I’ve been looking at this painting for like the last five minutes. From this day forward I am officially convinced that no artist likes their own work, at least…at least in the beginning. I mean when you think about it, could this really become some worldwide epidemic, infecting artists with a viral string of nitpicking, disillusion, and sickly moaning?..
…Perhaps I’m exaggerating.
This is completely bipolar of me, but it’s actually kinda growing on me now. Huh, look at that.
Self Portraiture
It took 20, long, frustrating, enlightening hours to finish this piece. And at the end of the day, I certainly learned a lot, even if I wanted to chuck my laptop across the room.
Painted from an insomniac’s webcam session, the original photo shows me wrapped up in a blankey in jest expression.
Painting Steps
But I feel bad. I got this really gorgeous Wacom tablet for Christmas and still turned to my crappy old tablet for guidance. Holding the smooth, sleek stylus almost seemed wrong in comparison to the formerly chewed up pen and pal. I’m like a design Cujo, gnawing at it the most when frustration peaks.
Anyway, the steps and honest commentary above show the progress of the painting from start to finish. The beginning phase seems to test my patience like a bad ass little kid, but I manage til the 8th or 10th hour when things finally start looking–er, human.
Painting skin is especially interesting because you’d think you can just look at a photo and pick out a single color to match it, right? Well, in good ole reality, skin is made up of different colors: the fleshy bits, highlights and shadows, natural pigment, and pigment affected by light. After 8 hours of trial and error it’s easy to succumb to pulling handfuls of hair out, BUT something also really cool starts to happen…
…it all pulls together oh so lovely.
The “You Just Know” Stage
For all my fellow artists out there when is the stage when “you just know” about a piece. You know it’s not done, but you’ve got faith a little more work will do the job. Does it depend on the medium and tools used?
I would really love to know,so feel free to comment below!
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Nice job! That epidemic is a mf, ain’t it tho’!
After running across your pin-up pieces and a few other’s work has inspired me to get an el-cheap-o pen and tablet and try my hand at drawing again! Thank’s!
Docmojoman,
What an epic name man! Haha! So glad you were able to come across the site and get inspired, would love to see what you come up with. It’s a process, but a rewarding one that I’m sure you’ll grow to love. Best of luck man! =)
I like it! Did you mean for it to be ambigious? It almost looks like a Muslim veil … or a snuggie.
PS can I have your new Wacom?
Heya Paul!
Haha it’s just a blankey–I think I was just up for no reason that night playing with the webcam. I actually didn’t mean for it to look ambiguous–thats interesting lol, but I have been told that it looks like I’m Muslim.
I think if I gave my xmas present away I would be in mucho trouble! =P