Freaky Friday

Happy Halloween!

I do hope that everyone has a particularly creepy Halloween, inclusive of lots of sugary treats (I use Halloween as an excuse every year to stuff my face with chocolate). As promised here's my zombie portrait inspired by marvelshead on Fiverr.

I particularly enjoyed this illustration, as I am very fond of cartoon style drawings. Also, how cool is it to see yourself in zombie form? Pretty awesome. I guess that's why his gig was so popular. The difficulty level was low due to his very distinct style of zombies. All I needed to do was keep certain signature aspects of my portrait and have just fun with the rest. And of course my zombie had to have my signature winged eyeliner, I mean why not?

-S.R

2014 Zombie Apocalypse

This Halloween I was inspired by a gig on Fiverr. I had no previous knowledge that this website even existed. Whilst browsing the internet I stumbled upon it, or should I say shoved in its path by an unworldly being lurking around my computer. However you want to look at it, I was glad to have found it. Fiverr is an online community where people, mostly freelancers, can offer their services or "gigs", starting at the cost of USD 5.00. I found this gig in the graphic design section, by marvelheads. He offered customers personalized zombie illustrations that he would create, for USD 5.00. I could not have stumbled upon a better place. He used his unique style of illustrating zombies for each customer. There are many styles of drawing zombies, ranging from realistic to completely comical. I had never seen a style quite like his, so of course I had to recreate my own portrait, taking out and adding elements as I went along. You will have to wait till the clock strikes midnight on Halloween to see what I have created....

Just kidding! The portrait will be up Friday, when the clock strikes 12, for lunch.

Check out my Facebook page to see the zombies marvelhead has manifested and my Tumblr for more Halloween art inspiration.

-S.R

Two is better than One

Khloe Kardashian

Mixed Media: Adobe Illustrator and Coloured Pencils

Inspired by Hayden Williams' fashion sketches

Chantal and myself have teamed up to create this mixed media portrait of Khloe. We both, individually drew her portrait and Chantal, using photoshop, blended the two pieces seamlessly together. I think it gives a nice effect, and the texture of the pencils contrasts with the smoothness of my digital drawing. Chantal was better able to capture the emotions in Khloe's eyes than I was and I think I was really able to portray the fuzziness of the sweater's fabric. Each medium has its strengths and weaknesses and together they can complement each other and exist harmoniously to create a very interesting portrait.

-S.R

My Original artwork

     Reference Image courtesy Gossip Magazine

                     

Coming Soon: Mixed Media ft The Sketch Paper Project

Working with mixed media is something I rarely do as a graphic artist. Typically all my work is done digitally and whoooshh off to the printers. I'm particularly interested in the different textures mixed media introduces. It can bring a different flare to a piece of artwork.

Chantal is an artist from The Sketch Paper Project who deals with hand drawn portraits using pencils. She focuses on celebrity figures and has, thus far, done solely black and white pieces. Her variety is in the persons she draws, whereas mine is in the styles I use to recreate one selfie photo.

Allison Hinds

Image belongs to The Sketch Paper Blog

We have teamed up to create a mixed media piece: both digital and hand drawn combined, for a result that neither one could do without the other.

We both continue to strive to build on our skill set and this collaboration is a testimony to that. As seen in previous posts, I have only done self-portraits, which I have grown comfortable in producing. For this piece, however, I have chosen to do a celebrity, Khloe Kardashian, sticking to a female portrait but not my own. Also, I have continued my experimental style trend by using Hayden Williams as inspiration for this piece. Mr. Williams uses fashion sketches to depict several different celebrities and their outfits. He is more focused on the garment rather than the celebrities themselves. The style is very quick and almost abstract. Lines are loosely drawn and filled in. Its about quickly putting ideas to paper and then cleaning up in the end.

All images belong to Hayden Williams

-S.R

Let there be Colour! Portrait #2

I am entirely please with the outcome of this portrait. The colours and detailing definitely bring something new and exciting to the table. My biggest struggle had to have been simply selecting what colours to use. Last minute I decided to change the colour of the hair from a natural brunette to a red head. I had to change certain aspects, like the hairline that MJ Lindo uses a lot, as well as the coloured hair to keep within her style. The wooden background enhances the hair and mimics its golden, blond colour beautifully. The technique I used for the shading was surprisingly easy to apply and produced a very soft blend of colours that MJ achieves with paint. I really enjoyed the process as it made me finally step into the world of colour that I have been avoiding for years. A close up of the details in this portrait can be found on my facebook page.

-S.R

Colourful Shadows?

When it comes to shading I am completely old fashioned. I typically use a gray scale for shadows, and white for highlighting, which can both be tinted a particular colour depending on the job at hand.

Photo courtesy Diane Wright

MJ Lindo's technique takes a completely different approach however, and this left an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach. She uses a combination of pure and mixed colours for both highlights and shadows. Some colours are fleshed toned, while others aren't. One would not expect yellows, blues and purples to be used in a portrait. The result is very ethereal, capturing the essence of sensitivity. This technique is extremely difficult. One needs to completely understand the color wheel, to effectively communicate the emotions behind the portrait. The colours need to be in sync with each other, as well as be balanced throughout the piece. Repetition of color is important. If you look closely, the turquoise blue used under the neck and shoulder is repeated within the iris of the eye. This ensures a unified look.

Photo courtesy MJ Lindo

Using colour in a portrait is already an accomplishment for me but her unconventional use of colour is completely outside of my comfort zone. My admiration for MJ is growing as I continue to work on my portrait, which will be soon revealed.

-S.R

Muy Linda: MJ Lindo

I have been following MJ Lindo on instagram for almost a year now and it did not take long to fall completely in love with her portraits. Her medium is paint, which she uses to create very whimsically beautiful portraits of women. These portraits are extremely detailed facially, which is a nice contrast to my previous Gaks inspired minimalist portrait. Her highlighting and shadow techniques evoke such emotion and in my opinion is a major part of what makes her work so special. Her work can appear very personal, and vulnerable. She is very smart and aware in her use of colour which is a major struggle for me. If I could, I would do all my artwork in black and white. What really caught my attention however, is her use of a wooden canvas. It creates such an interesting background, painted or left untouched. She also uses the wooden texture and lines as the hair texture for her women, which I believe to be extremely creative. It would be interesting to see if I could successfully translate her painting techniques into a digital illustration, using Adobe Illustrator and not Photoshop which effortlessly mimics the look of paint.

All images belong to MJ Lindo

-S.R

First out the Gate: Portrait #1

With blood, sweat, tears and some negative thoughts of quitting, I have finally mustered up the strength to complete my first portrait. It is inspired by Gaks' very clean, minimalist style of illustrating where he focuses most of his time and energy in perfecting hair. This serves as the main attraction of the piece. The colouring is simple which complements the facial features that have been stripped down to its most basic lines and form. These aspects all form his signature and what I admire the most is how effortless his portraits appear. Only in doing the portrait I understand the underlying complexity of his work. Looks can be so deceiving.


-S.R

Hair Therapy

I am no vector ninja like Gaks so I have dedicated the majority of my days to perfecting the hair in my portrait. I had given myself a week deadline to complete the portrait and 6 out of those 7 days were easily lost in perfecting each strand of hair. Going into it I knew that the hair would have caused me the most strife. I definitely was not wrong. I felt as though I had shot myself in the foot selecting Gaks as my first inspiring artist. I knew he was a master hair illustrator and that creating hair was very time consuming.  I considered omitting the hair on my shoulders, leaving my hair in a simple up-do or even changing the image of myself all together. This would, of course, defeat the purpose of this journey all together. I would not be pushing myself beyond my skill boundary. I made the decision to keeping illustrating, no matter how cramped my fingers felt. Seriously, I think I developed symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome after an entire week of hair work.

The most difficult aspect, for me, had to have been the hairline. Any imperfections there would have attracted a lot of unwanted attention. We all know the look of hair, the way it streamlines and flows seamlessly into each other.  It all begins at the hairline and the space between each strand and the forehead is unique, following a changing curve as it goes around the head. Every other aspect can be cheated but the hair line either makes or breaks your portrait.

My main goal was not to identically replicate the hair in the image. It was to create hair that was organic, capturing the flow of each strand. I honestly put my best foot forward and tried to keep a positive mind as I tend to give up easily and get lazy. For those interested in the process, I have included step by step images for creating the hairline below:

Firstly, I laid down each strand of hair that would create the edge of the hairline, using a preset hair brush.

 Secondly, using the pen tool, I filled in the gaps between the strands and the bun

Finally, using the same preset hair brush in varying stroke widths, I added in highlights.

Tip: Varying the hair strands' width help to keep the hair looking natural and less planned or rigid.

-S.R