Imaginative Figure Workshop #001: Self Portrait As A Creature

#161

I maybe decided to do a bit of the workshop, so just started to work on baseshape… in the context… me… well what we call a human body

#162

Hey you all. cool stuff in the works I see. I decided to approach myself from the animal side and work myself towards myself as a human. Hopefully I’ll find a nice blend along the way.

#163

Prack, sweet, great start! Can’t wait to see what you’ll do with this. :slight_smile:

Lander, hey, welcome! Love the expression, this should be a cool piece!

#164

Hey Rebecca,

Here’s my version…combining self-portrait and a lion.

#165

Bldslfsdfjasd

#166

Sam - cool to see you here :slight_smile: Good start!

cire8888 - hehe nice one - I like the hairdo :slight_smile:

ok - I’ve finally forced myself to do the rough self-portrait part - can’t say I enjoyed it :wink: - here’s a very symmetrical mug with crazy eyes… :scream:

#167

cire8888 - love the snarl!
Intervain - whoa. can’t wait to see what that morphs into!

Okay, so here’s me. I guess monkey is kind of a gimme, but my favorite animal is a Golden Lion Tamarin. I think the open eye is drifting a bit, but I’ll paint over all of this mess.

#168

jojo1975: No intention to be disrespectful but with that expression on your face where is the left hand going? :slight_smile:

#169

Hey Eric,

Nice to see you participate! :slight_smile: I like the top / lion one more than the mech one. The shirt on the lion one is starting to look good. What I might suggest clarifying is where the light is coming from. The frontal lighting might not be as interesting as a slightly off center light source, which would lend more interesting shadow shapes on one or the other side of the face. I’d say the same thing for the mech, the light source seems too frontal – these could be more dramatic I think. Looking forward to your updates!

Magda, great to see this entry from you, can’t wait to see the updates. :slight_smile:

Jamihn, I like the expression, that’s pretty hilarious.

#170

@ Lander… Same place as in the original :wink:

#171

Just an update on my work. I’m not going with the tracing idea anymore. Instead, I’m sketching by hand my self-portrait from my references (HB or 2B graphite sticks) and then going over the top of them with 6B+ graphite sticks in order to explore any changes I can make. I’d post pics here, but I don’t want to use up the 4 image limit. I figure that, to take the muzzle of a raccoon, I do need to move my nose further forward, and dealing with how it will combine with my face and with the mouth/chin area should be interesting. :slight_smile:

Jamie, nice going there. Hehe, I don’t have any reference photo of myself with any amusing expression. I might take one for when I choose my final pose, though.

#172

Really really stunning work… 5 * from me

#173

Hi there, wow, lots of cool updates, this is getting nicer each day.

Jamihn, that’s funny :slight_smile: keep it up. I like the style of your sketch.

Magda, wow, I’m so curious about your next steps :wink:

Eric, I like the Lion, fits well, will become a strong portrait, keep it up.

Prack, great start, nice to see your work around here, pretty zbrush.

Jojo - hahahha - that’s dmn cool, keep that going, :smiley:

Michael - wow, great to have you onboard :slight_smile: - great start.

Spirit - Hey man, you developed your skills a lot, this is great to see :slight_smile: Looking great!

Rebecca - barf ? hahHHAHAHAHHA that’s TRULY funny.
I’m posting my stuff soon :wink:
I’m morphing to a lizard for sure :smiley: - The komodo dragon…

#174

Thank you Rebeccak. Your advices are always welcome. This link http://www.henningludvigsen.com/wordpress/?page_id=23 doesn’t work but Steven Stahlberg’s tutorial is great.

#175

razz - that’s looking great. I like the emotions in the face. The horns are not that easy to read, though. Maybe lighten up the rear parts?

stridiggio - I think that’s much better. Leaving more space as Rebecca suggested might be a good idea to make it better still

lander - also, great emotions. I like the eyes very much. They look so 3D with the reflections just in the right place!

cire8888 - (lion self) how cool is that? One of my favourite pieces in the workshop, because it looks so convincingly casual.

jamihn - another great expression, ROFL. I just love the idea. I would suggest adding the eyebrows somehow to make it resemble you a tad more. Just my opinion.

Here’s my final value stuff. I will try and go to color from here. With advice from Glenn I checked scale ref (painted ones) by Boris Vallejo and realized he only painted the lightest lights in scale shapes on a scaled body. The rest was partly blended, partly with thin suggestions of scales. I tried to apply this to my face.

#176

rebeccak… lol @ barf, can’t wait

KWAK… great to see you here bro, I’ve watched your work go from strength to strength over the years

MichelZHsee… Stunning! His right hand looks like it’s a little broken tho

Lander… Tuurtle!.. Hi fellow shelled one:wavey: Crack up sketch too!

cire888… that’s kinda scary man, well done

Intervain… OOh… waiting to see this

jamihn… still chuckling as I type, that’s really funny

Mu… love the hilites on the fangs

Welp, here’s my second WIP guys, haven’t had much time but upped the vids too:)

Any pointers?

Timelapse 1

and

Timelapse 2

#177

Mu - WHOA! Scary tongue action there! I really like the scales.

DaddyMack - That’s awful darn cute. I love the hands. It’s like you’re saying “hug me please!”

#178

haha DaddyMack - I have to agree, it’s really cute :slight_smile: It should be holding a cute porcelain teacup :wink:

Mu - nice job! I think a bit more contrast in the value work could bring the head out and perhaps more variation in the scales? just thinking aloud here :thumbsup:

jamihn - great expression :slight_smile:

#179

DaddyMack and Jahmin - thanks for the feedback

Intervain - I think I know what you mean. I was trying to push the scales a bit while in b/w stage, but everytime I felt as if they started looking plasticky somehow.

I’ll stretch the rules a bit and post this as a kind of final-but-WIP hybrid…:smiley:

EDIT: I realize there’s quite a few jpeg artefacts in the image. I linked a higher res pic, now. If you click on the pic you can see it in a larger version…

I’d appreciate any feedback a lot (also as concerns contrast).
I realize I lost a stage in my Painter .rif file version history, but I still have the basic colour layout with the greyscale underneath it and could go back and change a few things people point out in here.

Note this is my first digital colour painting. I have been doing greyscale all these years.

things I tried to mind:

  • cold agains warm (in this case blue against reddish)
  • less saturation in the highlights
  • higher saturation where the form turns into shadow
  • blueish in the shades of the form

I then slightly lit the canvas with blue and red and tinted the canvas (really just a bit) - both to bring a bit of unity into the whole thing.

Really looking forward to your suggestions:

#180

Will reply soon, right now waaaay too tired.

Working on a new direction, did a traditional oil painting and then tweaked it a bit in PS. Progress so far, Dispassionate Kim Chi Eater: :wink:
[left]Edit:Actually I like the traditional version better, but I didn’t manage to get a good shot of it tonight. I’ll post the digital up when it’s finished.

So yeah, the plan was to do a straight oil painting, with some exaggerations (my hair is much tamer) but I realize now that I should get away from the computer and just paint, damn it’s fun…
[/left]