SmArt school #5

 This was the art director assignment. I chose to work on Karen Berger's spec Vertigo Comics cover assignment. She asked for a half angel half demon with a man (in jeans and a T-shirt) in a moonlit graveyard. So here are my thumbs. Rebecca wanted me to rework the composition on the one in the colored box. She talked with me about ways to do it.

So I came back with this revised rough drawing and I got the go-ahead.

I made my frankensteined reference.

My final drawing that needed a few slight adjustments before moving on...

My value study.

I chose the end top right of the color studies...

When I showed my finished piece to the Art director, I had mostly positive feedback. I needed to darken the man's hair and clothes for contrast. Adjust the value of the angel/demon's hair and obscure the lower of her feet (the one behind the man's hand) behind sheer fabric so the area wouldn't look so busy. Below is the finished painting with the changes.

SmArt school #4

So Rebecca gave us a prompt for this one. Robin Hood as a girl either traditional time period, modern, or futuristic. Below are my thumbnails. We chose the bottom row center, however it was pointed out to me that her costume could be mistaken for Katniss Everdeen, so The next step was to explore costuming!

I tried a broad assortment of options. We went with #3, the military jacket and pants.

I then collected and hacked up photos to get my reference. Pretty awesome, right?

Here is the finished drawing

 and the underpainting.

Color studies.

I chose #2 and then decided to try out adding a decorative element. I drew some thistles in my sketchbook and then manipulated them in photoshop until it overlapped the girl the way I wanted.

I have to admit it was a bit tedious but I really like the end result. Behold my finished painting below!

SmArt school #2

I wanted my second piece at SmArt School to be based on the book Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I wanted to paint the character, Yvainne (a fallen star). I wanted her to appear otherworldly, like her hair and dress were being pulled back up to the night sky. I also wanted to show the silver chain that was used to hold her captive for a time by Tristram. I showed some quick thumbnails to Rebecca to have the idea approved. 

 She recommended I work on the flow of the composition and gave the following examples:

I went crazy with the thumbnails to see what I could come up with. I narrowed it down to three that I felt were the direction I wanted to go (1, 2, & 17) and showed those to Rebecca. We decided to go forward with #2.

 

 

I put together some frankensteined reference using my head and arms, some random photos for a torso (I'm pregnant so I couldn't use mine!) and an assortment of blowing dresses.  I distorted the figure reference by elongating the neck and arms and even the fingers to get the form I wanted. 

My husband gave me some feedback and helped me come up with the idea that embers or fire were coming off her hair. So, I was playing with having her hair look like it was glowing and a little on fire with burning bits floating off, kinda like a shooting star. Rebecca recommended I simplify the chain element so that it didn't compete with the hair. So it would wind up her arm and past her up to her hair, instead of going off in some other direction.

I drew over it on the computer so I could pick out what was important to me and leave out the rest.

I decided to make the painting 15x22". So, I printed out the digital drawing that size, I had to do it in pieces and taped it together. I then, used transfer paper to transfer the basic composition and lines to my drawing paper so I wouldn't lose the nuances of the composition I had worked out on the computer. Then I drew the whole thing by hand looking at my photo reference on the computer and stylizing the drawing further as I went. 

I showed it to Rebecca and she recommended some small changes to the body by narrowing the shoulders and the waist and widening the hips to give a more feminine form. She also recommended more fullness in the skirt to balance out the hair. Below is the final drawing with the corrections:

My value studies, we went with the one bottom right corner: 

I mounted my drawing onto a 3/16" plywood board with matte medium, then started painting values  in acrylic paint in muted browns. While I was working on my underpainting I painted over a photo of my drawing to do some color studies. I tried a variety of color palettes, but I wasn't feeling right or certain about any of them.

Then my underpainting was finished, shown below:

I took a picture of it and then used it to make even more color studies. After my husband saw them he decided to try playing with the colors on one of them and came up with some interesting options. Then I played with the ones he had played with and came up with the large one, below:

I love what comes out when my husband and I have some back and forth about a piece of art that I am working on! So working from that, I glazed in my colors in oil paint over my acrylic underpainting.  The face lost the look of the drawing during the painting process and I had to paint it out, redraw it, and paint it again. I showed it to Rebecca, she suggested a few minor tweaks and here is the finished painting:

iPad Art

Here is some iPad Art I made recently. For the top one, I used reference from deviant art for the figure and winged it for the background. For the bottom one, I used random photo reference from the web but exaggerated her features for fun.

IF- "wool"

Here's my Illustration Friday contribution. The prompt is "wool." So, I decided to draw a shepherdess and a goatherd. 

Vine

This is just an old painting from about five years ago or more, it was for a class assignment where we were learning about masking. I got a lot of practice masking this one! I don't like the colors so I'm sharing a grayscale version. The texture is nice.

So I've been experimenting with the app Vine. It's not perfect but it is fun and with a few changes could be awesome. Anyway, here's a link to one of my Vines: my nose itches vine

I've linked more to my facebook page and my twitter ( @jmlshirley ) it's a diverting little app! Go and try it!

map sketchbook

I made this book something like three years ago. I harvested the paper from some beautiful outdated aerial maps that were going to be tossed. I've always loved this book but never been certain what to do with it until recently. I painted these in gouache to get a nice opaque color, sometimes I used colored pencils if I want something more transparent. These are so much fun to do!  Enjoy!