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

[pennydrdful.livejournal.com]

I can't believe you used something as basic as a pencil brush to do that detail. Seriously, hats off to you!

Thank you for sharing so much detail about your process! I'm always trying to learn something new about technique and process :)

[reggie11.livejournal.com]

Most of the stuff was done with the brushes, the pencil tool was more for getting the really small details in. If I hadn't played around with opacity and brush/pencil width it would have looked like a big scribbled mess. I just realised I didn't write down that I used the photograph underneath to draw all the basic shape and then removed the layer and did the fill and colours. I'm reasonable at drawing, but I don't have anywhere near the skill at complete freehand as people like petite_madam, vongue, and quickreaver. I'm in awe of their skill. And computers give the wonderful option of undo which I used so many times it's not funny. That's why I'm super slow at completing anything. But thank you so much for your really kind words :)