Sunday, December 02, 2007

Who's a pretty girl? me!

This is my latest commission, for someone to give as a Christmas gift. I was nervous about dong this one as it's been a while since my last one, but i am really pleased with how it turned out.

Prettygirlcropped.jpg image by Impshlady
This is the reference, i cropped it and upped the contrast a bit just to make it bolder.

December2007003.jpg image by Impshlady
This was the first efforts and to be honest i thought I'd ruined it already.

December2007004.jpg image by Impshlady
More progress here but not much.

December2007005.jpg image by Impshlady
Getting more confident filling in the fur and the molding of the face.

December2007006.jpg image by Impshlady
Still the same pencil (which is much shorter now i have done the portrait) but turning into a dog finally.

December2007007.jpg image by Impshlady
More of the neck and the funny fold of fat dogs get above their collars.

December2007008.jpg image by Impshlady
Bit of a jump here, i got carried away while talking on the phone to my mum. looks good though doesnt it? The purple gums and eyelids and the pink tongue really make the fur recede back a bit. in fact the fur looks so washed out here its unbelievable...

December2007013.jpg image by Impshlady
So i go over the fur with darker tones and try and beef up the values a bit.

December2007014.jpg image by Impshlady
More darks on the fur and the red of the collar. I often switch to one of the minor colours to break up doing the fur a bit. if you go back to it after a different color you can see what needs doing more.

December2007018.jpg image by Impshlady
I reluctantly do the nose and eyes last because they are the bits that if you mess them up you are really in trouble. the fur and the ears and stuff are quite forgiving but if you mess up an eye...you pretty much have to start again. I do an undercoat of grey just to figure out the shape and tones before committing to the blacks.

December2007019.jpg image by Impshlady
A bit scary looking here, with only one eye. As soon as you get the blacks of the eyes in it makes sense of the dark shadows around the eyes, the purples, the gums everything. What looked like a dog in lipstick turns into a dog with naturally purplish black lips. whew.

December2007023.jpg image by Impshlady
And heres the end result. More work on the fur and the tags and other little bits and pieces of tweaking, but really once the eyes go in, thats it.

sadiesmall.jpg image by Impshlady
Scanned the two halves in and stitched them together in photoshop. The colours are better here than on the camera, so you can see the layers, and she looks a lot less yellowy.

All i have to hope now is that it gets to Canada in time for Christmas!


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