[CapnPyro]

I painted this the other day. yes i used reference obviously, im still to lame to do original things I at first tried to do this in color, but i still have alot of difficulty in blocking in the colors and shapes so i just did B&W. Anyway my question is (besides, does it suck) is there anyway I could color it? I think I remember Frost mentioning coloring over a black and white sketch a while back. Or would it be best to just scrap this pic and put it off as a learning experiment?

Anywho here it is


The reference I used was the magazine itself, but here's the picture from their website http://www.stuff-mag.com/babes/kristina/images/kristina3.jpg

btw the information given in agent44's skin tone thread by Liquid!, Jason, Pierre, and Fred is invaluable. I hope to put some of what i learned to use in this or my next painting. I really can't thank you guys enough for everything you do around here. Hah, there are days i skip art class to stay at home, read these threads, get inspired, then draw. I think I learn more here.

-Capn

[Edit: That's another question I had. Do you do most your work from drawing straight into the computer, or do you sketch something out first then scan it in?]

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http://home1.gte.net/capnpyro

[This message has been edited by CapnPyro (edited October 19, 2000).]

[pierre]

Hi,

Some of the old masters used to do underpaintings in a techinique called "grisaille" which often meant that it was a mohochromatic underpainting in grey, your example reminds me of that.

They did that often in a thin watercolor, tempera and/or terpentine wash. The over painting was done by a layering technique whereas you put thin glazes over one another, mainly concentrating on your tones, because most of the values are already worked out in the underpainting. What you could do to begin with, is to cover the major areas with a transparent color wash, close to the final major colors that you intend to use ( some masters did their underpaintings in complementary colors, say if they were to paint a reddish pink skin tone, they had a greenish one to serve as a foundation, but many underpainting techniques that where worked out by the classical painters was also a product by the lack of good and time reliable paints and paint pigments. Since in your case you will color it in the computer, you will not have to worry about any pigments you can trust your pixels to rezist the power of time and physical behaviour). Above that thin wash you could layer other coats of thin paint, like glazes, eventually working more on the details. The final product should be a painting with the glazes being thick enough (added together) to show their original colors, but also thin enough to let your "grisaille" show through. Of course you can vary the amount of transparancy in your glazes and even put some value to them, not totally working in a water color technique, but since you stated that you want to color this one, you should really try the glazing technique out. I am sure you know that using this techniqe, one of your major colors will be the white of the "canvas" (even though I myself prefer to begin with a thick color blockin at first, and then over that put glazes).

Hope to see this one colored good luck!

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http://www.crosswinds.net/~pierrehannah

[pierre]

Normally I do everything of the painting process in the computer, nevertheless, many times I find myself scanning in my sketches to work them out digitally. One reason for that is because I do actually draw and paint more traditionally than I do digitally and there may be some sketches lying around that I would like to work on more in the digital realm, another reason is that I like the feeling of holding a pen or brush in my hand and sometimes choose that for doing a stage that could be easily incorporated in the digital working process. But this scanning stage I do only when it comes to sketches that show structure, not values and/or color, they will be fully digital, from beginning to end, since I feel that is the most rational thing.

I don't see, though, that there is a significant difference in scanning or not, if you can get a good result with both. If I had a larger wacom, I would probably do more of the process in the computer than I do now. It is all a matter what you feel comfortable with. Also, you have to remember that if you intend to scan and have that image show through your final work, then it will probably differ a bit (depending on the quality of the scan) than if your whole process was digital only.

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http://www.crosswinds.net/~pierrehannah

[CapnPyro]

Thanks Pierre, I'm a little bit familiar with glazes. My art teacher went over the technique a bit, he actually showed us a painting he did with 50(!) layers of glazing. shone really nice at night with a light on it. that actually didnt come to mind when i was thinkin of how to color it though. It's weird how alot of traditional art style hold true to digital. thanks for the tips

for the sketching, thats what i sort of figured. what ever seems to work best for you, i guess. thanks again

-Capn