{"id":1749,"date":"2009-01-31T22:49:43","date_gmt":"2009-01-31T22:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alquier.org\/linfa\/create\/?p=80"},"modified":"2009-01-31T22:49:43","modified_gmt":"2009-01-31T22:49:43","slug":"face_and_figure_7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.alquier.org\/laurent\/sites\/2009\/01\/31\/face_and_figure_7\/","title":{"rendered":"Face and Figure Painting Workshop 2009 – Week 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

I will be posting work for this repeat of Don Seegmiller’s Face and Figure Workshop in this Flicker album<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trying to find my marks again after a long period of inactivity. Still – once past the frustrations of the ‘ugly stage’, it is starting to feel good again
\nFor this first sketch, I tried to get the the structure and value right – not so much the resemblance. That sort of thing tends to come naturally if the structure is right.
\nAbout 2 hours with Painter.
\n[Male 01-03]\nFor tonight’s homework, I thought I would take a shot at the female portrait, in color this time.
\nAbout 2 hours overall in Painter, with only one brush and the limited color palette provided for this week.
\nI am still having difficulties blocking the right structure in the early stages and as a result, I end up spending too much time correcting proportions later on. Drapes are also still a problem
\nFor the final picture, I had to move around her left eye and move down her lips in order to make it look a little more like the original model.
\nI am going to try and stick to one quick sketch a day (one or two hours tops) for the two models. Over the weekend, I will pick up the most advanced in each series and detail it to do a final copy.
\n[Female 01-03]\nI am using a small set of … Don’s brushes<\/a>. They are available on his website and they have become my favorite set since the last workshop. The brush I have been using in particular is simply called ‘Don’s Fav’.
\nt feels good that it is coming back little by little.
\nI am always amazed at the effect of copy\/pasting and resizing, even very slightly. Compare the last two color pictures to see what I mean.
\nThere are many tips that I picked up during the first workshop. I have to resist the tempation to blab about all of them to not spoil Don’s progression through the weekly excercises
\nOne tip I can share at this point is to resist the temptation to scrap an image too early. The ugly stages are very frustrating. But more than once, I found that the difference between an ugly sketch and good proportions were just 10% resize of the head or moving an eye 10 pixels to the right.
\nAbout an hour and a half, still in Painter with one brush.
\nThis one had a rough start compared to the first attempt, but it evolved a lot more gracefully and zeroed in on a more appropriate structure than the first one did.
\n[Male 02]\nColor sketch again – this time I tried to pay more attention to the opacity of my brush. I started with high opacity for very early, broad brush strokes and gradually made the brush more and more transparent as I went into more details.
\nThe difference in resulting colors is striking – to me at least. They feel sharper, a lot more vivid. I finally got the levels of shades I was looking for, instead of the blurred, washed out strokes I used to have.
\nProportions are still not right but this is a lot closer to what I want to have
\nAlmost 2h30 this time – but well worth it !
\n[Female 02]\nInching a little bit closer to the final version.
\nI didn’t have a lot of time tonight, so I spent most of the time in structural adjustments. Laying out the foundation for tomorrow’s detailing work.
\nHer face still looks flat. I have to find better ways to inject value without breaking the balance of color.
\nEdit: Another hour and I got rid of most of her yellowish tone and flatness. It’s amazing how a tiny veil of red in the right places brings skin to life.
\n[female 02-08]\nThe clothes were more of a place holder at that stage, but I would probaly have overlooked the influence of color from layers under the clothes and around them.
\nHere is the final color portrait (as in – final for now). Overall, I would estimate it to about 6 or 7 hours of work. I may tweak it later today if I find more time after finishing the black and white one. I am getting to the point where I have to step back anyway – I have looked too much at that one for now.
\nI tried to apply most of Don’s guidelines as I could think of at the same time – color bleeding between surrounding and figure, brush across the shapes to smooth things out, more opacity in the brush to avoid a look that is too smooth, some red over the skin for translucency, hard edges vs soft edges and so on.
\nThere are a lot of imperfections still, but I am pleased to get that painterly feel I was missing
\nEdit: I am adding my black and white image, final for now, in case I don’t have time to work on it more tonight.
\n[Male female final]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I will be posting work for this repeat of Don Seegmiller’s Face and Figure Workshop in this Flicker album. Trying to find my marks again after a long period of inactivity. Still – once past the frustrations of the ‘ugly stage’, it is starting to feel good again For this first sketch, I tried to get the the structure and… <\/p>\n

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