Hi…Spirit Wind…
Read you are thinking of going to a life class…DO IT…
Takes me an hour and a half each way to mine, but feels SO GOOD to get my hands dirty, and to stretch out my arm for a change. Makes every minute of the ride to and from there worth it…plus as you say, it is nice to be able to interact, OR IS IT INTEREACT… with the teacher and other classmates, in the REAL WORLD…:bounce:
Like those last two you posted by the way…
TAKE CARE
Glenn
Trunks: Hey, and thanks for the advice! Trying not to go hugely detailed on the backgrounds, but I like the idea of lessening the detail! will try that next time!
Samanthie: Thanks, and isn’t he? A great character from what was a fab gallery. In the case of the pencil sketches for Michael, i follow references quite closely, but i’ll add overlays or trinkets, so it’s something original.
Glenn: Yes, definitely becoming more of a possibility, even more so having seen the results in your thread!
Salubri3i: aw, cheers! Appreciate it.
Quick addition for tonight, a 4 hour watercolour thats 3 inches x 8.5 inches. Another incarnation of my alter ego, zephyri.
thank you, and by all means, should you see something you think looks off, feel free to say. And as for surface, not quite decided yet. Originally I’d thought glass, more for its symbolic connotations, but steel would work nicely too, as it’s literally pertinent to the storyline, and to have them lying on shattered steel would mean their impact had to be huge. I’ll probably paint and see what it ends up looking like.
Heya Zeph, np, great to see you so active around here! Hmm, steel would def. be interesting, color wise maybe you wouldn’t want it to be too cool…can see a nice shadow cast over it though that could break up the space…just thinking out loud. One thing that seems a bit off is his right forearm / hand - the forearm seems to have another joint there and bends upward toward the hand which I don’t think it can do. 
You might also check the relative size / roundness of her shoulders, but I think these are all things you would catch anyway as you continue to render…def. enjoying your mix of styles and subjects, and always look forward to seeing more!
Hi Zeph,
been a while since I have wondered at the marvels of your thread and I had to read up a few pages.
Again, totally gorgious pose and wonderful WIP so far.
There’s some things about this composition that make me wonder, though…
I think that blood puddles have been overdone and this one sort of takes away from the originality of the beautiful pose.
But I reckon you had a reason for the blood from a storytelling point of view?
Where is the blood from? That’s quite a big puddle and both bodies (corpses?) are sort of immaculate. And unwounded.
I have that feeling that the things which surround the pose like two guns, the holes in the floor and the smeared imprint of the bloody hand and the unwounded bodies together with big blood puddle are a bit contradictory and kind of rather confuse me than help tell the story.
As always looking forward with what you come up…
I love your water color. That is great. beautiful pose as well. Thighs a bit large, but I love my women with muscular legs. Must be a runner. LOL
wonderful work on air. love the flow of it. love how you brought in such a great dynamic to the piece the hair rox and the alloverflow is just awesome ^^ cant wait to see the rest of the series
Rebecca: neat idea about the cast shadow… I might very well try that. And I think, though please do correct me if I’m wrong, that you might be mistaking her right hand as his… the skin tones are very similar at the minute, so it does look like one limb, but his right hand isn’t on show as I figured it would be curled around her arm, which is bent under his. I’ve yet to put the right bone structure in around the wrist to denote that, and I need to slim the forearm down and perhaps elongate it… not sure till I try it out.
Mu: still fiddling with the overall shapes of the blood puddles, as they’re not quite balanced yet and i certainly don’t want them to overpower the figures. The piece is mostly metaphorical, certainly where the blood, guns and bullets and pose of the two people are concerned. The blood and bullets are not only a symbol of the violence the two have endured from their mutual enemy, but also between themselves, as their relationship is highly volatile for most of the novel. The picture is my attempt to sum up everything the two characters have been through, and where they end up - a point where both have lost all that was truly dear to them, which makes their victory hollow aside from the solace they find in each other. It’s difficult to sum up quickly due to the complex nature of the story (god help me when I come to post it as a finished article!). I wanted the whole piece to have a more graphic look, too, hence the shatter marks and the placement of bullets and holes and whatnot - which again are also symbolic.
Aggie: Thanks! I was drawing straight onto the watercolour board, so however it came out was how it was going to stay! And I don’t mind the large thighs so much in this piece, it kind of fits with the style!
Oh my goodness, what a week. Busy busy busy! 15 monk caricatures in under 2 weeks is a little bit mad! But I’ve had time to do the odd bit here and there, and I can come and catch up with folks here now! Here’s some tidbits… the novel Nick/Toni piece is on hold until I find a decent chunk of time to really go at it and make some progress.
Here’s the sketches done just before I started the Air piece above, along with a few vilppu simple exercises to loosed up before i committed myself to the watercolour board:
Bougereau copy, I’ve deleted the original file, so I forget which painting it was… possibly Eros and Psyche?
Hogarth arm studies. I’m trying to do more of these, as I’ve always loved the way comics are coloured with regard to musculature, and it strikes me that Hogarth’s method would work well for that.
Miniature completed alongside the monks… not often I paint people, the original is only 2.5 inches x 4.25 inches, which is actually counted as ‘big’ for a miniature.
Still trying to make friends with Painter… so went back to the Trevor Eve picture and tried out the palette knife. Which didn’t hate me too much! This is also my current desktop!
Recently bought a Yoshitaka Amano book of Vampire Hunter D art, and was hugely inspired, so some Amano style practice! The finished version will be split into three linked avatars for deviantart, hopefully. This is digital, done in photoshop (larger version CLICK HERE) :
Aaaand, after a discussion with a friend about previous romances, I got inspired to do something valentines-ish. It was supposed to be a doodle, but has turned into something rather more than that! So far no references at all, which I’m pleasantly surprised at, and I’m trying the greyscale painting first and overlaying with a ‘colour’ layer. Some wip shots thus far:
Sacha: And thanks hun! Having just seen your attempts at a similar subject, I’d say you should finish them!
Hi…Spirit Wind…and HAPPY VALENTINES DAY… IN ADVANCE:bounce:
Really inspirering work you have here…been busy I see… I LOVE IT ALL…
A couple of minor suggestions on your couple embracing painting posted above, that might be of help to you…where her hand and wrist run parallel to his forarm…In overlapping shapes/forms, it is not a good idea to have them run parellel with each other…destroys the illussion of depth, and makes them seem as one shape/form…maybe move his foram to the left, or her wrist to the right, mabe even having that hand of hers making contact with his foram that is leading up to his hand which is holding the gun, crasping it or touching it with her fingers, might act as a unifying factor in that area of the painting, in relation to the gun that he is holding…this would also break up the parellel effect which is happening and which is causing the confussion in the viewers eye…also might put his forarm in deep shadow, which will creat a greater sense of depth in that area of the painting…also maybe have his forarm a little rounder on the top.
Also, her foot, the one that is up against his, seems a bit small, as compared to her other foot…just small observations that might be of some help on that piece.:shrug:
Really glad to see you experimenting with that palette knife…powerful and very expressive tool…
ALWAYS A GREAT PLEASURE AND JOURNY WHILE VISITING YOUR THREAD…Spirit Wind…
TAKE CARE
Glenn
wow you have been busy haven’t you?
the amount of work you produce in a few weeks is really impresive!
I wish I could quit my daytime job now argh
I am completely into this newest piece you are working on! Can’t wait to see the finished version. You have been a busy girl, huh? Impressive progress Zeph - keep it up : )
Hi Sam, It’s really great to see all the different styles. Lovely work here. I hope you’ll post an update of the Hogarth style arm studies. I’d like to see them colored in. Oh and now I’ll just have to try out that palette knife in Painter.
Glenn: thank you! And to you too! I see what you mean about the wrists on that picture… I shall endeavour to tweak it… I might change the position of her hand too. The foot is yet to be rendered properly, so I’ll make it a bit bigger when I get down there. Thanks for the pointers, always appreciated.
Johan: Thanks, and yeah, been a busy beaver these past couple of weeks! I can safely say that my life consists of art and sleep and the occasional trip out the house!
Se7en: glad to know you like the piece! Still working on it bit by bit… going to see if I can finsh it for the deadline for the expose book.
Deborah: Thanks! Not sure whether I’ll find the time to colour the hogarth stuff… I’m more likely to just draw more studies instead. And the palette knife is fun, especially if you have a tilt-sensitive tablet!
A couple more pieces from me, first up another Blacksent image, this time of the story’s villainess, Aramantra, whose arms are a little on the short side, annoyingly:
And a new ID for myself over on Deviant, it’s kind of a running thing with the old guy theme, since the gandalf one last time.
Zephyri, very nice work you’ve got here, really love your drawings, they are really clean and very weel done. Your painting is also very good.
One crit is with the guy with white hair and two guns in the previous page, he doesn’t seem to blend with the background he just seems pasted over.
keep it up
cheers
Voraz: Thanks, and yeah, I could have spent a lot longer on the guy with the guns, and the white outline doesn’t help with him blending, but I was going for something quick and stylised, not wanting to spend too long on it.
Anand: cheers!
A few more odds and sods:
OFDW progress so far:
Coloured version of that ID:
And a progress shot on the novel piece, having redone the hair, painted over the bodies of both a little more, smoothing transitions out and playing about with the background. Moved her hand back over a little, and have hopefully tackled the issue of his forwarm blending with her wrist. It’s an unfortunate tangent, no matter how I play about with it, but changing it now would mean a whole heap of work and changing the positions quite dramatically, so it’ll stay where it is and I’lll do the best I can with shadows and light!
Zeph! That series really cracks me up, it’s something I can picture in the alternative version of Hallmark - very funny indeed. Really liking the man’s torso on the novel piece, I’m sure this will turn out very strong. I’m really looking forward to following your progress on the OFDW piece, there’s such a variety this time round which is very cool - great as always to have your participation around here!
Lovely watercolour and pencil drawings.
Nice concept with the OFDW piece. I guess we are always flirting with evil way or another…
“There is no limit to the stupidity and cruelty of man”…
hey Sam! that cartoon is real funny! it looks more catchy in color.
great concept for the OFDW! anxious to see your progress on this.
