[Danny]

Hej all...

Right... it has been ages since I took the effort to post some new stuff, but today I figured, what the heck!
I started work on a new image. It's still *very* much preview, work in progress, unfinished..... So here we go...



I hope the saturation and gamma issues aren't too screwed up as I'm still having tremendous difficulty setting up my system to display an adequate image. I was actually shocked to see how diffirent the pic looked on my web-machine compared to my workstation. Too much saturation, too dark.. AARGH.. so I toned it down a tad. I'd be interested hearing from people how it comes across on their screens.

Also, please don't mind the complete lack of skin detail in the woman's face. I always leave that to the very end for the simple reason that all that tiny detail won't get in the way and turn in to a gigantic mess when I decide to change the lighting on the face for instance. Once I'm onto that she'll get nice subtle freckles, blotches, a little wrinkle here and there, etc. etc., you get the idea.
There'll be a hell of a lot more to this image than just a pretty face (which would be boring!). It'll actually be a full-on Sci-Fi scene with this chick as one of the characters. Just haven't got around to working/designing the entire scene out to the point were I can start blobbing in paint. It'll be massive.. ofcourse.

I'd love to get comments, critizism, pointers from all-ayah.


Danny


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[email protected]

Trust in Trance

[psi burn]

WOW!

[Kyri]

It's looking real nice Danny, I really like the detail on the eyes. Her nose kinda hasn't got much shape to it tho, too round.
I think you need to define the shape some more. It's going real well tho. Great work.



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Kyri

http://www.freespeech.org/darkpathimages

[aquamire]

Oh holy sweet mother of the cows.. that is amazing. I am never unsurprised by your work Danny. My god.. ahem, give me a second to attain composure again.

I have to agree with the eyebrow, I think it is a bit to arched. I can tell you were trying to give the questioning look on her face, but its a bit overexagerated I think.

As for the hair, well, just erase it all, its to good.

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/Aq
[email protected]

[HumanClay]

Holy shitballs.

It's been so long since I've seen anything from you Danny that I forgot how incredible you are!

That is absolutly superb. I aspire to be like you Damnit man, show us more!@$

[Frost]

Hey Dan.

Very nice (awesome) pic, and I'm even more surprised that you actually posted work in progress!

I wouldn't stress over the monitor/gamma/color levels and stuff... besides, it's all relative. It may not give the intended tones, therefore the precise feel you like, but, there isn't much you can do about that... so dork (like myself) will always calibrate his monitor by eye and have a total disregard for any type of monitor setting standards, since, I don't trust them. =)

Great work... I like the fact that the head isn't complete, it gives it an odd abstraact feel to it... I think it looks great. =)

cheers mate.
frost.

[above]

that is amazing it is better then a picture...did u use reference?

[Nex]

i'd say laetitia no?

[assa]

dan : erg netjes, die tint die haar gezicht
heeft lijkt een beetje op van die porceleine
'pierro' poppen die vroeger heel erg in
waren. Het heeft ook wel wat weg van die
vroegere advant garde hollywood glamour
photography, spelen met licht en sfeer etc.

"vooraaaaaal dooorgaan" haha.. keep up the
good work vriend!

assa
-----
pro artist/designer

[nori]

very impressive.

is it just me or does the part in her hair look way off? Like someone is pulling her face off from the back of her head?

The hair is amazing! would you be willing to share how you went about it?

[spooge demon]

Hey Danny, that's pretty sweet!

I am not sure if I am qualified to critique your work, but maybe it is worth what you paid for it

Going with that much contrast in the face is a little dangerous cause she starts to look metallic. The value range and the color shift from dark/warm to light/cooler reinforce the metallic feel. It is not the actual color but the range of color. It could be contrasty on my monitor, but the value and color range in other parts looks very accurate.

I like the really crisp cast shadows. Are you going to do the lips the same way? Could do it in the hair as well, but a little softer.

beautiful shapes and rhythms...

***Wheels out Soap Box. Clears Throat***

This debate between "reference is cheating caus you just copy photos" and "how else ya gonna paint except copy em?" has and will be going on forever. In the interest of clearing up this debate, I was wondering if Danny could post his reference. If all concerned could see your source they would see how much design and shape conrol and editing and pushing forms and exaggeration and suppresion really goes on in work at this level.

I LOVE Drew Struzans work. Does he use photos? Of course, he even projects them with a lucigraph. If I were given the same materials and asked to do what he does I would need Rumplestilskin to bail me out.

If you dismiss work because solely because it is photo derived, you are ignorant. If you dislike it cause it sucks for other reasons, well and good. There is a lot of work that is photo derived that I don't think much of.

Before Fallen left he was starting to do nice things with his reference. The profile of the lady with the spider was beautiful. I bet a slavish dup of a photo would not have produced it.

Sorry to put this in your thread, Danny, but I thought maybe you could help out here. If anyone wants to discuss it further, let's start a new thread.

[dgordon]

I love the eyes.. it holds you looking into them. Which is the purpose; and achieved so well this early on in the piece.


Spooge, as for the debate between "reference is cheating cause you just copy photos" and "how else ya gonna paint except copy em?" has and will be going on forever.

I would like to see that thread start. =D

[-HoodZ-]

dang....and its still unfinished eh? hmmm as for the gamma thing its nice and bright in my end....and i can tell that its Casta all the way :>

[Farwalker]

I was wondering when you were going to post some new stuff Danny

What a great painting.

Keep it up.

---- www.gamingvault.com

[Morph]

Hoi Danny,

it looks fantastic so far. Will be interesting to see the final pic, must end up as one of the best pics I've seen by a scene-graphician (or ex, whatever ).

Hope I'll meet you at ECTS so I can find out if you're human or not

[Binke]

All I can say is saaaaaaaaaawwweeeeeeeet!

You got the rest of the comments on IRC



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http://binke.gamesquad.net

[Trance-R]

Heh, all the nice comments are scaring Danny away from replying.

BTW, GOOD JOB!!! Fantastic! Make sure you show us the whole thing full size when you're done! =) I bet that would be even better.

[n8]

omfg..brill as always...just wondering wot res this ones dun at??...and i still like the lara one...=)...close ups!!...i want close ups of those eyes!!...

[GoldenBoy]

Absolutely stunning piece of work. There's something surreal in her. She's too perfect to be true, her skin showing little blue. Li'l voice saying: "Can't trust her, she's an adroidess, look the way she wears her hair". Maybe i'm out of my mind or something??

Great.

[Typhon]

Yeah seriously, give her some sort of imperfection so at least I'm sure I'm not looking at a photograph

Stunning work. I love her hair, especially the tendril think on the right, incredibly life-like. I have nothing else to say, aside from I wish I had talent like that.

[akh]

damn... i love the hair and the eyes. did you use the airbrush or paintbrush for the skin? Very nice. However, is it just me, or does her left eyebrow seem a little strange? like its too arced or its too long or something. i dunno, i could be wrong. but great work as usual! also, there seems to be to me a little too much blue around the nose... but you know more than i do (oh, did you save any steps so we can look at? i would be real interested to see it if you can. thanks)

[This message has been edited by akh (edited July 25, 2000).]

[ceenda]

Danny, that is fantastic!

One thing though, perhaps a kind of empty void where the left nostril should be? I don't know, maybe the 3rd cup of coffee is having a strange effect...

Anyway, as I say, this is looking incredibly good and there will be doubtless many impatient people on this board until you get it finished.

he he, nice one Danny



[This message has been edited by ceenda (edited July 25, 2000).]

[Visigoth]

Yet again you amaze me with your rendering skills...Jeez... =| Usually people have fantastic figure drawing, or fantastic rendering skills...Rarely both... =| Shit Danny...Did you sell your soul to Satan or something? -- I tried that, and it didn't make me draw any better. =P
BTW -- Very nice work...I can't wait to see the rest of the hair...
You gonna give her tits?

~{V}~

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Oh god my eyes!

[iska]

Stunning Danny

On my monitor the colors of her skin, specially the reddish ones remind me of 50's or 60's photography... (only the grayish tones near her nose dont fit in that gategory).. I hope that's not your girlfriend... ]8-D

How about adding some nice flower on her hair? And mebbe some greenish stuff on the background?

/me wipes drewl from his mouth

--iska

[assa]

Dan : You might want to check any photograph
collection done by George Hurell, a really
famous hollywood golden age photographer.
His work is 90% done in black and white, but
his knowledge/use of poses, lighting etc. is
something special! Plus many of his pictures
esp. those face close ups have a lot in
common with your picture. And it's really
fun and interessting to watch too

assa
-----
pro artist/designer

[Hurri-cane]

well danny couldn�t u do better ?? (joke)

damn thats sweeeeeet, but her (right)eye the part closest to the nose, its almost to sharp or pointy...and the nose as someone said is to undefiend, LOVE the hair...makes me wanna do some photoreference paintings...
(hoping its a photoreference)

ceep it up u crasy cow


.caneman

[Danny]

Wow.. so many replies... where to begin..
Well, first of all I'm glad to see the pic receive such a warm welcome. Thanks all!

Interesting to hear certain people comment on the eyebrow. Now that I look at it, I guess it could use a tad of re-allignment. I actually find eyebrows one of the more tricky features of a human face. Probably because they hold so much of the expression. Subtle moves can change the look completely.

Akh; I use the paintbrush like 95% of the time. I find I have more control over it than the somewhat wobbly feeling airbrush which I mainly use for subtle things. Like changing colour tones in certain areas. Airbrush works great with settings other than the 'normal'.

Frost; yeah.. how about that huh? Me posting a preview beforehand.. I must be loosing it.. I like your point on the gamma issue. It's all so fucked up I guess it's just not worth messing with. I've actually now gone back to default settings to give that another try.

Nori: I'm not quite sure what you mean with 'pulling her face off from the back of her head'. (sounds gruesome) Maybe it looks a little weird cause it's not finished yet.. There's still a hell of a lot more hair on the back of her head that I haven't got around to painting yet. So it might look a bit unbalanced at the moment.

Spooge; as for being qualified to critique my work, I know what you mean. Seeing the way you paint is probably the complete opposite from the way I work. However that never stops me from trying to learn, so your comments are more than welcome.
Interesting what you mentioned about the metallic feel. I can see where it's coming from. I think for a large part it has to do with how the value progresses through the range as you mentioned. But I think the lack of skin detail also plays a part in this.
I'm not exactly sure what you meant with doing the lips the same way. Could you elaborate? I'll probably be playing around a bit more with cast-shadows in the hair, but I feel more comfortable to leave that till the very end.
As for the reference I used, it's a bit tricky to provide as it came from a magazine clipping and I don't own a scanner (hallelujah!
You do pose an interesting idea tho. Perhaps it might be cool to fire up a new thread in which several examples of clever use of reference could be demonstrated.

Goldenboy; I like your view on the picture. You don't know how close you are... Certainly far from being out of your mind!

Iska; I've been playing around with the idea of adding flowers to her hair and I will almost certainly do this.

I've been getting a lot of questions and such on how I do hair. I might do a tutorial if people are interested..

right.. that's it for now.

Danny

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[email protected]

Trust in Trance

[sizko.jr]

hey DANNY thank you for your time.....i would love to see a tutorial on hair that would mean so much to me and everyone in here.

[SpiFFy_X]

WOW! DANNy would you really do us that favor?
Damn your amazing....i would really like to see that happen.

Fallen always told us the way to do it was "strand by strand" i don't know though i believe there is more to that, he was just to lazy to explain! or maybe i'm wrong Blah


thank you DAN.

[Sp0ok3y]

DANNY, we would be more then interested.


Thank you guys for sharing your talent with us!

I never had the luxury to go to an art class
yet you people offer so much and i thank you all in general, because everyone here has a bit to share. Maybe i won't became a famous artist around the world, but i'll be recognized around my neighborhood and that's fine to me, but it wouldn't be possible with out your love and dedication to helping us learn a little a day!

God Bless you and your love ones

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Bo00!