Happy Friday
A portrait of Aftyn Rose, looking comfortable and beautiful on her deck, referenced from a photo on her Snapchat. This painting has a history. I started with a sketch (below) that, while quick, I think looks great. I tried to paint over it and gave up in despair. Sometimes when I go to broad color shapes from a nice sketch, I lose confidence in the work. That happened and I gave up.
The painting above is just a fresh attempt from the original reference, painted without an underlying sketch. No guidelines, no Loomis head or whatever, just shapes. The dark mass of hair goes about here. Wait, too much. Carve it back some. There’s a shadow volume that runs on an angle here. It’s a soft curve, so blend it back some. And so on. Eventually it starts taking on enough shape that the mind can start processing whether it looks like the subject. I tend to get a little obsessed at this stage, and this piece was no exception. I had to do quite a bit of pushing/pulling/repainting to make this look like Aftyn. But in time, it did, and I have landed on a painting I like a lot.
Some notes:
- I adore the picture this is based on. It’s one of my favorites
- Getting the little bit of light shining through her shirt was, to me, absolutely critical for capturing the spirit of this one
- I used a speckle brush to achieve the rough texture on her top
- I had to take a few runs at the pendant of her necklace before it felt like it came together
- I also went through several revisions on the little bit of environment in the background, playing with both level of abstraction and color palette. I have been experimenting with several different techniques, but still haven’t hit on an approach that gives me confidence
- Getting the shadow of a person’s lower eyelids right is vital to achieving likeness. It’s surprising how precise this needs to be to make the face feel right
Here’s the original sketch:
Medium: Digital
App: Procreate
Tools: Paint