[Malachi Maloney]

Hey all,

I've been working on this 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there, during breaks from a major painting I'm working on right now. The other painting I've been working on has been so labor intensive, that it was actually relaxing to work on something else for a little while. Plus it keeps your skills sharp if your constantly painting/drawing/doodling something. To give you an idea of how involved the other piece I'm working on is; I've been working on the sketch for it for over a week now and I still have at least a couple days of sketching to do before I can even start laying down any paint, which I estimate to take another 100-150 hours. So, I definitely needed to work on something else for a little while, just so I don't burn myself out on the larger piece.

So, this is what I did during "brake time".
I did this piece as a quick study in style, color and texture. I do things like this every once in a while in an attempt to keep my skills varied and fresh. Things like this are also a way for me to show potential clients that I have more in my arsenal than airbrush skills. Not only that, but my main goal is to eventually incorporate a more textured look to into a lot more of my future illustrations.
Like I said, this piece was done quickly, well at least for me it was, a little less than 5 hours. Which is about 1/20 of the time I normally spend on a painting. The coloring came out kind of "wonky", in my opinion, but I was experimenting, so I really didn't know what I was going to come up with in the end.
This painting was done on 1 layer with some new custom brushes that I recently made. The brushes were made by dabbing ink on paper with different sizes/kinds of brushes. I was really pleased with how well the new brushes represent natural media.

Anyway, on with the show.....

Model: Cherie Roberts

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

Take a closer look at this piece and view some full resolution details from it here.

I don't show nude photos of my models, but I've included a cut-out of the reference photo if you'd like to take a look , so you can see just how different the painting is from the reference.
Reference


Let me know your thoughts.

Take it easy,
Malachi

[SiLeNt_UK]

first things first..she's very fit :-) Um well along with the very much darker skin tone and thinner eyes she looks a bit mean and angry, while in the ref she looks all sweet and innocent. I think the less rounded cheeks add to this effect 2. Her hair is very good, although this is coming from sum1 who cant paint hair for shit. A very cool pic although i do prefer the sweet and innocent Cherie Roberts in the ref rather than the slightly less innocent 1 in ure pic.

Just visited your site, ure amazing - who am i to comment on ure stuff, ill be quiet now

[ September 14, 2002: Message edited by: SiLeNt_UK ]

[sacrelicious]

I really dig this looser style. You should consider doing a few full-fledged pinups like this.

[Socar J. MYLES]

The textures are looking good--I'm fond of the textured look.

One area I think could use some improvement is the face, though--the skin tone doesn't quite match that of the body, and it seems a bit too shiny and over-rendered, giving it a cast-bronze look instead of a fleshy look. The red glow under her chin also contributes to the disjointed look, as though the face were attached to a different body.

In the close-up, you can see the "jumpy effect" in the textures in some places--that is, the repeating pattern caused by brush spacing. Using other brushes and/or the eraser tool on top of your texture brushes can cut down on this.

Overall, though, I think it's a good thing--the hair in particular is looking more soft and natural than your usual, and the model's gaze is much more arresting than in the reference picture.

Nice one!

[Malachi Maloney]

Thanks for the feedback folks.

Admittedly, this is far from my best work, but it wasn't meant to be anything great. Just me playing around with some new custom brushes and experimenting with color.

SiLeNt_UK~ Thanks for commenting. The difference in her expression was intentional. I guess it was just a way for me to add a little of my own emotion to the piece. Then again, maybe I over did it, because now she looks like she's about to kill somebody.

sacrelicious~ Thanks for commenting bud. You'll be seeing some new textured stuff from me eventually, I just need some time to refine this style more before I try to apply it to an entire painting.

Socar~ Thanks for the comments and crits. I may have overworked her face a little, but I prefer to think of it that I under worked her body. I agree she looks kind of "bronzed" out, she could use some cooler tones in her skin. I'll also watch out for that "jumpiness" when using custom brushes, but I did use around 10 different custom brushes when painting this piece, at full res you can notice that a bit more. As far as hair goes, hey I appreciate the complement. I personally think this is some of the lamest hair I've ever painted.
I think these are some good examples of hair I've painted well:
1 2 3

Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to comment folks. It's appreciated.

Take it easy,
Malachi