[Malachi Maloney]

"Whatcha Lookin' At?"

Another painting of Nandi. (Don't worry other models are coming. )
I took a more simple approach to this piece than my last one. I decided to focus more on the subject this time, so left left the background white and left out any background elements.
I'm working on a new method of painting my skin tones and I think it turned out pretty well.
Painted 100% free hand in PhotoShop 6 on a 9x12 Wacom Intuos tablet.

On with the show.........
"Whatcha Lookin' At?"


Reference Photo

Detail

Let me know what you think.

Malachi

[Immy]

Wow, the skin tone looks very realistic. Maybe you could do more with her black coat perhaps?

[Andromeda]

Wow that is LUVLY .. i like it a lot.

Can you like, give a tutorial on how you did this pic ? .. What is this new technique that you've learnt ?

How big do you start your pictures at ? ..
My com aint that powerful, it can only handle 300dpi.

[SplitSoul]

Amazing. Just baffling. You have got to be one of my favorite artists here, I have yet to see something from you that I *don't* like.

[RampageLT]

Very coool rendering and cmposition...

kick ass style.


R.

[Highfive]

We're definitely focused on your subject
Another superb piece from you, Malachi. I think it's your best yet. The white background and matt black of the jacket helps put all your attention on the girl.
Including a detail shot was a good idea, too. I didn't notice she had studs on her nose and nipples

Is this new painting technique the reason why her hands and knees have such a soft blend to them?

[FireFry]

Very beautiful looking. I love the skintone and what you did with the hair I don't know if anyone else noticed this but her fingers look a little stubby

[Kazz]

*click*

*saves reference*

hmm..
*deletes reference*
*saves Malachi's work*

grin


-Kazz

[ValarianROOT]

WOW!!! I say... WOW!!! I think you've come a long way with this one. The hair is fantastic! Oh heck the whole thing is great! But in particular the head is cool. Nice composition too.
But, IMHO I would like to see some sort of background as well, maybe some thing in the lines of that panel in the reference pic. Maybe renderd in a kind of Art Nouveau style. Even just the hint of an environment. Like just the panel's outline. But, something else to "ground" the picture. That's all I can really think of to add.

Keep up the great work! Its very inspiring.

[Malachi Maloney]

Thanks for the replies folks.

Immy~ Thanks. Yea, I left the coat flat black on purpose. I didn't want to detract from the focus of the subject.

Andromeda~ I'm glad you like it. As far as tutorials go, I probably won't make another one for a while. My style has changed very much since the last tutorial I made and that was only a couple of months ago. I'm finally getting PhotoShop to do what I want it to, as a result my style is slowly but surly becoming more refined. Until my style has been consistent for a while, I think it would be a waste of time to make another tut.
I paint all my images at a res of 300ppi.

SpitSoul~ Wow. Thank you very much for your kind words. While I don't think I'm one of the best artist at these forums by a long shot....I think I'm definitely getting better.
Thank you, I'm flattered.

RampageLT~ Thanx.

Highfive~ Thanks for the comments. You must see this piece the same way I do, the reasons for the flat background and coat are to focus the viewers attention on Nandi. More specifically, her face. I wanted the eye contact between Nandi and the viewer to be immediate, with no distractions.
As far as the new technique I'm working on with skin tones goes.....It's a mix of mostly random things that started happening when I was blending the tones. I was painting the flats down and I noticed that my skin tones were much more rosie and saturated than the ones in the photo, especially in the shadows. So I sampled a color from the photo in a shaded area to see what color it was. It turned out the color was a grayish/blue tone, which was not a color I even thought of using originally. Then I remembered this old PBS show I watched a while ago about how Michelangelo painted. (Who by the way, is in my opinion the greatest artists to have ever lived.) He used blues and purples to shade his yellow and cream tones. The result was a very rich color combination. But as I found out, doesn't make for an over saturated piece. So I started to play that up more as I painted this piece. I think it came out well.

FireFry~ Thanks for the C&C.

Kazz~

ValarianROOT~ Thank you very much for your kind words. I understand what you mean about the background. But as I stated above, it was left out for a reason this time. Plus I had such a rough time with the background of my last piece. I thought I'd just have fun with this one.

Thanks again,
Malachi

[ValarianROOT]

Yeah but think of all that time you could've been working on the background when you were sleeping... sorry, just kidding I can empathize about the back ground thing too. I have a post running just because i had trouble working out a BG.
Can't wait to see more.

[ November 21, 2001: Message edited by: ValarianROOT ]

[m703-324]

i don't like tracing...
it's pointless imho

i think you focused on tracing....
no creativeness

[Malachi Maloney]

Hahaha. You're funny.

I'm sorry if I make you jealous.

BTW~ Those images are copyrighted. Please do NOT touch one of my paintings or photos again.

Malachi

[Malachi Maloney]

It's me again.

At first I wasn't even going to justify your accusations with a response, m703-324.
But seeing as how you used my images in order to try to disprove/discredit my art work.
I thought I'd use them to prove my painting's validity.
Here is a full resolution cut out of the painting and a cut out of the scanned 3x5 photo at 300ppi, resized to match.

Notice the differences?
Notice the similarities?
I'm going to say this one last time in hopes that it gets through to some of you....
I come here as an artist, to showcase my art and receive critiques on how to improve.
If you don't have a constructive comment or critique, then don't waste your breath.
As far as I'm concerned, when someone tries to discredit my work, wether it be because of the subject matter or technique, it only shows me there weak character.

If you don't like my work, please just pass on by.

And to the rest of you who had something constructive to say......
Thanks for your comments and support. Truly very helpful.

Take it easy,
Malachi

[micke]

That's pretty. Reminds me a bit of Fallen's work. The thing that strikes me about this image is the crisp and sharp look
to it. I love stuff like that.

Some crits:
It seems to lack some colour variations on the skin. Maybe the tones are too simillar
all over. If you look closely there are warmer areas, yellows and oranges.
If you try to bring it more out i think the picture would look more alive.I like the way you used the bluish tone on the skin.
I also think that it lacks contrasts in some places like the mouth and also were the different body parts separates like the hand and upper body over the legs. Higher contrast in the right places could add more
depth to the picture. It's a tricky thing with copying photos. If you are too dependent on the photo it could easily make your picture suffer. Don't be afraid to push thing.
Hope this can help

-Mikael

[Malachi Maloney]

micke~ Thanks for the comments and critiques. I kinda like the skin tones of this piece as they are. But, I see what you're getting at. I'll have to work on that in future pieces.

balistic~ Yea, I don't know anything about photography. I'm just starting out and learning as I go. I know my photos suck total ass, but all I really need them for is for reference and they work fine for that. I can change surroundings, lighting and everything else in the painting.
However, I am interested in maybe doing some more serious photography in the future.
Just have to find someone to show me the ropes.

roundeye~ Thanks for the C&C man.
Yea, I've heard elsewhere that she looks like she's on the john. I think I might paint a chair in the piece sometime. Just so there's no confusion.
Although, it makes for a pretty funny piece if you look at it like that.

Take it easy,
Malachi

[balistic]

If he's tracing, at least he's tracing his own photos now . . . which is perfectly ethical in my book.

Toker: personally, I'd be interested in seeing you use some more interesting lighting . . . maybe get some colored filters and a cheap spotlight or two . . . flash photos can leave a subject looking terribly flat.

[roundeye]

hey great work man! more interesting lighting might be cool, but i kinda like it as is. itd be cool to experiment none the less. the hair is amazing, man. i dont like the pose much, personally. she looks like shes on the john. i cant shake it, every time i look at it its like i just walked into the bathroom, and she dosent seem to mind=)

[topeira]

i dunno man. i love that piece a lot and i think that it's terrific but since it's so similar to the origin.... it makes me wonder. i thought taht the jacket is totaly black cuz u wanted to make us focus entirely on the skin and woman, but now that i see that in the ref pic the jacket is pitch black too in understand that it wasnt your call. u just couldn't invent details u can't see...

i still think that this image u made is great and i wish i could copy that well from pictures, but i'd love to see something that had no reference. u can dog me or call me jelouse (which, as i said, i am a lil) or whatever u like, but i just point what i see. this looks too close to the origin to be concidered like u put something of yourself to it. make what u want of it. or just be mad. i dunno.

[c]

just leave out the ref photo, it will save everyone a few headaches

[ November 22, 2001: Message edited by: c ]

[Highfive]

I think painting from a photograph is fine. How else are you supposed to paint a portrait? From imagination?

In my opinion, it's very hard to crit these kinds of paintings if there's no reference photograph, because you can't really point out flaws in the subject's anatomy.

If Malachi's added richer colour tones to the subject's skin and found techniques for painting great-looking hair, it deserves be posted on these forums. Surely some of us can be influenced by these styles alone.

[Shiro_tengu]

I think you have done a bloody good job there. Well Done.

[Radiater]

Hehe, didn't notice the earing until you posted the close up!

Nice clean work MM.

[soilborn]

i think it's great artwork, doesn't matter how you got the results. you did paint it, and atleast it's your art, unlike so many of the internet swippers i've seen on other boards.

[Fallen]

Copy Cat!

hehe...just kidding.

Nice work again man, i especially dig the hair. I had a thought when I read your comment about adding a chair in the future, that would be pleasingly challenging but incredible if you could pull it off. (I should keep this idea for myself but what the hell) Why not make it a translucent blow-up plastic chair? It would be even more challenging than PVC as it shares the same shines and reflections, but adds translucentcy into the mix as well. Just a thought.

p.s. Roundeye...you bastard...nasty images in my head..NASTY!. :P

[ November 22, 2001: Message edited by: Fallen ]

[Malachi Maloney]

Hey, thanks for the C&C everyone.

c, get a life.

Fallen, that's a graet idea for the chair. It would be a bitch to pull off though. =/
Any ideas for a color? I don't know, but pink's the first thing that popped into my head.

Take it easy,
M

[vegeta�ONAC]

let me say the bad things first so that i end with not hurtin yur feelings...1.) i know it may be how she is in real life but her head is too big for her body...its not the hair and its not perspective it just looks big lol 2.) a golden rule to any piece of artwork is to never cut a figure at any of their joints like at the knees like in yur painting. when i first saw it i generally liked it. overall i think it was better off as just a photo but if it helped improve yur tone and paintin skills then i totally understand and its all good

[Freddio]

looks nice. Welldone, you have a great understanding in the use of photoshops and its tools.
good work..

although I can't really see the point? We have the photo so what is the purpose of your painting?
Id love to see some of your own creations as you have a 'lot' of talent.
Looking forward to seeing more of you stuff. I had a look at you website, very cool

[Malachi Maloney]

Thanks for the comments guys.

[c]

excuse me?

it was a sincere suggestion.