[sacrelicious]

Well, last night after looking at Micke's new Star Wars stuff, and his John Lennon (again), I sat down and dashed out this piece of crap.



It has a lot of unnecessary strokes which make it look dirty (and the jpeg gamma change enhances the dirtyness), but I thought it had a cool feel- a bit Micke-ish. At least, it did at first. But I've painted and painted, and gotten nowhere. Now it's just junk.

I've had this Wacom for a while and still haven't completed a painting in this style (using the paintbrush instead of airbrush), and I want to know what to do next. I feel like I'm painting in circles, and not making any headway. How do I get from this to a finished piece? I'd appreciate any suggestions.

[KOryH]

Well I'm no Micke but here is what I did.
I try to think about large shapes and work into them once they are established. As for color... When I am working with real paints, I use the "muddy" pallette technique. wich means I keep all the colors similar to each other by mixing a nuetral color into every color i am working with. Then after a while I can start adding more saturated colors and focus the attention on specific regions of the painting. This combined with strong tonal control will get you anywhere you want to go. I hope that helps.
Hre is the image...

[sacrelicious]

Hey, Kory, thanks for the help. I was actually just checking out your website, I love your work! I'll keep your suggestions in mind when I work on this some more. Hopefully I'll be able to update this soon.

P.S. I hope I didn't sound like I was only asking micke for help. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated!

[sacrelicious]

Well, I uploaded this update, so I may as well post it. Even though it sucks and nobody cares.



I'm about *thisclose* to going back to the airbrush and mouse. I just can't do what I want with the paintbrush and tablet, but I know it's possible. I have these really frustrating moments where, just for a second, I think I understand how to do what I'm trying to do, and then it goes away. The really sad part is that I don't think I could do anything with the airbrush any more, either.

How do I get that smoothness and clarity, the sharpness, the reach-out-and-touch it quality? I feel like I can do it with pen/pencil and paper, and did it with the computer using the mouse and airbrush, but this is completely vexing me. I'm trying to make this a realistic portrait, NOT stylized. Please, anyone, help me out.

[Rinaldo]

hehe, ignore my image, I'm hopeless at painting without a pencil drawing to start with, just felt like a quick scrible.

first off, don't start with a white back ground.
work with the biggest brush possible all the time. that is, the biggest brush that you can possibly make your stroke with. if you have to do a little stroke for some bit on the eye, use a small brush. but try to make it the "right size". this probably falls to personal preference a bit, but it's good practice nonetheless. with your colours go for the warm cool thing. it will add a lot to your painting.

in reguard to getting that sharp "micke feel" (hehe) work on your shapes I'd imagine, clean shapes and corect values will get you most of the way. do a lot of small sketches to try and experiment with value. you don't need to go into detail. if it's not working at the early stage, and all the basic shapes and values aren't working it will probably not work if you detail it.
the paint brush doesn't have to be 100% hard. I use a round brush that has a slight feather for all my stuff now. make a brush set with brushes of varying softness.

hope that makes some sense.

[sacrelicious]

This is kind of becoming my experimental thread, but I feel like I'm learning. Thanks, everyone, for your advice. I started over, trying to keep all your advice in mind:



The colors are a bit outlandish, but along the lines of the warm/cold complimentary colors idea. The last time I started with lines; this time I started with shapes. Also, the blue background, which is just a placeholder... used a combination of hard and feathered brushes... and so on. For anyone that cares to respond, am I going in the right direction? Is there anything major that I'm missing. I feel better about what I'm doing, but I'd appreciate input.

P.S. If everybody's tired of seeing this stupid picture, I understand completely. Just let me know, I'll start working on somehting else with the knowledge you've all been cool enough to impart. Thanks!

Edit: Here is an in-progress version of the newer pic- he looks a bit more like Bruce Lee.
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[ April 25, 2001: Message edited by: sacrelicious ]