XianNC's WIPs

[xiannc]

Hi. My name is Christian. I am starting this thread to get critiques and comments on my Works in Progress. I am always open to paintovers. I still have a lot to learn.

So this will be my first peice that I will be working from concept to completion. I am reposting it here from the anatomy forum to get broader critiques on color and composition.

I was browsing around on myspace the other day and found a picture by a friend of a friend.

Reference (http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/xiannc/my%20anatomy%20thread/hummingbirdref.jpg)

I started sketching it out and I ended up copying the whole picture. As I was copying the picture I got all these ideas for making a painting so I threw some of them in there as a rough sketch.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/xiannc/hummingbirds.jpg

I ended up emailing the girl in the picture to ask her permission to do the painting. She emailed me back with a beautiful story.

"In Feb 2003, I met and fell in love with a man whose ceiling was blanketed by paper cranes. Some of them even had notes or special drawings - reminders of the days that he made them. I spent many of those nights staring up at those cranes, and it is the one thing that I will remember about our first house. He took this picture very shortly after I moved in with him, on the first night that we got all fixed up together and went to a party. I was madly in love, and feel like you can see it in this picture."

So Ive spent most of this week thinking about this picture and getting references and now that I have her permission and her story, I want to try to put the story back into the picture. You might see that as the peice moves along. I think I'm done with the layout, and it looks something like this..

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/xiannc/my%20anatomy%20thread/1.jpg

This painting will probably take a long time as it's my first. Sorry for the long post I'm excited about getting started. I know it's to early to critique, but if you have some tips on getting started with a full concept I would apreciate it.

[xiannc]

Ok, so here's an update. I decided to work it up in grayscale first and then go into color. I have worked quite a bit on the face, and I started on the hand this afternoon.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/xiannc/WIP%20thread/6.jpg

[NR43]

Hey... was wondering if you ever got to finish this painting?
Such nice story attached to it... would be a waste not to finish it ;)

[xiannc]

Hey NR43! Thanks for the reply. That WIP is on the front of my mind. It will be finished by the end of december. Thats the deadline. In the meantime.. this month I did a painting for my church. It took maybe about 15 hours and it started from a sketch from imagination. It might not have taken so long except I kept changing my mind about color and look. At the end I thought it looked to cartoony so I went closer to a reference.
It is based loosely on a scene from The Chronicles of Narnia : The Voyage of the Dawntreader. I didn't post the WIP because I was trying to get it done without internet distraction. So I will post all the steps here in one go. Tell me what you think. Critique away. I have so much to learn, any little thought is useful.
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/xiannc/WIP%20thread/lionink.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/xiannc/WIP%20thread/1.jpg

[xiannc]

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/xiannc/WIP%20thread/2.jpg
And here is the rest...
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/xiannc/WIP%20thread/6-1.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/xiannc/WIP%20thread/10.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/xiannc/WIP%20thread/12.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i91/xiannc/WIP%20thread/14.jpg

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