[Malachi Maloney]

Hey everyone.

(Be forewarned, I'm having a couple celebration beers while writing this. So forgive me if this goes astray..... )

This painting is my first official collaboration with a Playmate. Those of you who are familiar with me and my work will probably understand what a huge milestone this is for me and my work, as I've been working towards this goal for a long time now.
This painting features Playboy Playmate June 1992, Angela Melini. When Angela first saw my work, she told me she thought it was very well done and at times disturbing ( I assume she was referring to my Ancient Obsession piece). She seemed to be intrigued by this "disturbing" quality of some of my work, so I thought I'd tap into that fascination for this painting.

I had originally planed this over the top, violent, bloody, gory, painting, but then I decided to go a completely different wrought with it..... I wanted to be more subtle, instead of going with all kinds of blood and gore. I wanted this painting to have a more psychologically disturbing element to it, rather than going with the obvious. Instead of describing a situation to the viewer, I'd rather the viewer create their own scenario for the happenings of this painting.
So, this is what I came up with......

"Disturbed"
Lots of work went into bringing out the details in the lingerie, as almost all of the little details were obscured in the reference.
The shoes were a new experience for me, I've never painted shiny leather like that before. It took some time to get the hang of how I was going to go about painting them, but I think they ended up turning out rather well.
The background was done traditionally in mixed media* (colored pencil, watercolor, acrylic, ink, liquid paper pens, charcoal pencil, felt tip pens and soft scrub) on paper, then scanned into PS, colored and adjusted. The "reflective" looking surface was then painted over that. I think the rough texture of the background is a nice complement to the silky smoothness of her skin and hair.

Anyway, on with the show......

Painted freehand in Photoshop 6 on a 9x12 Wacom Intuos tablet.

Get a closer look at the painting and view some full resolution details from it here.

I may or may not have achieved the "disturbing" effect I was going for in this piece, but either way, I think it came out well no matter what the viewer takes from it.

Let me know what you think.

Take it easy,
Malachi

[Socar MYLES]

Background's looking great, Malachi, and I think the rendering on the figure is your best yet. Keep 'em coming! I really like the contrast of the texture and the airbrushed smoothness--it worked.

[ceenda]

Oh my... that looks *exactly* like the girl in the partition next to me at work. I'm not gonna be able to keep a straight face on Monday.

But it's really well done though. I like your clean cut, almost airbrush quality work.

Second Socar's comments too.

[Torstein Nordstrand]

Although I admit to having mixed feelings about your style, your dedication and serious attitude deserve respect. You must be learning a bunch about different textures through your approach. I'd like to see your try on a different style, though.

This might be off to a client already, but you might nevertheless want to have a closer look at the face. The right eye seems off, or the left less slanted, depending on the model:


Anyways, your contributions are good examples of perfection through hard work, something alot of us folks here should consider applying to our submissions.

Thanks,

[SplitSoul]

Jesus fuck. That is good.

[Scorchmon]

Wow! Excellent job.

[B3AND1P]

obviously this is a great piece, altho I would rather have a solid ground. She appears to be floating. personaly I would love to see a stained, beat up, factory floor under her. But maybe thats just me

[eyewoo]

Malachi... as intended, it is a disturbing picture. ...but I must say I believe it is one of your best to date. Well done!

[Rohan]

great work . . but whats so disturbing about it?

[Sheldon Quirk]

Sup dawg??? erm yeah Malachi this is tight

tighter than the last, keep em comming.

[InitialT]

I'm wondering, did you hand paint the background?

[Lunatique]

Good job! Congrats, dude. Taking steps towards your dreams is always a great thing.

[radical travis]

holy shit that's cool! i think you accomplished your subtle disturbing effect

[Sharper-Image]

quote:

---

Originally posted by aColdOldKodiak:
I'm with Rohan... it's good, really good, but I don't find it disturbing really.. just an almost naked girl with a confused look on her face holding a cutting knife. I mean, the story could be she had trouble cutting carrots and hit her head, and everything looks funny now. and she's half naked. Not to be mean but it's not grounded enough, you may need more tiny indications to lead to the disturbing story.

---

You should probably read Malachi's post. He meant it to be subtle. Having her swimming in a pool of blood wouldn't have achieved that. He also said he wanted the viewer to interpret it with their own vision. If you envision her cutting some carrots, you... um, yea.

[aColdOldKodiak]

I did read his post, and I know he meant it to be subtle. My point is if I don't find it disturbing, then he didn't completely achieve what he wanted, which was a disturbing picture which you could interperet for yourself. What I was saying was that he should put more subtle indications of a disturbing event taking place, not a pool of blood at her feet.

[ August 11, 2002: Message edited by: aColdOldKodiak ]

[EviLToYLeT]

more disturbed = beet juice on knife and bad perm with one shoe off

good looking stuff there malachi

[aColdOldKodiak]

I'm with Rohan... it's good, really good, but I don't find it disturbing really.. just an almost naked girl with a confused look on her face holding a cutting knife. I mean, the story could be she had trouble cutting carrots and hit her head, and everything looks funny now. and she's half naked. Not to be mean but it's not grounded enough, you may need more tiny indications to lead to the disturbing story.

[The Magic Pen]

I like your work better then DREW ..

[Malachi Maloney]

Hey all,

Thanks for taking the time to give me your comments and suggestions, they're very much appreciated.
Also, I'd really like to thank those of you who have been supportive of my work over the last couple years. It's because of you folks that I've been able to continue pursuing my dreams when others told me I'd never make it.
Thanks.

Socar~ Thanks Socar. I'm glad you're digging the contrasting textures, your work is a great example of how to richen ones work through the use of different textures. So, that's a great complement coming from you.
Thanks again you sweet little woman you.

ceenda~ lol That's funny. I hope you didn't spill your java on yourself when you saw her on Monday. Thanks for the complement too. BTW~ What part of Scotland do you live in dude?

Torstein Nordstrand~ Thanks for commenting, I appreciate the kind words. However, I don't understand why people get so bent out of shape at the subject matter of my paintings. I mean, I'm the one who paints them.... Shouldn't I be able to paint whatever I want without being questioned as to why I'm doing so? I enjoy painting the female form, that's why I do it. Ya know?
Anyway, I can understand why her eyes look a little off to you, but trust me they're in the correct position. The reason her left eye looks higher than the other one is because her face is leaning against her hand, at the same time, the skin on that side of her face is being pulled upward slightly, creating the illusion that one eye is higher than the other, when in actuality its just the law of physics.
Anyway, I appreciate you taking the time to comment and the kind words about my work ethics are much appreciated. Thank you.

SplitSoul~ Thanks, you're too kind.

Scorchmon~ Thanx.

eyewoo~ Thanks for taking the time to comment Phil. I'm glad you're able to get the subtle yet disturbing quality I was going for in this piece. I was worried too many people wouldn't be able to catch that without all the blood and gore.
Thanx again.

B3AND1P~ Thanks for commenting. The background in supposed to be very surreal in appearance, just hinting at a "floor", but not really getting solid enough for the viewer to define it as such. That's probably why it looks that way to you, but it is intentional that it looks the way it does now.
Thanks for the complements as well.

Rohan~ Sorry if my message didn't translate well to you. I guess it just depends on the state of mind you're in at the time. Anyway, I appreciate the comments non the less.

Sheldon Quirk~ Thanks for the complement ya mook. I'm good, how are you? What's going on with bionicbabe?

InitialT~ Yes, the whole thing was painted by hand. The background was done traditionally and the figure was done digitally. Thanks for commenting.

Lunatique~ Thanks for the support pretty boy. In all seriousness, I always appreciate you taking the time to comment on my work Luna, makes me happy.

aColdOldKodiak~ Can't please everyone. So, I guess you won't be wanting to purchase a print?

radical travis~ Thank you.

Sharper Image~ Hey, thanks for clearing that up. I really appreciate the support, thanks.

EviLToYLeT~ LOL Thanks for commenting dude.

The Magic Pen~ Thanks man! That's one hell of a complement. Now, go tell that to Robert and Tamara bane. I want in damn it, I want in!

Thanks again everyone.

Take it easy,
Malachi

[Angelic Remix]

Disturbing is not quite the word for it...I would call this painting "Unstable." She doesn't look disturbed so much as, well....ok, disturbed. o_O;;;

Nevermind. Nice rendering, of course. The lighting seems somehow off to me, but that could be because I've consumed about a liter of sake. Ah well.

[Pickman]

Hm, although i do not personally like the photorealistic look too much, it is a damn fine piece of work you have done there...

And i think there's nothing disturbing in your pictures at all. It is the topic you have chosen and I like it, when people are fascinated by the things they like. I visited your site today and you really have a style on your own. Keep on the good work!!!

[ August 17, 2002: Message edited by: Pickman ]

[AcjBizar]

Very nice.
The perspective of the knife seems a bit off to me.

[Torstein Nordstrand]

Ah. I understand the eye now, I just thought it looked a bit weird and tried finding the source for it. That's training for me as well. Thanks.

About your style, I'm not claiming in public that you should stop painting beautiful women, far from it! Anyways, that would be quite suicidal in these forums
What I (think I) mean is that if one attempts to apply "photorealism" on all surfaces in a picture, it's message will in my eyes not approach reality. It's undoubtedly pretty, but won't the "organic" feeling dissipate? It also becomes harder to look at, I think. And what do you do when you are to paint a background? Seems to me that you have to have an almost exact reference, stripping it down to a few major items, and copy all details slavishly. Otherwise, the subject (model) might seem to float on top of a sketch.

Maybe what I'm trying to say is I think there is an artistic science in where to put details and where not to.

On the other hand, every picture you do with another texture (like the shoe here) will add to your repertoire, so it's probably beneficial learning. I'm just seeing limitations in it. I'm trying to find out about the detail balance myself.

Salutations on the assignment! You're clearly going somewhere