Fantasy Oil Painting start to finish WIP
Metric | 07/20/2008 @734 | edit post

Alright, I will be updating this until it is finished. The reason I am doing this painting is just for practice, so that I can stay in touch with oil painting throughout this next college semester. Since, I am not taking any painting courses this semester. Plus, I am preparing to do another fantasy piece that I have been wanting to do for a while. The piece is on 14in w x 12in h birch panel. I will be walking through the various steps as I continue to paint on it. The first process I go through is the under painting. Which I like to do in acrylics, because they dry so darn fast. I just don't have time to wait for an oil under painting to dry. I will elaborate on the later processes as I get to them. Tools: Really, really, small brushes, such as the Acrylic Galeria brushes by Winsor Newton, and I also use another off brand which works quite well. I must say though the Galeria brushes work great for acrylic and oil. You can get really nice smooth transitions with them compared to bristle brushes. However, since this isn't a full solid oil painting I will not be using bristle brushes. I do enjoy bristle brushes for solid painting, because they can move the paint around on canvas so much easier than the Galeria brushes, plus they hold more paint. References Used: Ali Larter for facial features: Atlas of Foreshortening - I don't know what I would do without this book. Finally, my self / arms in the mirror. - Got to love having a model at all times ;P Step 1: The Sketch Step 2: Laying down the first set of thinly applied acrylic under painting on the toned gessoed birch panel. Step 3: Adding more lights and refining. Step 4: more refining and working on more areas. At this point, I doubt you can see the background, since the lines for it are barely visible. I like to work on the main subject first and get it right before I do the background. Why? Because, if I do the background and the main subject turns complete trash I consider the painting totally ruined -_-. Also, it is easier to redo the background to match the main subject more so than redoing the main subject to match the background. Awkward, I know. Most people do the not so important stuff first then do the main focus last.

Re: Fantasy Oil Painting start to finish WIP
Jane | 07/20/2008 @762 | edit post

Not bad! I like how this is evolving, and I like the rough temporary background. You should keep the rough look even when you paint it! Just one thing: her left arm (right to us) doesn't look forshortened, jsut 'too short'. I suppose she is holding it back. If so, try painting that arm thinner and thinner, the closer to the wrist you get. That might help..., Although I'm not good at forshortening myself. Good luck with the progress!

Re: Fantasy Oil Painting start to finish WIP
Metric | 07/21/2008 @108 | edit post

Thanks for the suggestion. However, which arm are you referring to? Her left or the viewers left? If I am assuming you mean the viewers left, then the arm is not suppose to be foreshortened as it is resting upon the right leg. Yes, I know the right leg looks like it is going forward, but I will fix that. Now, if you mean her left, then the arm is pretty accurate when it comes to the foreshortening,since the upper arm is going straight down and not out or inwards. Thus, only the forearm is raised to almost the horizon line. The wrist meets the horizon line dead on. That is when the perspective starts to change from lower to upper. I know the wrist may look a little funny right now but I will be fixing it. Try it! Look at yourself in the mirror and hold your upper arm straight down, then raise your forearm to an almost straight on view of it. Now picture that a little with the horizon line moved down compared to what you see in the mirror. Now the background, that is just from gesso and toning it. It will not be like that when finished. These are not the final colors. As I will be showing how to apply oil glazes. Why will I? Because, many people think you can only apply the glaze with one color, which you can, but you can do so much more while the glaze is still wet. Trying to help beginners, not someone that has done it for years... I really don't want to give too much away, but think dark, crypt like, and blueish tones with light coming from above.

Re: Fantasy Oil Painting start to finish WIP
curlyhair | 07/21/2008 @373 | edit post

I'll tell you the real problem.Her proportions are completely off - mostly because of too short legs.Normal man has 8-9 heads height.I counted 7 at her - and this considering that her torso is almost normal length, when her legs as I already said are too short.And women with a short legs don't look good Here - I let myself to try to correct this I like the concept of her clothes and sword. Keep working [thumbup] [Message edited on 07/21 @374]

Re: Fantasy Oil Painting start to finish WIP
Metric | 07/21/2008 @661 | edit post

That makes no sense... Since people range from 6 - 8 heads tall. Most women are only 6-7 heads tall. Yes I do note they do look awkward, but really how many women do you know that are over 6 feet tall in real life? I know where I live I have seen only a handful of women that were over 6 feet tall, that I can count on one hand. Most women that you see are only 5 - 5'10. Now, I am not saying all are like that, it just isn't realistic to portray my character as such. I really do not want her to look elegant with super long legs... Odd yes, bad no, the right hand is quite accurate on its position with the length of the leg. I have tested this multiple times in the mirror... Thanks, for your time and effort to show me and note what may look funny. I like all constructive criticism and feedback. It is only natural for other people to note what may look wrong, but in reality it is still up to the artist vision as to what they wish to portray and how they want to portray. Maybe, I am just too realistic for some people and I do not exaggerate very often when it comes to proportions like people expect now a days. I guess you could almost say I am stuck in an academic rut thanks to college right now ;P. I am sorry if the above sounded harsh it was not meant to be and I apologize for that.

Re: Fantasy Oil Painting start to finish WIP
killadore | 07/21/2008 @725 | edit post

I think the bodily proportions are fine for a realistic approach. I'm just nervous on your behalf that since you haven't done any of the background, it will make the character look out of place afterwards in relation to lighting. But you seem to know what you're doing, so carry on

Re: Fantasy Oil Painting start to finish WIP
Metric | 07/22/2008 @993 | edit post

Ah, I can completely see where you are coming from on that. Yes, only time will tell if the background will properly support the character.

Re: Fantasy Oil Painting start to finish WIP
curlyhair | 07/22/2008 @397 | edit post

Sorry - I didn't know that beautiful women with long legs look funny. (not feet - heads ) You can say that it looks funny - that's your point of view. But it's also a common template of women beauty,and I invented nothing new here. If you want her to be shorty way to go. To be honest I find her looking funny - I rather prefer disproportions to the opposite side . Another matter - I understand what you trying to achieve, but it could look good if it was very realistic painting (then she could look trustworthy) - but it doesn't seem so either - unless it's gonna be a very long wip - sorry if I sound rude, but you seem to be a honest person [Message edited on 07/22 @404]

Re: Fantasy Oil Painting start to finish WIP
Metric | 07/22/2008 @755 | edit post

Different strokes for different folks, like they say. I prefer realistic proportions to unrealistic proportions. Yes, this is going to be a very long WIP. Trust me, it will be a little stylized, but it will also be realistic in the lighting sense of things. So far what you see isn't even 1/4 done, not even close. If you read the above I mentioned this was just the under painting. Which I will be tweaking further and further as I go along. More than likely it will take multiple months to even get close to completion. Oil painting is not fast like digital and it takes patience to achieve the results that people do in digital. However, the outcome of it looks far more vibrant then most digital pieces, because of the natural color and pigments used in the paints. The method I am using also takes longer than just doing solid painting. I am using it, because I feel I can achieve far more vibrant colors with glazes than just solid painting. If you want to see an example of what it could possibly turn out to look like, go into my gallery and view my self portrait. I apologize for the low quality of the image on that self portrait, but I just haven't had the time to get a better quality picture of it. I am using the same method on this new piece as I did on the self portrait. If you want to see examples of my solid painting in oil paints then I recommend going to my site at www.gfx-null.com and look in the portfolio section under traditional>oils.

Re: Fantasy Oil Painting start to finish WIP
Metric | 09/05/2008 @645 | edit post

Well, bet you though I had forgotten about this post yep? I didn't, just been real busy, but it doesn't mean I haven't been working on the piece. I apologize before hand for the crappy quality of the images, and I blame the crap-tastic digital camera I have. Now, here is the update: Step 5: Working on the left side and beginning to flesh out the lower part of the body. Lots of thin layers applied over and over again. Also started to put further detail / clean up the chest area and face a bit. Step 6: Adding lighter lights to some areas such as the face and clothing, but we will do some acrylic glazes over the clothes / scumbling so that they retain lightness but are slightly darker. What is scumbling? Basically, you put paint on your brush, but instead of directly applying it you wipe most of it off so that there is very little on the brush. Thus, you are gently applying the brush a little harder to get the paint out. Therefore, it is applied in thinner layers compared to directly applying a thinned out glaze. Step 7: Here I am beginning to flesh out the background a bit, and yes I know some of the perspective lines are a tad off. It will be fixed as I flesh it out further. Step 8: Here we added lights to the lower part of the dress, re-created her right hand, scumbled / thin glazes over the clothing in areas to tone down the lights but still retain the depth, further detail added to the upper body, cleaned up the face / details, reworked the stomach area, and finally fleshing out the boot / lower legs further. What is left to do? I am going to rework the left hand further, adjust the lighting on the upper part of the body / face / hair, add further details to the face / hair, more detail needs to be added to the lower dress / reworked a little, continue to flesh out the stomach area a bit further, continue to rework the boots / lower legs a little further, add more definition to the background and correct some of the perspective angles, add the sword / dagger, and add any necessary reflected lights that need to be added here or there ;]. Then we can finally start to get to the actual adding of color via oil glazing. Which I might add, will be quite slow going, because of the necessary drying times needed for the oil glazes. 1 - 2 days is the usual time needed for each glaze to completely dry before adding another when using Liquin.