CGTalk - 'Til Death Do Us Part...or Not?, Lindsey Cormier (2D)

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Lindsey

04-05-2007, 09:19 AM

http://features.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/275483/275483_1175764778_medium.jpg

Title: 'Til Death Do Us Part...or Not?
Name: Lindsey Cormier
Country: USA
Software: Photoshop

This is my first completed digital painting. I'm a traditional artist who has been practicing digital painting for the past year now...but I had a bad habit of deleting my files (on purpose, hehe.) Finally, I managed to finish something!

I'm not sure why, but I just got the idea in my head that it would be fun to paint a zombie bride. I wanted her to look beautiful, but her skull is showing and blood has been splattered to indicate that she is actually an undead creature of some sort. I'm not a writer at all, so feel free to come up with the story for why this poor lady has come back from the dead, hehe.

I wanted to combine everything I've learned so far, and also do something a little more challenging and different from anything I've ever painted in the past. I looked at several references for this piece (probably over 100), but referred to them all very loosely. I also used some textures for the background from my own photographs. Any sort of critique is welcome. I still have lots to learn!

Here is a close-up:
http://www.linranae.com/images/digital/zombiebridedetail.jpg

Ischwara

04-05-2007, 09:36 PM

This is beautiful and disturbing at the same time. :D And that dress is just lovely. Maybe it would be better to show some skin on the face instead of just the skull, I think her beauty would be more emphasized if we could see what she looked like before turning into a zombie.. just my opinion. :) Nevertheless, great work!

MoonVisionStudio

04-06-2007, 01:23 AM

Very nicely done. My suggestion is to make the dress partially decomposed and show some more areas of bone. Right now it looks too much like a mask but I understand you wanted to make her beautiful too. For creepy images like this it usually helps to have more dramatic lighting too. Very good for a "first" attempt.

scrimski

04-06-2007, 02:09 AM

Very good for a "first" attempt.

Agreed.

Any chance to see a larger version?

Lindsey

04-06-2007, 02:12 AM

Ischwara: Thanks for your comments! That's a good idea about the skull/face. I was actually going to show more of her face, but it was difficult just getting the skull to look correct at the angle I wanted. I couldn't find any pictures of skulls in the position I wanted, so I had to look at references of faces at that angle and use construction lines to figure out how the skull should look. I learned a lot, that's for sure!

MoonVisionStudio: Thank you! I agree, I probably should have added more bones/decomposed areas. I also agree about the lighting - in fact, I'm not sure why I didn't consider that more carefully when I started. I think I got caught up in the details too early. I don't know if I will work on this particular painting more, but I will definitely remember those things for the next time I paint something like this.

Lindsey

04-06-2007, 02:25 AM

Agreed.

Any chance to see a larger version?

Thank you :) I would show a larger version, but I'm afraid I can't show my art much bigger than this. Unfortunately, I've had problems in the past with people illegally printing my art on things and selling it as their own products...if I posted bigger images it would make that all too easy for them.

Here are some close-ups, so you can see more of the details:
http://www.linranae.com/images/digital/zombiebridedetail.jpg

http://www.linranae.com/images/digital/zombiebridedetail2.jpg

http://www.linranae.com/images/digital/zombiebridedetail3.jpg

Nickillus

04-06-2007, 02:40 PM

Well you seem to have made the transition across to digital beautifully Lindsey. I wish my first piece had looked like this. Super job.

Nick

Annette

04-06-2007, 07:15 PM

Excellent wrk .... love the dress

Lindsey

04-06-2007, 10:26 PM

Nick and Annette, thank you very much for your kind words! :)

marcotronic

04-09-2007, 06:57 AM

simply beautiful work! I love the details and the overall idea and concept. Concerning the idea of showing some part of the original face - yes, that would make the artwork perfect.

4 Stars...

Marco

Lindsey

04-10-2007, 03:30 AM

kayness

04-15-2007, 01:16 AM

impressive first attempt Lindsey! I wish my first attempt was a tenth as good as this XD.
my personal opinion is that the edges of her face, figure and dress is blurred, while on the contrary the blades of the grass are sharp, which, if anything, should be the other way round because I presume you want her figure to be the focus, yes?

Lindsey

04-15-2007, 05:29 AM

Thank you kayc.
Hmm...the figure,face and dress don't really look that blurry to me though. When I paint I don't worry if it will look super detailed in the close-up views. I focus on how the overall image will look because that is most important. I don't usually zoom in past 25% most of the time. In the close-up shots, things look a lot messier. On the grass the sharpness is from the photo textures and texture brushes I used there. I didn't smooth that part out because when you size the whole image down for the web, the difference is barely noticeable. Actually, looking at it now, I should have worked a lot more on the foreground grass because part of it is way too blurry.

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