Chiaroscuro

Charcoal portrait of Aftyn made in a reverse style, adding white media over a dark background. I went looking for the highest contrast reference images I could find, and the source for this one really jumped out at me. The shadow definitions are wonderful — well defined regions of form shadow, cast shadows, bounce lighting, ambient occlusion. There’s even some cast shadow over form shadow in the projection of the lace down over her boob.

I tried out using some red in my first pass at this. It was all right, but didn’t feel it was gelling. I was much happier with the all monochrome version. I’m happy with the overall quality. In particular, I like how little detail I was able to get away with putting in the eyes. Her left eye is literally a single line!

I went through more revisions on this piece than I usually do. I’m often in a rush to move onto the next thing, cognizant of the advice that skill develops more with quantity than quality. But I had a friend offering detailed critiques on this piece, driving me to polish it ever further. I think it shows. It looks great.