Another photo study. This time working on more body, rather than the face. Also messing around with depth of field. I still don't quite have the hang of it, but I get the gist. It adds a nice; although in this case not very subtle, photographic effect. Also messing around with glows, so the study doesn't look so much like a study, but more like a work of art. Again, it's a little cheesy, but whatevs. The scene isn't anything like the one in the study, so that was my own doing.

puke! posting because I told myself I would. Messing around with the digital water color brushes. Mainly working with blending and attempting to get some very smooth, gradiated blends going on. Let's see......fail! Could not achieve the results I wanted despite trying to hours. There are areas that are blended well, but mostly that was incidental while trying to blend another area. puke! Also, working with water color tends to wash out color, which I makes sense thinking about the media...water...color, but it's a pain trying to blend, while also maintaining color saturation. New rule, when working with water color don't hesitate to amp up the saturation as much as possible, because while blending it's only going to desaturate. Although, honestly, I'm about fed up with using water color. Tonight was supposed to be fun. puke. IT WAS NOT!!! PUKE!

another one, happier with this one, but still not sure how to consistently get smooth blending with the simple water brush in corel painter x3. I still other people that can do it, but I'm not able to achieve the same results. The blender brushes seem like an obvious solution, except with the digital water color media they do NOT seem to work. I even tried a couple of blur filters and those didn't seem to do anything either. Maybe it's all in the wrist?!?!?!? or maybe I should create a new layer after I do the basic stuff and use somethign like charcoal or chalk (somethign I know I can blur)....Regardless,

Worked on this for waaaaaaaaaaaaaay to long. Still not happy with it, and I'm somewhat aggravated by the whole ordeal, so here's the post.

Been working, but not posting. Finally listened to my better judgement and work on this more as a whole, rather than individual characters. Characters were already mostly laid out, but I sketched in the background along with some elements from the movie and I'm still thinking about how it's all going to fit together. Although I sketched based off reference for the characters and the car, in the end I'd like to have some sort of cohesive lighting, instead of every character having their own local lighting. Although it will be a struggle I suspect, I also think it will be good practice instead of just ripping straight from a photo.

Refined some of the line work for Hel & Camaro, and started adding color.

added some more faces to the mix. All the characters are on the poster 'cept pinky. Not sure if I'll add that one or not. I think it would be a neat addition if handled properly. Still not entirely sure about the destination, but I like the direction

More face studies, this time it's the 3 leads from "Bitch Slap" Thinking of turning this into a faux movie like poster with all the characters on it. the 3 ladies occupying the most space, with all the peripheral characters surrounding. Maybe have some of the props in there as well like the ninja star, sword, gun, car, trailer, fire, explosions, or whatever. Have to see where this goes. I do think it makes the studies more interesting, and also more challenging if I do more with them than simply drawing face after face. There's another Camaro sketch not shown. It didn't come out well, and wasn't angry enough. Even her current sketch isn't as as refined or capture her likness nearly as much as Hel or Trixie. 

Almost all male faces this time. Nothing special here, just more practice. I'm less happy with the face sketches than usual, but more happy with the coloring job. The photo ref was b/w.

more face studies + some color. Selected some more expressive poses. Took longer and not as well rendered, but it's a good start I think. Took the one I liked best and added color. The photo ref wasn't in color, so I just made up colors. Not all together unsuccessful coloring I don't think, but not very well done either. Took a long time (maybe and hour) Good portion of that time spent trying to find a brush that didn't frustrate me. Landed on the "simple water" brush. Came recommended by Stanley Lau, who has a spread in the most recent issue of Imagine FX. It's different than any other brush I've painted with. Heavy pressure paints the color selected and lighter pressure has dodge effect...not sure if I really like it, but it was fun to try out.

Getting back into the swing of things with more face studies...this time with a comic flair. None of these were timed, but used reference for all of them. Male faces still giving me trouble.