Wacom in Sick Bay

I've been in sick bay for 2 days. I had a serious case of the shakes last monday morning so I went on leave. lolz

I managed to get some painting done but not much progress. I know I shouldn't be going down into the details yet but I wanted to get the face presentable before I proceed with everything else. I'm working on getting the likeness back as I think I'm losing it a bit. The painting needs more contrasts too.

++++++Updated January 18, 2007++++++

Quickie updated. I'm trying to get the likeness more. Still have to stregnthen the colors. Someone noted that it's becoming abit classical in approach. Maybe I should nudge it in that direction... hmm...

++++++updated january 19, 2007++++++

Fixed a ton of things. I am now getting complaints that she's too beautiful. Can I help it if I see what they can't see when I look at that young woman who calls herself my "girlfriend"? Is it my malfunction if I see beauty wherever I look? :P I did a portrait of my father when i was 14 and everyone said he was too handsome in the painting. I kept thinking to myself... "Have you people seen my father?" lol

Yes. My eyes were made for beauty...

------Updated January 24, 2007------

I'm such a loser. lolz

hmm... gawa kaya ako nang isa pang portrait... kaso wala namang picture na maganda na nasakin... hmm...

Okay so it really doesn't look like her. What the hell... I'll finish it anyways. Hmm... I'm renaming this piece "The Nobleman's Daughter". There! That seems appropriate. :D

Sunday Shmunday

I woke up unusually early on a sunday. I got to do my laundry, had breakfast then cleaned my room. By the time I got to work on this my hands were hurting a bit from the laundry ->

Still some minor issue with the arms and hands... also quite possibly the legs. I'm learning new stuff as I go and the humongous collection of reference photos I've acquired last year are proving useful. They will be my crotch till I learn to do figure drawing with my eyes closed. Figuratively speaking :P. I'm still thinking if the pose is enough or if I need to fix it some more. I had to stop before detailing the hands last night coz my right arm was hurting so bad. I won't be posting this piece on cgtalk till I'm done and it's printed. Yeah! No criticism on this one. Atleast not before I'm done. ;) I want to do this on my own to see where my skills are and what needs more practice.

So all that's left is to check the arms, hands and legs plus see if the pose evokes what I want it to evoke then see if the anatomy works. When all that's done I can get to the painting part. I think I'll skip turning this into a grey scale work and get right to painting. Maybe I'll just do a tiny tonal study.

********************Updated January 11, 2007********************

Okay here is where I'm at right now. I am the embodiment of "slow". :P I've put in the background though that might change later. I've half a mind to let go of the hands and run with what's here... unless I find a way to correct her left arm and hand. Other than that it's mostly just the creases on the dress ... and the dress itself.

Dropped by Fully Booked yesterday looking for a good book on figure drawing. I ended up examining two books. The first one had a more illustrationish appeal. His figures were loose and his lines were really flowing beautifully. The second one centered more on drawing live and extreme realism. I ended up buying a TV tuner for my personal computer instead. lol

I don't know... I just couldn't find what I was looking for. I just want to achieve a good balance between painterish and realistic appearance in my paintings. I guess developing your own style is something you come across on your own.

That's it for now. Next post will be in colors! :D

Greeting the Year with a Complete Set of Fingers!

I had a close call this new year. Fearing for the safety of our hands and everything else my family including myself refrained from purchasing fireworks. So we spent new year watching everyone else waste their money on flashing lights that last for a few seconds. At some point during new year's eve one of the neighbors' fireworks went flying in the wrong direction. It zoomed past my dad's shoulder,grazed our servant's knee and whized past my shoulder to explode about 5 ft away from me. whew! Next year I'll watch the fireworks from my bedroom window. lol

So this year's Christmas break turned into a real vacation. I ended up sleeping, resting, eating, playing on the computer, reading books and somewhere in between I got to work on a little something I promised I would give to this nice lovely lady who calls herself my girlfriend. :D

There she is. After working on and off for the whole vacation apparently I did catch her likeness. It was pretty frustrating at times since I have to work from several references which didn't really do well as reference. Most of them were too small. Also none of the pictures had this pose. Anyways I sent it to her yesterday to have the likeness approved before continuing and she was pretty pleased with it. This morning she asked if she could have this picture here so she could place it in their living room. :D So now I'm giving her this and the finished painting too.

The portrait I'm making is somewhat based on William Bougereau's "Reflexion". I'll just try and make things look more up to date if not modern. Below is a picture of the dress I'm planning to use for this piece.

Yes I'm straight! Straight! Straight! Straight! And No I'm not a fashion designer obviously! :P I'm leaning towards a dark blue for the bottom and a light blue-grey for the top... maybe the belt should be some complementary of the main colors. That's not fur you see on the top of it. It's this transparent material I saw Karel Marquez wearing in her FHM spread. I hope I pull it off coz that fabric looks really cool. :P The dress is still on the drawing board and may change... I'm partial to ancient greek designs. hmm...

Okay. Enough for now. I'm hungry. XD