Holiday Kids Part Two

The following is the second installment of a "How I paint" post located here. I wouldn't really say this a detailed tutorial of how to paint, but it's more a view of my process. I have more than this done but I'm showing them in baby steps for you all that want a detailed viewing. After the underpainting is laid down I basically start in the middle ground of the painting. I realize that is a little backwards, but I like being able to fiddle with the background slightly so I can decide how much detail I want back there.

So for this I am obviously working on the children first, laying down flat, realistic colors over top of the green. The reason I use green underneath is that the transparency of your skin over your muscle tissue actually causes a slight greenish hue in shadows. So there is a fun fact for you all! :) But that's definitely not the only color you can use, it all depends on preference. For shadows I really enjoy using a grey purple on skin tones, it seems to just work in most situations. But it definitely depends on the paintings setting.

After that I started putting in colors and shadows for the lighting, which will be coming at them through the window display. Even though the display is bright, or at least will be, the darkness of the night behind them will still cause some pretty dark shadows and over take the light from behind. Making the high lights small but bright on their faces and clothing. Keep in mind textures as well, since the clothing will have a duller reflection, than shiny skin, glass, or metal. I'm also not too concerned with making things super smooth yet, since that will come later after I have the lighting and colors the way I want them.

I'll make sure to show how to change and see less of the green underpainting on the coats of the second two children next, so they all don't look alike. Also, Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the day and remember what to really be thankful for. I hope you all enjoyed the post, and let me know if you have any questions.

WIP Holiday Kids

This is a new illustration I'm working on based around some kids peering into a toy store. I thought I'd show some more work in progress stuff on how I paint. I typically paint like the old masters did, but change the under painting colors to suit the different subjects. Instead of just relying on green, red, or some other variation. An obvious difference here is I'm working digitally, but since Im working with Painter the same rules apply.  In this one I'm using purple, red, and green under painting and just blocking in the scene with those colors. After Im satisfied with a roughed in composition I start adding on the actual layers of color for the foreground, middle, and background. Typically I start with the background first as you can see from the finished light pole, and then work forward. It tends to make my life a lot easier.

This is obviously still in it's really rough stages and I'll be working on it for the better part of today. I'll make sure to make a few more posts with different stages in trying to explain them. One day I'll actually see about live streaming myself painting. That might be fun!

I hope anyone who is interested in the process finds this informative. If you have any questions let me know!

New Mural Photos

I finally got to go back to the mural I just recently finished at the end of June to take photos. If I hadn't had technical problems at the time it would have happened sooner and with much more in-depth view of my process. Though my Mac died, so my plans were changed. Some of these are also dark but I was using the lighting from the room to show the mural as its painted to be seen with. Since I had to paint it with that lighting in mind. Though I have added some photos of it in here with the flash on so you can see more detail. I hope you enjoy them :)

Oh and a side note, I didn't paint the "Live Laugh Love" on the doorway, they added that with a stencil after I was done. It was their own personal choice that I leave that spot open for them. As well as it originally going from an italian villa type feel to more of a southwest feel.

Illustrations!

Just some illustrations I did this past year. The first was for a BBQ poster contest in local Kansas City, and the other is just something I did in my free time between projects. Thought you all would enjoy them! I'll have mural photos up in the near future.