This month my intent, blogwise, is to post about two of the three pieces I haven't written about yet, and post another three months worth of old sketches (which should bring me up to this year). Oh, and this post of course! We'll see if I can manage a post every weekend then; next week is already looking iffy in that regard.
For now though, on with the speed.
Time Taken: 110 Minutes
Software: Photoshop
Based on: This Image, but larger, sort of
So I was going through my folder of 'Images I might want to base something on one day' images, that I just generally dump things I like in on occasion. There are far more images in that folder than I will ever actually paint, and it goes back quite a long way - before pinterest in fact, where now I usually pin a copy as well as saving locally. Anyway, there were two images in there that I liked, and couldn't decide between, so I mashed them up and then went looking online to get a link to them for this here writeup
As you might have guessed from the tiny image linked above, those images have basically disappeared from the web, but they are apparently promo images for 2 Chainz 'No Lie' (Featuring Drake) and SkullCandy. I'm not the biggest rap fan, but I've heard a lot worse than that, and the video has lots of interesting images, of which the guy in the reference picture appears for all of 2 seconds. Since the images aren't available I'll take the rare step of uploading the mashup I worked from so you can see them.
The process images also show my trying some different things to the usual. I had a crosshair grid for each of the two figures in the mashup, and rather than just working from that directly I just used it as a rough guide, while also trying to balance elements graphically. You can see some of that in the first image, with the line coming down from the rough area of his nose to the front line of his shirt, though there are other lines less obvious, such as from the line of the cheekbone down to a major fold in the shirt, and the shoulders being parallel to the line of the jaw and the line of the cap. I didn't sketch in his face in much detail, but rather just started painting at this point, since the important landmarks were already established.
The colour underlay of the shirt was intended to bring a little vibrancy to something that was otherwise just a flat grey. My thinking was that the colours would show through a little in the end result, which turned out to be the case. There wasn't any great thought behind the colors being green and magenta, except that those are fairly neutral shades, that would give the extra depth without driving the shirt too much into the warm or cool colour zones.
Lastly, I wasn't really sure what to do for the background, but I knew it needed something. I picked a bright pink to go with the colour in the inside of his cap brim, and a random brush, and just did a stroke matching one of the graphic lines I'd previously defined. It worked far better than it had any right to. The graphic blocks were done prior to the stroke, and were another randomly chosen brush (made for some experiments back on Tardis Eruditorum 5) using the foreground and background colours I just happened to have selected at the time.
Wow, I had way too much to say about that background.
Time Taken: 200 Minutes
Software: Photoshop
Based on: Lots, but predominantly this image
I really quite liked how the last image turned out, and wanted to do a companion piece for my 200th speedpaint. Since I had a guy in the last on, I wanted a woman in this one. the only problem was that I couldn't find an image to work from even remotely close to what I wanted, so I had to make one. That's not usually what I do for speedpaints, at least not those I expect to end up looking reasonably good, but being the 200th paint I allowed myself 200 minutes to paint it - that's about three and a half hours, a really long time for one of these.
Since I couldn't find a good reference, I used the photo of the woman linked above (I didn't find it on that site, and I've long forgotten where I did find it), and the face and cap came from the head I didn't use from the previous image as references. Yes, the photo I didn't use as head reference last time was of a man, but I only needed it for light, pose, and perspective reference - I used multiple other references of women to ensure a good level of feminization.
As with the last image, you can see that the step through starts with some line art, in which I try to keep the whole thing looking graphic. Since I wanted the headphones around her neck instead of her wearing them and yet still wanted a circular graphic element, I gave her a large round earing. This ended up a lot more subtle than I originally intended, but I think it works pretty well all the same. Where the previous image had red/pink as the accent colour, for this one I went with blue. Other than that, and a fairly major rethink of the perspective on her face (middle image) this one went much the same as the previous one, although it took a lot longer since I had no direct reference for a lot of the elements, including those headphones and her hair.
Time Taken: 40 minutes
Software: ArtRage 4
Based on: Nothing in particular
Nothing exciting to say about this one - I was going to do a 'proper' speedpaint, but ended up noodling around with this for 40 minutes instead. She has a gigantic forehead, but other than that, I think it's OK.
Time Taken: 90 Minutes
Software: ArtRage 4
Based on: Publicity still of Agent Coulson from Agents of SHIELD
This one was all about me trying a new method for capturing likenesses while speedpainting. It didn't work out that well. Oh, it looks like him, and I quite like the image, but it ends up being too time consuming for the end result. The technique, if you're curious, involves working from an intentionally blurred image to avoid focusing unintentionally on details. There may be some potential with it, but it doesn't save all that much time.
In the process images you can see I'm laying down brighter colours again in the second image, some of which make it through to the final stage. I've actually been doing that occasionally for a long time, but I realise I may not have mentioned it explicitly until this post.
Time Taken: 15 Minutes
Software: Photoshop
Based on: Nada
Another bout of me just noodling around. This time I was mainly experimenting with colour, and while this didn't turn out particularly well (that's what you get for 15 minutes) the colours are interesting enough that I may revisit them at some point.
Time Taken: 70 Minutes
Software: ArtRage 4
Based on: Mostly this image, but also a couple of others.
A rare case of me posting an 'unfinished' speedpaint, although it's also the only 'unfinished' on that's taken over an hour. I wasn't after a likeness with this one, I just happened to like her hair and the looking over the shoulder pose. I was making up the colour scheme as I went, which meant it took a long time and didn't end up particularly good or interesting. So disgusted with it was I that I closed it before saving any of the step-by-step images. I looked at it the next day though and thought "I think there's potential here" and kept working on it, though not as a speedpaint. The results of that I'll be posting some time soon, but up to this point at least it was a speedpaint, so it gets included here.
Time Taken: 55 minutes
Software: ArtRage 4
Based on: My own fizzog
The last time I did a self portrait was way the heck back in 2013, so I thought my profile picture on various sites could do with an update. No grids or fancy pants stuff here, just a wet and loose oil-paint in ArtRage. Old school speedpainting (well, old school for me), I should do it more often. It's not perfect, but it does look like me, so it does the job.
You can see here that the only thing I was particularly focused on was my eye, and to a lesser extent my ear. I thought if I could get those about right the gaps would follow through implication. The only other thing of interest was my attempt to imply that I hadn't shaved without painting a lot of individual hairs. I think I succeeded on that particular point for a change.
Time Taken: 55 minutes
Software: ArtRage 4
Based on: A lot of bull
Another one that I don't have an awful lot to say about (and thank heavens, because this has been a long post). I painted this after uploading the sketches in the previous post, because I saw the minotaur sketches and thought it might be fun to do a more traditional take.
I used some photos of bulls, and a handful of bodybuilders to paint the rough outlines, but I stopped really referencing them before I got to the second image here. This may be why it looks more like a goat than a bull, but I care not, I still like it. It also looks a little stiff (not like that, calm down), which I like less. The intention was to have the head be somewhere between a bull and a man, but still more of the former than the latter (the sketches were much more man, and much less bull).
One thing I find interesting about this one is how much green I used in the image without it looking odd. Obviously the nose and ears (and a touch at the eyes) are pink, and the horns are brown/cream, and the background is almost a flat grey, but everything else is green or yellow in tint (even the outline is a slight orange). So what started as little more than a doodle ended up being really useful in learning more about colour.
That's all for today, but I think that's quite enough. It used to take months to build up enough for a post of this magnitude, so I've very happy with how my 'speedpaint a week' is working out. Still a long way to go until the end of the year though, All of which being said, I already have the first two speedpaints done for next months post, so things are generally looking hopeful.
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