Des Illustrations

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Watercolor

My very first watercolor piece for 2012. I really want to start painting again and I decided to put watercolor paper on my christmas wishlist last year. So here goes my first artwork. This was finished around january, lazy me to post it just now. :)

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Playing with clay

Finally had some time to play with clay!

I used modeling clay and the wire is from my sculpture project when I was still a student.
I was happy on how it turned out. More clay creations to follow (I hope!).

Friday, April 20, 2012

First Post

My first blog article will be a tutorial. Well not really a tutorial but a description of my painting process. Different artists have varying styles and techniques so anyway this is the way I do mine.

The inspiration for my drawings are dolls – very cute, big eyed dolls… and dogs… and Tim Burton…and Michael Kutsche and Kei Acedera blah blah blah…(Zoned out).

PROCESS

STEP1 :

I start with a rough sketch on a dark background; nothing really fancy.I do this to get the proportions right.
TIP: Don’t worry if the lines are not perfect, they’re just a guide and will get covered later after all.

sketch

STEP2 :

Let’s start with the main image first – the girl. I start to fill in the shape with flat colors and add shadow to the girl. I do this just to get the feel of the color palette I’m using.
I use Photoshop’s default Solid Round Brush and then use a bristle brush to soften/blend the colors.
I have separate layers for the hair, body, and face.

STEP3 :

When I was happy with the colors, I started adding the shadow on the background on “multiply”.
I then established the light source. Here, I created the light as if it were coming from a door and sketched the road/floor on a different layer.

STEP4 :

Oh. The dog has been standing there still for quite some time. Ok Doggie, let’s color you now!
I chose the girl’s headband color for the dog so there won’t be too much colors on the painting. To me this adds uniformity.
It still looks pretty rough but I don’t mind the details at this point. I’m more concerned with the overall look.

STEP5:

Using “multiply”, I darkened the girl’s face.
For the dog’s fur I used a small fine brush to draw the detail, and hair brush (c/o goodbrush!)
I use a solid brush for the shadow cast by the girl (note: I used dark brown shade for the shadow. TIP: Shadows are not really black.)

STEP6 :

Now I’m on the refinement stage.
I started with the details on the eyes (putting eyelashes, adding detail on the pupil), the hair (adding hair strands and highlights) and the dress (defining contours). I also added the shoes (not too comfy to go barefoot, eh?) and put some freckles on the face. I also glued…er, put the girl’s hands.
At this stage, I’m on to cleaning up my output – mostly blending the colors together and removing unwanted lines.
I went on by tweaking the background a bit to give it some texture.

STEP7 :

Here, I added a leash, made the arms thicker, and darkened the girl’s arm on the right. For more depth, I added the sky.
Then I made a few light adjustment overlay to make it more blue. I think it gives a warmer illusion.

Whew! It’s done!

I hope you find this helpful. Please feel free to comment / critique my work. There is a lot of room for improvement.

Thanks!

You can also view my gallery here: http://pinterest.com/desfeliciano/heartworks/