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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Digital Girl- Claire

Just more digital painting practice. I call this Claire because I'm reading Steve Martin's "Shopgirl" and Claire Danes was in the film version. It's not supposed to be a portrait just kind of inspired by her type. The nose on this will bug me till the end of time, but I've redone it too many times. I really intended this to have very simple shading with just a mid, dark, and light tone, but it's so easy to keep going and going and pretty soon you have something that's more complicated than you wanted. My final verdict is that it was a valiant effort but a mediocre result. Still, I learned a bit and that's what counts right?

7 comments:

Dawn said...

I really love the painterly look you got. What kind of brushes do you use?

Brine Blank said...

Really dig the subtle light changes on the eyes and lips...and great turn on the hair...sometimes I get awkward nose problems too at certain angles...I don't want to sound like a 'know it all' but I have a suggestion if you don't mind...Elephant trunk...better yet...male elephant seal nose...I know it could cause some confusion being she is a female but given some of the other craziness that goes on in the world I would say it would be minor...

k.h.whitaker said...

always! I don't mind the nose, that's just a tough pose to get regardless

Eric Scales said...

Thanks Dawn. They are just the default Photoshop brushes. I used the ones that look like spatter a bit more than usual on this one. And then I have the line weight set to be affected by the Pen Pressure on my Wacom Tablet.

Brian- Your suggestions is "elephant trunk"? I'm not sure what you mean.

This is an angle that works fine in a more undefined sketch form and had I left the shading simpler I probably could have gotten away with it. Just a shadow for the nose, with MAYBE some indications of nostrils.

Thanks for the critique as always, everyone.

Brine Blank said...

You know...instead of a boring old human nose give her an elephant trunk instead...you could start a new trend in the plastic surgery field if you pull it off...you might even get your own reality show...and in the end, isn't that what we all strive for?

BTW...my students really like the work and seeing the under drawing...they get tired of hearing me so it helps outside sources to help make points...

Eric Scales said...

Brian that's just crazy enough to work. Eventually people are going to get tired of piercing and tattooing body parts and who knows where body modification will go from there.

As for this illustration, either nose would still be problematic, as anything viewed from the front which is symmetrical is typically boring. However the elephant trunk is at least dextrous enough that it could be turned and twisted into an interesting view. Hmmm....

Brine Blank said...

Forget the elephant seal nose suggestion...I just did a test sketch...looks like Barbara Streisand...