, yet one which still maintains the overall feel should it have been detailed all over. Though getting those loose areas working with such rough patches of colour is very hard im finding.

Anyway - im actually really happy with the result, getting details like the face working took a lot of pushing of paint, it is really surprising just how much of a difference a couple of incorrect pixels can make to the overall impression.

Things started with the pencil and moved on to the oils, with the background a separate layer to the subject. However the pencil layer was removed once it had assisted with overall composition.

Tools: ArtRage2; Oils, Knife (pencils for initial blocking)
Time: Two sessions, totalling around 3-4hours.