Sam - art

[reggie11]

This is something I've been working with on and off for a month or so. I draw pathetically slowly. I decided to try something a little different and this is what happened. I was inspired by a painting of Sam by the wonderfully talented vongue. I liked her use of shading and the brown colour palette, and thought I'd give heavy shading with a palette of browns, black, and white a go. I'm not sure I was very successful, but...*shrugs* I kept playing with it and changing stuff and every time I look at it I see something else that needs fixing. I decided I was never going to be completely happy with it and declared it done. I wanted something stark that emphasised his exotic features, with really obvious paint strokes, but now I think he kind of looks like a vampire. I don't think white was a good choice, lol!

I love him with facial hair but it truly is a bitch to work with so I think I'm going to have him clean-shaven next.

Sorry about the enormous and intrusive signature but so many people keep getting their art nabbed and their signatures cropped off. My source photo was this promo pic from from the TV Guide Comic Con cover.

Comments

[ash48.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's gorgeous! Amazing work!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Aww, thank you, hon!

[tifaching.livejournal.com]

That is beautiful. I love the light on his face and the eyes are perfect. Gorgeous work.

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thank you! The light on the face was a bit of a source of consternation for me because I wasn't sure I had taken it too extreme with the contrasting. Glad it works for you.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Yes he looks dark and dangerous but so does the reference photo you chose so kudos to you for capturing that! I'd consider that a successful experiment!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thank you. You, as an artist, would know what it's like to draw something and continually pick it to bits. Especially if it's some new style for you. I love dark, dangerous Sammy...mmmmm...

[elwarre.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[meus_venator]

Oh, that looks amazing. I love Jared's cat eyes, his lips, this is just the perfect angle on his face to show off all the beauty. Great job!!!!! It gives off a completely different vibe than the TV Guide cover. Love it. Face it, you have some mad skills going on. ♥

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Haha, mad skills, I love it! Thanks! It does look really different to the TV Guide cover doesn't it? I'll have to try my hand at drawing Dean one day.

[firesign10.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD!!! This is GORGEOUS!!! I feel like I can just reach out and touch him. His eyes are SO sexy, I love the deep shading!!! This is really beautiful - extra kudos for pushing yourself into someplace new, but DAMN, bb, you hit the mark here!!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks! The eyes are my favourite bit even if they are in shadow. He has the most awesome eyes.

[ephermeralk.livejournal.com]

awesome!!!

I love it. And he's totally beautiful in this color shading scheme too.

And eek, I can totally see how all the facial hair would be a pain to draw, but holy hell is it hot and you did such a lovely job with it!!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thanks! The facial hair is so bloody time consuming and I'm not very good at it. There are lots of splotches where there should be clean lines but at least it gives the overall effect of scruff. It was easier because of the shading to have it messy. I'm in total awe of people that can draw realistic facial hair because I find it impossible. The colours in Vongue's piece looked so striking, I had to give it a try.

[big-heart-june.livejournal.com]

Absolutely beautiful ♥ you have some serious talent. wow.

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

What a lovely compliment, thank you so much :)

[kalliel]

I don't think he looks like a vampire! XD This is gorgeous, and I love the stark shading work; I think you pull off the style really well here, and I love the intensity of this. TRUTH BE TOLD, I think it looks more like Sam than the source photograph does!! There's something about the eyes in yours that seem more alive and actually-looking-at-something than the EW Photoshop. And holyyy moly the facial hair! I can see why that would get complicated. O_o;; But it looks so good here!

This is awesome. <333

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

It made me so happy that you think I captured the essence of Sam! He has such soulful and exotic eyes so your comment has me doing a major fist-pump. Thank you!

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

That is without a doubt absolutely STUNNING!

Umm, do people really claim your work as their own!?! That's low!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thank you, ma'am. I've never had anyone steal my art but I see it happening ALL the time. I've lost count of the number of times I've contacted various artists to tell them I've stumbled across their work on someone's blog, tumblr, and in one case Deviantart, with no attribution and their signatures either cropped out or digitally removed. Quickreaver and Petite_madame have it happen to them often. Posting something without permission or attribution is bad enough but it's a whole new low when they remove an artist's signature and either claim the work is their own or don't correct people when praise for the art starts rolling in. Some people are assholes and tumblr, especially, has this going on constantly.

[somer.livejournal.com]

This is truly beautiful!!! :)

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thank you, hon :)

[pennydrdful.livejournal.com]

I think this turned out fantastic. He definitely doesn't look like a vampire. There's so much to like about this: the brush strokes, his bristly scruff, his eyes, the detail of his lips. All great stuff!

Out of curiosity, what kind of brushes did you use? I'm always interested in technique :)

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm glad he doesn't look too vampirish.

I don't have any brush set names or anything because I didn't have access to PS for this one. I made the outlines and initial shading in Psykopaint using the pencil tool, then transferred it to Pixlr where some of it was done with their godawful standard brushes. I did some of the main colours that way but mainly for background. It was easier for larger areas of colour.

Then I transferred it back to Psykopaint and used the Manet and Van Gogh brushes (the latter is the one that gives that really strong, messy looking brush stroke) and the pencil tool to give it depth and texture and finesse the little details like the lip lines and eyes.

Pixlr is an online poor man's version of PS which is mainly used as a photo editor, and Psykopaint is a painting program and I have the paid version installed on my computer. Neither of them are a patch on Photoshop so I can't wait to be able to reinstall it. Pixlr has some similar tools to PS but nowhere near as good and Psykopaint has extremely limited tools but I love a couple of their brushes. Hope that helped :)

[fufaraw]

So gorgeous!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thank you, my dear x

[zara-zee.livejournal.com]

This is yummy and gorgeous! I love the light and the shadow. His eyes are mesmerising and the facial hair...well worth the effort! :)

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm so pleased that everyone is loving the eyes!! I have a love/hate relationship with facial hair right now ;)

[tammyrenh.livejournal.com]

I love it! It is such an awesome likeness of Sam. I really love the color scheme.

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm totally crediting Vongue for the colour scheme. Her art is too die for and I had to try a similar palette.

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

This is seriously beautiful, I love how you've captured the light in his eyes and his lips just look so very kissable! He does look very exotic and almost wolf-ish but not like a vampire! Well done on trying something new, it is amazing, and thanks for the link to vongue's painting too.

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thanks, lovely! Yes he is quite wolfish or foxlike. He has very exotic vulpine features which makes him a great subject to draw. Now you have me thinking of his kissable lips...*drools*

[brightly-lit.livejournal.com]

Lordy, that is glorious!!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thank you! What a flattering comment!

[sailorhathor.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is totally amazing work.

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thanks a bunch, hon. :)

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

oh man, that's good. his chin looks really pointy, but i like it. i think it just looks that way because of the facial hair and because the shadows are really heavy, but i really like them like that.

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Yeah, the pointy chin thing was one of the things that kept bothering me. I was trying to figure out how to add the shape of his jaw without losing the darkness of the shading there and nothing I tried worked. Everything looked too weird so I gave up and refilled it. I'm sure a better artist would be able to fix it in five seconds flat :D I should really tell people I meant it to look that way because it adds to the stark look and not because I couldn't fix it. lol!

[chomaisky.livejournal.com]

Those eyes! Love it!

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm enamored with his eyes.

[cassiopeia7.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, that is just AMAZING. Absolutely gorgeous, and I love, love, love how well you've captured his eyes. Beautiful job! ♥

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! He has the most fascinating eyes, I could stare at them for hours so I'm thrilled you thought I got them right :)

Edition 3,050

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

User mashimero referenced to your post from Edition 3,050 (http://spnnewsletter.livejournal.com/846502.html) saying: [...] by Sam [...]

[siriala.livejournal.com]

Gorgeous work ! Your shading is wonderful and it makes his eyes and cheekbones all the more attractive. I'm glad you decided to share despite not being completely happy with it, thanks a lot ! :)

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thank you for such a lovely comment!

[tripperfunster.livejournal.com]

Very nice! I find he has a bit of a difficult face to draw, and you've done a lovely job here! Nice choice on the colour palette, even if the idea was borrowed.

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thanks! You have no idea how many times I changed things, lol. It's a great colour palette to work with for really dramatic shadows and angles, and it hides a multitude of mistakes. I wanted there to be a little definition of his jawline but I just couldn't get it right. The dark colours saved me - it kind of looked okay for a lot of the shape to be lost in shadow.

[multiversum-4.livejournal.com]

phenomenal! you totally nailed it ;-)

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)