Speeding into '17

Happy New Year!  Hopefully.  And with the New Year comes the inevitable New Year resolutions.  One of mine?  Blog more, as I've been terrible at it over the last 12 months (you may have noticed).  'Blog more' is a bit vague though, so perhaps 'Blog at least once a month' works better.  Other ones are 'draw more' and 'draw/paint worse' (I'll explain that one in a future post, but it boils down to me doing more quick experimentation to improve, without always worrying about the end result as much, so it's more enjoyable).

So, here I am blogging, with actual art, for the first time since July.  Ugh, that's terrible!  Some of the upcoming posts might be about things I did a year or more ago, because I didn't mention them at the time, and in some cases I'd almost entirely forgotten about them until I stumbled across them on Facebook (or whatever).  Since the blog is as much for my memory as for your (possible) pleasure, I should probably write a post covering them.  This is not that post - this is a speedpaint post.

Time Taken: 90 Minutes
Software: Photoshop
Based on: http://tinyurl.com/hz6bfhv

With 5 Months since I last posted a speedpaint you'd think I would have a great many to post to catch up - well, I have enough that I don't want to write much about all of them, so I'm not going to.  This one doesn't have a step by step or anything, so take it as you will.

Time Taken: 40 Minutes
Software: Photoshop
Based on: Nothing

I did this while messing about with Photoshop's new(ish) Mixer Brush, which I hadn't tried before.  The guy on the right came from just sort of scribbling, and finding a face in the result, while the guy on the left was more planned, but only a little so.

Time Taken: 140 Minutes
Software: Photoshop
Based on: Jesús "Chuy" Alanis of Circulos de Nada

I got to meet Chuy, and most of the rest of the band Circulos de Nada, on my trip to Mexico. They invited me to attend one of their rehearsals, and this is based on some of the shots I took there.



I recorded me painting it here, but the capture crashed after an hour and I didn't notice until I was done. So that was annoying; Still worth a watch if you're interested though.  The music is by the band, if you were wondering and didn't watch to the end.

Time Taken: 150 Minutes
Software: Photoshop
Based on - Bit of this - Model Stefania Ferrario

Not terribly keen on this one, though I think the hair came out pretty well.  I was trying to do something with more vibrant colour than my usual, and also something a little 80's feeling.  Mixed results.

I think I actually preferred it before I added the round frame around her head actually...

Time Taken: 145 Minutes
Software: Photoshop
Based on: See video

Personally I like this one a lot, but it seems to have passed by unremarked upon in most places I've posted it.  No accounting for taste I guess.  Anyway, I like it, so there.



Not a lot to say about the process - really happy how her hair came out, despite it not being remotely realistic, and done so rapidly.

Time Taken: 225 Minutes + 170 Minutes + 190 Minutes
Software: ArtRage 4 and Photoshop
Based on: Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing

A sort of sequel to last year's halloween triptych.  That one was of  Horror icons of the 30's, while this one is the late 50's early 60's, and yeah, it was done in October.

None of the three is pulled from a single photograph, and Price is sort of a 'generic creepy Price' from the era, rather than a specific character (Lee is Dracula, and Cushing is Victor Frankenstein).  Price was also the most difficult, as there are surprisingly few high quality colour images of him online from that era (Except from Fall of the House of Usher, which in retrospect I should have gone with, but then he lacked the beard I personally associate with him - painting for another day I guess).

All the painting was done in ArtRage, with a little postwork in Photoshop to get the grain and such.

Time Taken: 90 Minutes
Software: ArtRage (Minor post work in Photoshop)

Usually I don't remember my dreams, but on this occasion I did, or at least this weird vision of a nurse with red skin.  I was ill and had a fever at the time (this may explain the dream), and decided to paint it.  I'm not terribly happy with the result, but it's not like I can call it inaccurate.



I recorded the painting of it, as I thought it might be interesting one way or another, and it's the first ArtRage recording I've done with my new setup too.  I just did a quick search for a few references and went for it.  I would not be surprised if I revisit this one day.

Time Taken: 90 Minutes
Software: Photoshop
Based on: http://tinyurl.com/gpjqhp7

This one was one I 'fixed' at the last minute with judicious use of Photoshop's Liquify tool.

I think he actually looks like a nice enough fellow before I made the proportional changes, but it wasn't capturing the aspects of the original I was trying to, hence the quick fix.  Not a favourite of mine either way though.

Time Taken: 150 Minutes
Software: Photoshop
Based on: Very loosely on a photo of model Keiko Inagaki