Winter Romance WIP 4

Here I have added the basic shading to the characters. Now I can start to refine them :-)

Winter Romance WIP 3 + Anne Hathaway WIPS 2 & 3

Ok, two WIPS firstly here for the Anne Hathaway portrait I am doing :) Probably spent about 2 hours on this by now which isnt bad - its a pretty small piece by the way, only 16 cm x 12 cm!

Firstly I coloured in the skin basically, and started on the hair. In the second picture you can see how I have worked more on the skin to give it more depth, and also lend it a more rosy tint (before it was a bit too yellow... although on my screen the second picture looks more yellow than the first..... whoops lol. Thats just the photo of it I promise!). I have also added more to the hair.

In terms of the Winter Romance piece, this is a massive transition from the last stage, a bare sketch, and about an hour more work (which considering, isnt too bad! Up to about 2 and a half hours on this now, maybe 3) - I have fixed her face for starters, but also flipped the sketch horizantally, shrunk it and placed it slightly differently. However, as you may notice I have not painted in her left arm (the right arm as we look at it). I just cant get the anatomy right. This I think will probably be one of the last things I end up painting!

I have put in a background - which hopefully I can refine a little more (this is not a definite, backgroudns arent my forte, and it might look better being left as this). But, I'm pretty happy with this so far. I like the mood it gives the picture so far!

I also laid down basic colour blocks. This is in preparation for basic shading, after which I will merge the sketch layer with the colour layer and begin the refining process. Wish me luck with that!

Winter Romance WIP2 & Anne Hathaway WIP 1

Well here is where I reached with the restart of Winter Romance last night! I got most of the anatomy hashed out, and time is probably up to 1 and a half hours by this point.

I need some help though please! Particular points I'm struggling with are:
1. Her face (she just... doesnt look very nice lol... she has a much kinder, innocent face in my head, here she just seems too worldly wise, for lack of another way to put it..)
2. Her arm (the left one as we look at it, down by her side). I cant get this to look natural!

I humbly request red-lines!

I am also starting a new colour pencil portrait because I direly need the practice. It is Anne Hathaway, a very beautiful actress whose looks I have always admired. I like how wide her smile is and how large her eyes are - and when she smiles it looks so sincere and her eyes really light up.. I dont think I've ever really got that feeling of sincerity and pure radiating joy from many other actors / actresses when I've seen them on the big screen. So, I was going to do one with her trademark smile... but then I found an amazing reference picture (clickie here to see!) where the contrast was just a whole new way of photography that I had never seen before. It definitely made me wow, more than any of the other photos I googled of her, so I had to pick this one!

Just a sketch so far though:

Winter Romance Restart *TWO*! WIP 1!

So.. Um.. I restarted the Winter Romance piece.. Again....! This is the last restart I promise haha! The other one just wasnt working out. I loved the background I created, dont get me wrong but I spent so long on it that.. I just couldnt see past it anymore. Suddenly the character sdidnt fit in anymore. Hopefully I can still use the pic for something though.

This time I am sketching the characters with a definite romantic pose in mind. Whereas the other image was going to focus on the period just before they fall in love, where the feelings are just beginning to emerge, this one is all about Luke and Evelyn being all ~*~lovey dovey~*~ How sweet =P

Anyway, only a figure sketch here, probably half an hour to this point. I am finding poses and anatomy ridiculously challenging at the moment. Bleh.

Enjoy :) Crits VERY welcome, befor eI start painting this up!!

Winter Romance - WIP 5

Another WIP for my Winter Romance piece. Up to about 6 hours on this now I think.

Winter Romance - WIPs 3 & 4

Two more WIPs from the Winter Romance picture.. Have spent a lot of time working on this today, I feel really stiff from being sat at my desak hunched over my tablet!

I think current time on this is in the region of 4 and a half hours so far. Ish. Lol.

I had aimed to have the background done by the end of today but its bedtime (aka I'm switching off the PC and going to draw something traditional in bed... busy busy!) and as you can see I'm nowhere near done! ...Time is ticking away on this one!

Enjoy :)

Winter Romance - WIP 2

As you can see, I have added a basic level of colour to the background at this point :)

Time at this point is around 1 and a half hours I believe.

Moment - Touchup

You may have seen the following piece on DeviantART, however I was very unhappy with the uploaded picture. After rephotographing it and playing around with the colours to make it more true to its real life values I am much happier with the result! For comparison, here are the before and after shots, in that order :)

The colurs come through much better in the second version, you can actually see the greens and a bit of blue in her eyes now! Yay! :)

Winter Romance Restart

Well, you may have seen my WIP on Deviantart for a contest entry with the theme "Winter Romance". (see below)


I decided today that, rather than re-working the sketch I'd start completely from scratch with a whole new tack. Now, I intend to do this piece digitally :) I hope that will give me greater control and manipulation of the anatomy which I found so challenging in the pencil sketch, and also hopefully it will allow me to be much more adventorous with my background, knowing I can always paint over it if needs be!

So, the top picture is the new first WIP of the piece - fear my rough stick figures! Haha :) This is a sketch of the background. Mmmm I love those windows <333 The stance of the character will remain the same though but I will redraw them :)

I used perspective I learnt way back in Graphic design class at school (wow. School did come in handy in a real life situation! Whaddaya know lol), I forget what its called but it works on 30 degree angles. I dont have a protractor, so I'm guessing but I'm trying to use the principle. I have made sure that all of the lines line up the same. I.e. the floor lines up with the top of the fireplace etc. Some of it looks wierd but I have actually checked it and it all matches up. Kooky! :O

Anyway. Enough rambling :D Enjoy! Crits as always appreciated :)