Sabrina commission complete
Well, this one took a little longer than expected, circumstances not withstanding but she's finally finished. The client is happy and I'm looking forward to my next project.
Sabrina - step 3 - paint
Before getting too involved in the details, I've laid in some flat colour with which to show the client. I've added the pillow colour and flooring on different layers so that I can make quick changes should the need arise.
Sabrina - step 2 - ink completed
I've completed inking the piece digitally and have submitted it to the client to ensure she's happy with the likeness. I could also have prepared this traditionally in pencil but I often find it more efficient to do this in Photoshop because I can add another layer underneath to show where the bones sit. This helps me to see any obvious errors in the pose and to see how the fur will sit.
Sabrina - steps 1 and 2 (clean-up and ink)
As the client has made her selection of the pose and composition she prefers, I begin cleaning up the thumbnail by placing tracing paper over the initial sketch and overlaying rough perspective lines in blue. I cheat a little on the perspective as it's not necessary to be 100% accurate for this piece so I don't bother agonizing over lines being a little off. I've been told that as long as it looks correct, it is correct - at least to the viewer. Mind you, in something more obvious, I would take more care. I follow this by outlining the shapes of the character in red so as not to get mixed up with the perspective lines drawn. Something else I learned is that it's easier to work with perspective on a thumbnail or smaller picture than at full scale and having to break out the extra long rulers! ;-)
Once happy with the layout, I outline the cat and bed in pencil and add some light shading. At this point, I scan it in and bring it into Photoshop for inking which I do on a separate layer above the scanned image.
Sabrina commission thumbnails
Now that I've moved and my office is less of a disaster zone, I thought I'd attach some thumbnails I completed for my friend's pet portrait commission. It's been on hold for a while for various reasons but I will now be resuming and plan to post pics of the progression.
Dog portrait commission completed
I finished the commission in time for Valentine's Day and the client was extremely pleased (yay!). As you can see, I spent most of my time refining the image in the last stage. That's really what you want to do at the end, just dotting your i's and crossing your t's, artistically speaking. The wrap-up should be reasonably stress-free. On that note, I hope everyone's Valentine's Day was also stress-free. :)
Dog portrait commission - Part 2
Attached are some more steps in the process. Keep in mind I'm not a paid professional - yet! - so my steps aren't necessarily the right way but what I felt comfortable with and still gave me a sense of organized process. In the first image, I painted out the fur, varying from high- to low-tones and not focussing on any specific one. This step put most of the image together with lots of room for refinement. For example, I noticed that the dog's face seemed a little too long so I made some adjustments that better resembled the subject. Although I didn't have a photo of the dog in the pose that you see, I used other photo references to help me place him in a similar manner. One thing I had to be careful about using references in this way is that I started taking different little bits from each photo for the dog and each photo wasn't specific to the dog but just an example of a similar breed.
In the second image, I focused on making the image more like the dog in question. At this point, the only photos I would refer to were of the dog though the poses were different than the one I was painting. I was able to focus on the more specific details about this dog and apply them to this image. Having too many references - especially disparate - can be confusing and distracting. I also took the time to make the fur more realistic. That is, I downplayed each hair and tried to make them less distinct individually and make them more distinct as a group. When we see an animal's fur in life, we don't notice each strand but rather clumps as they're arranged around their body.
In the third image, I started to block in the background. This image needs to be done by Valentine's Day so I had better get back to it!
Dog portrait commission
I've been commissioned to paint a portrait of a dog so I thought I would post my progress as I've been told that I just don't post often enough. My bad, so here are the first steps in the process...the prep and also the part I dislike the most. I'm having fun painting, though. :)
