Ailill And Roksana, Linda Bergkvist (2D)

[Tace]

This is my first post here and I got to say I admire the skill of the artist. Wow.

[Cid_Liu]

Wohoo, This is amazing! Nice work!

[valentinfischer]

I have decided after the Memories of Hangzhou piece that I’m never going to do another realistic portrait digitally ever again (a few real idiot jerks at eatpoo.com jumped on me about that piece). It’s not worth the crap I get for it.

please don’t do that . you are a great digital artist, I bought the d’artiste book and its amazing to see how you and linda paints. your art is a big insiration for me and many other people. So shit on these idiots and please keep doing the digital paintings.

sorry for my bad english :banghead:

[ENPTY]

i think it is beyond the turth!

[R-K]

Ranath, the basis of realism is a thorough understanding of form and lighting. Once you have this, you can easily lay down the framework for a realistic portraint, and most of your work time will be spent on rendering and detail. Once you have spent the sheer amount of time most professional artists spend understanding their subject matter, you can draw and paint ANYTHING very quickly.

A portrait, in particular, can go quite fast when you reach this stage, because it’s very familiar subject matter for just about every artist.

Remember–just because YOU can’t do something doesn’t mean it can’t be done. I couldn’t design the Bridge of Sighs or Saint Paul’s Cathedral, but both structures do, indeed, exist.

Socar, thanks for the reply, the rendering and detail’s just the point here. That takes time from even the best. Matte painters use photos, and while you can say that I can’t paint like Enayla, you can’t say that certain matte painters couldn’t. They don’t work as fast as Enayla, not without photographs. Do we actually have to believe that Enayla’s faster and better than anyone else? And while talking about traditional painters, I seriously doubt they worked this fast. I have heard of paintings that took more than months to complete. And here you are comparing that to a photorealistic painting done in one day.

Bottom line: As some other member put it, it shouldn’t be too difficult to take some progress shots to shut people’s mouths, especially since discussions like this have happened in past and Enayla probably knew that something would arise. It leaves us 2 choices: Either Enayla doesn’t care that her works are considered as fakes, or then she doesn’t have progress to show, meaning photographs.

PS. To certain member who was defending the paintings furiously: Asking questions is attacking eh? Maybe you should question more, you could start from things that you seem to keep holy (Enayla’s painting methods)

Sorry about the flame.

[kaylon]

These works are really shocking. I’m trembling if I think at your technical skills and at the careful that you put on minimal details, colours and light. (I don’t understand the critic on the distance of the eyes, or on the proportion of hands…these critics simply doesn’t match with Art (and its history)…moreover, I don’t understand all the critics on the beauty, shape or colours of a subject, because I think that if I want to depict an “error” of mother nature, like me, or the 2 girls - or is the same? -, in your paintings [joking], I can do that; mother nature did it.)

But… I feel that I would be more enthusiastic, and appreciate those 2 great pieces of Art, only if I was sure that they are not made painting over, or copying, a photograph.
I know that many big artists do that, either from the past or present days, but I feel that I’m really shaky only if I know that those pictures came out from the real mind and soul of the body who painted them… Anyway 6 stars.

cheers,

ago-stino

p.s.

Mmmm, and not try to say me that you didn’t copy from a photograph. Sorry I really cannot believe that, at least until someone who I can trust can convince me…

MMMMMM n.2, after some watching, I’m pretty sure that those 2 pictures are 2 photographs retouched, through the overlaying of slightly painted layers.

I’m sorry. Interpretations like mine are part of the destiny of photorealistic painting.

Anyway these 2 works, that, I insist, I appreciate a lot, are 2 photographs retouched by painting in Photoshop and/or Painter.

.

I hardly ever post but I felt I had to here …

I have followed Linda’s work for years…to many to mention and have been Inspired and enchanted by it as many people have. She is a very well known and respected artist in many many communities and I’m shocked that anyone can start to preach “paint over” when veiwing her work…Yes these may look like photo’s…but trust me, she simply IS that good.

Linda sets a standard for talent, one I would truly love to be at myself but probably never will be. You should be ashamed of yourself for even mentioning paint overs when talking about her work.

I do not mean to offend or flame but felt compeled to post.

Linda is a wondeful artist, possibly a modern day master (in many peoples eyes). Would you look at a rembrant portrait or any paintings of the old masters and say “paintover” …no …

Do some homework and look into Linda’s work and history before claiming photo-manipulation.

Kaylon.

[kaylon]

Im sorry, but there’s no way in hell that some of those pictures dont have other sources of photos in them.

If it wasn’t true, a lot of people wouldn’t be complaining. And no, im not “jealous” of her work, because I can hold up my art on my own quite well at my own site.

The hair, has obvious photo grain in it, the back of the hair has been over-sized causing the compressed/blurry jpeg look. The hand’s don’t even look painted, the lips have photo-compression in them, and the eyes are unlikely painted in the second photo.

I’m not saying this woman cannot paint, but compare her 100% painted pictures to these. And profile? Who cares, there’s been ton of artists out there who make it in the buisness, who cheat.

Awards, books, or whatever, these aren’t 100% painted.

And also, edit:

I don’t want to get a bad rep at such a great, artistic site. But im really tired of people pulling off cheap photomanip-digi art’s and getting full credit, while other’s strive on hours to make paintings, with nothing but scratch and get overlooked.

It’s sad.

I think you might have just gotten a bad rep by saying “No way in hell” cos there is…

Linda is sharing her work with us, to enjoy and be inspired…for years she has been doing so :).

Why must people start preaching Photo-manip when a respected…well known and very talented person posts some art…most people on these forums now Linda, some personaly. We know her art and we know how talented she is…we know she can paint this good and this fast and she keeps on amazing us when ever she posts something new.

These are wonderful Linda can’t wait to see more…and I do hope you are feeling better.

Kay

[Socar_MYLES]

You’d have a valid point, if it weren’t for the fact that matte paintings are rather different from portrait paintings. First of all, they tend to be pretty damn big. Filling a 16,000 x 8,000 (or larger? I have no idea how big matte paintings get these days.) pixel canvas is going to take much, much longer than filling a 6,000 x 8,000 canvas (assuming these are even that large). Second of all, matte paintings often involve highly involved hand-painted textures, which incorporate very fine details over very large areas. In a portrait, the detail’s rather more concentrated–you have the eyes, the mouth, the fingernails, and the hair, which require a fair amount of fine detailing, then large areas of skin, which have broader strokes, and more generalized textures. For someone who’s done it frequently, a full head of hair, even one as nicely done as this, can be polished off in less than half an hour, and highly detailed areas like the eyes won’t take an undue amount of time, either.

There are plenty of people who can paint a highly-detailed picture, realistic or otherwise, in a day or less. Many, many illustrators HAVE to turn out around a page a day to earn a steady income.

I’m by no means saying Linda’s the best portrait painter, or the fastest–just that these portraits are perfectly within the bounds of possibility, without the use of photographic material. I’m not saying every brushstroke was painstakingly laid down–there could be some pre-painted overlaid textures, or custom brushes, but there’s nothing wrong with using that sort of thing. Hell, I have a folder of background textures for comic-page use saved on my hard drive. They save me hours of work.

Finally, scaling down images for showing on the Internet tightens up textures and details a lot. I wouldn’t be surprised if these looked a lot looser close up.

As far as showing progress shots go, who knows? If the artist has a popular style, it’s quite understandable if they don’t want to reveal TOO much of their process to all the world and his wife. Trade secrets, sort of thing. Besides, it’s not their responsibility to do that. Joe Schmoe on the Internet is not ENTITLED to know the inner workings of an artist’s process. I find it really annoying to see people always trying to rip people’s work apart and discredit the artist, instead of just enjoying it for what it is. In this case, you’ve got these lovely, carefree portraits (well, the first one, anyway–that second one’s a bit gruesome!), but instead of looking at them and seeing their beauty, people seem determined to look at them and see ugliness and fraud.

Man, this sort of thing is precisely the reason I keep most of my art to myself nowadays. I’ve never been accused of tracing, but I’ve been slammed for my choice of subject matter, had my work defaced by religious fanatics, and been harassed by pervert e-mails and phone-calls from an insane fan. That whole atmosphere makes me sick. I didn’t see much of it on CGTalk before, and this thread really disappoints the hell out of me. My career got its start on Internet forums but I’m enjoying them less and less.

(Sorry to screw up your thread with this rant, Linda.)

[anhedonite]

Besides, it’s not their responsibility to do that. Joe Schmoe on the Internet is not ENTITLED to know the inner workings of an artist’s process. I find it really annoying to see people always trying to rip people’s work apart and discredit the artist, instead of just enjoying it for what it is. In this case, you’ve got these lovely, carefree portraits (well, the first one, anyway–that second one’s a bit gruesome!), but instead of looking at them and seeing their beauty, people seem determined to look at them and see ugliness and fraud.

nod

I would much rather these days view an artists gallery than go to a forum any day anymore because I can’t believe the crap that is slung at them by people. I would much rather go to Linda’s or Socar’s or Lunatique’s site to see their stuff without having to deal with people that just feel obligated to slam them because they can’t believe someone can do something they can’t, or because they don’t like the subject matter.

And I in no way mean anything bad about the people that operate this forum, and do a wonderful job of handling it, or the people that give genuine comments and critiques (they don’t have to positive, just constructive at the very least), but instead, the asses that feel obligated to come in and create a smear campaign of someone.

If you dont think it can be done, do some more research. If you don’t think it can be done because you can’t do it, go practice.

[Enayla]

Oh my gosh, if I had had any idea I’d get this amount of comments on these two images, I’d certainly not have promised to respond to every comment. Like I’ve said, I’ve been ill, and I still am.

Nowwww… to the paintings. These are not touched-up photographs. I really am not good enough at photo-manipulation to achieve this with it - I wish I were, I would really be able to teach classes better if I were. The hair on the first picture is based off of my dear friend Mikaela’s hair in a number of photos I’ve taken, and the girl in the second image is highly based on a photo of myself (except I don’t much look like that - I won’t post my self-reference material for the first image, being that I looked rotten and was naked in that one, but if you’d like, I could post some of the pictures I snapped for the bloody image. I warn you though, I’m not a good photographer). So, hm, I’m not sure if I could do this without reference - but I know I can do it without photo material within the actual painting. Using reference is fast and fun as long as you don’t stick by it so absolutely that you lose yourself in them (which happens to me, in some cases: I have some paintings I’ve scrapped because I realised I got stuck in the references and ended up being too close, not doing anything ‘personal’ at all with the work)

I’ve never tried to claim I don’t use photo references - anyone’s that followed my work for any amount of time knows this to be true. In some portraits, such as these, I’ll base some parts heavily off of my self-portraits (self-portraits as in photos). I really don’t see a problem with doing that - they’re my own photos. I do get carried away sometimes, and I know the pieces are less ‘artistic’ when I use references more heavily, but I didn’t post these as one of my more finished, personal and completed pieces. I truly am sorry if I upset people with what I do. I don’t mean to. Faces, I draw very fast. But do understand that if I say that I did something yesterday - that doesn’t mean 1) that I finished it all yesterday, and 2) that I did anything else but paint from the starting point and until I finished. I said I was ill and that’s the illness - I don’t sleep.

Really, thank you dearly those that appreciate what I do. To the rest - I am sorry, I really am not up to having this discussion. You’d have to be here and see me paint before you’d believe me, wouldn’t you?

I’m off to bed now - I feel rotten that this is the first CGtalk post I can’t sit around and respond to every single post, but there you are :]

Have a nice one, everyone - kisses!

(O, and I realised - as for process… you can either take a peek at D’artiste, or wait for some other of my pictures. I don’t tend to keep the process of every image I paint, and I didn’t in this case, I’m afraid… It pretty much goes the same way, every time, though :] (honestly, with every painting you do, do you save twenty-five different versions of it from beginning to end? when I paint like I did this time, I just… paint. And save over, and save over, and save over. This is why I get big accidents where I lose entire paintings, but I’m stupid, I always do that.))

[Lunatique]

I said I was ill and that’s the illness - I don’t sleep.

Get well soon sweetie. Drink lots of water, and sleep like a pig. The world will still be here when you wake up, and you are still young–lots of time left to conquer the world. (I’m the same way. My wife gets mad at me because I don’t sleep and work way too much. I keep feeling like time is running out and I gotta finish that painting NOW.)

[Enayla]

Aw, thanks Luna <3

Not ordinary illness, though - it’s acute insomnia or something, heheh. Before this weekend, I only slept about every fourth night or something. It’s getting pretty freaky. Started out with me just staying up late and working too much and then I just couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t sleep for months and months.

So be careful, it can get really bad. I think burning out/stressing out/working too much is a real danger for us artist-types, heheh.

[R-K]

You’d have a valid point, if it weren’t for the fact that matte paintings are rather different from portrait paintings. First of all, they tend to be pretty damn big. Filling a 16,000 x 8,000 (or larger? I have no idea how big matte paintings get these days.) pixel canvas is going to take much, much longer than filling a 6,000 x 8,000 canvas (assuming these are even that large).

This is my last post to this thread. I’m not egoist enough to take full responisble of ruining this thread, but I have been part of it. My deepest apologizes to everyone, especially the artist, who I directed my first questions to.

I have heard that matte paintings used in film industry are around 2000 wide, and many painters say they paint mattes in double size, meaning not so big stuff as you believed.

What you are saying about ripping off style and techniques from WIP images, would be understandable, but we aren’t asking a tutorial here. And surely, if Enayla’s as good as you say, she wouldn’t have much competitors, not even if she held lessons, made DVDs, books, tutorials, showed all her WIP images and all. And no, artist is not responsible to show how she/he works. Nor is public to believe what we see, nor to keep our mouths shut about the matter, not untill we are shown proof (or mods tell us to shut up, which might happen very soon).

When I look at those images, I don’t really see ugliness or fraud, they look good. I’m sorry for being part of the bash contest. I tried not to bash, I tried to question those images fairly in hopes of seeing some sort of proof. I understand that it won’t happen, unless the artist can forgive this thread and post the images which hasn’t happened often in the past, despite the requests.

Many people fakes their images, it can’t be wrong to be cautious. It feels bad when someone says “100% hand painted!!” and then you find out that it’s an obvious paint over after all. Fraud is praised and your works are not, even though you’re much better painter than the fraud. And you are honest, more importantly, and you don’t fake even when you could.

anhedonite: For God’s sake, it has been agreed in this thread long time ago that stuff like that can be painted…

I’m out, and won’t reply anymore to this flame war.

EDIT: Oh, we got responses to this while I was typing this

And thank you, Enayla, for being kind. I’d deserve far nastier comments.

[Schnupps]

Aw, thanks Luna <3

Not ordinary illness, though - it’s acute insomnia or something, heheh. Before this weekend, I only slept about every fourth night or something. It’s getting pretty freaky. Started out with me just staying up late and working too much and then I just couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t sleep for months and months.

So be careful, it can get really bad. I think burning out/stressing out/working too much is a real danger for us artist-types, heheh.

Great art you did there again!
Is it possible to order posters of some of your works? Or get a picture the highest resolution you got to get it printed (I would pay of course)?
I´ve got this naked white wall next to me, which calls for some art…

You really should visit a doctor! Insomnia is no fun… have a look at this thread:
http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=143420&highlight=insomnia
But better get some sleep first

[RLyons]

Whoooo, you used photos of yourself for that pic…ah man, not only do you paint like a gun but your gorgeous as well. Keep on kicking arse!

[MarkSnoswell]

[size=2]
Linda said "O, and I realised - as for process… you can either take a peek at D’artiste, "

[/size]Fantastic work Linda.

For everyone wanting to see more of Linda’s work and tutorials on how she works get her d’artiste book – Digital Artists Master Class on Digial Painting. Linda, Philip Straub, John Wallin and Robert Chang all made this an outstanding book http://www.ballisticpublishing.com/books/dartiste_digital_painting

… and we all wish you the best and get some rest Linda – so you can finish your next book and we can publish it!

cheers

Mark

[O_Connor]

I think your art pieces are absolutely beautiful!

It is a great inspiration for me to come to this daily and see such wonderful artwork. I only hope that one day I can become a fraction of the artist you are!

Please keep up the great work and I hope you get better soon!

[Tace]

I had posted earlier to this thread but that post seem to have disappeared into a cyber-blackhole, probably being looked over by the Mods because I am so new, I have to say I’m vey impressed with the two pictures. I hope to be so good myself in time. As this is my first posting (second?) here I do not wish to get involved in the controversy but I will say this thread is a bit of an eye opener.

[blizzardart]

this is portrait very very amazing work.i like your artwork.

[estioco]

WOW!!! jus pure WOW! i could jus look at these painting for hours. now you are the kind of artist that is truly inspiring for someone like me to further push myself beyond my limits…

I think i speak for everyone