Red Turban
Jan. 12th, 2010 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gracedpalmerThis is a practice piece that ballooned. The end result is probably thirty hours or more, due to learning as I go. I also overdid it the first couple of days and gave myself some overuse symptoms. However, resting it has generally been effective, and I've been able to keep painting - just not eight hours of detail work at a stretch. I haven't worked in this style in a few years, and it looks like I've leveled up a few times in the meantime. This is a very nice thing for me. As long as it took, the process felt pleasant and natural. I got frustrated a few times because of my lack of skill, and because I'm using relatively low quality materials, but very little because of tedium.
This is watercolor on 6x6 Aquabord - a textured form of Claybord that's lovely to work on, but will not be my primary support because of cost. I would like some better watercolors, too. The turban would have done far better if I'd had a nice high value red for the highlights, instead of building up oranges and then glazing them with red. Brushes used: a big number 9 for the initial color lay in, then 0, 00 and 18/0 for the hatching work.
Here's the detail:
Here are the picture's antecedants:
And now it's time for mistake analysis.
Here's a blueline of some of the things that are wrong with the painting. Some of these I noticed halfway through and corrected as best I could, but watercolor is less forgiving than digital media. The eyes were initially far too large, and the right eye was too high and at a weird angle. I was able to paint the eyes themselves smaller, though they're still fairly large. However, the irises stayed way too big. The blueline shows a more appropriate size. His left eye and most of the left side of the face has a slight upward tilt. This is a problem that probably showed up in the drawing stage.
The skin tones in the neck and shoulder started getting a little muddy, in part because I realized halfway through the piece that it didn't have a blue light source, but a yellow one. The cools in the shadows were too cool and dulled the skin tone. There's also a little mud in the shadows on the darker side of the face, and the turban tail over his left shoulder. Values in the turban are too low entirely, and the background has too high a contrast for the rest of the image. It should be darker and lower contrast, and the whole turban should be a notch brighter. You can see what I mean in the b/w version. Those highlights should have more pop.
Am I happy with it? It was a good learning experience and the flaws are minimally noticable unless you're looking for them. I'll never get my hourlies' worth out of it, but that's what practice pieces are for. (If you're in love with this, make me an offer. Practice pieces are cheap.) Perhaps I'll move on to the next one tomorrow or the day after.
This is watercolor on 6x6 Aquabord - a textured form of Claybord that's lovely to work on, but will not be my primary support because of cost. I would like some better watercolors, too. The turban would have done far better if I'd had a nice high value red for the highlights, instead of building up oranges and then glazing them with red. Brushes used: a big number 9 for the initial color lay in, then 0, 00 and 18/0 for the hatching work.
Here's the detail:
Here are the picture's antecedants:
And now it's time for mistake analysis.
Here's a blueline of some of the things that are wrong with the painting. Some of these I noticed halfway through and corrected as best I could, but watercolor is less forgiving than digital media. The eyes were initially far too large, and the right eye was too high and at a weird angle. I was able to paint the eyes themselves smaller, though they're still fairly large. However, the irises stayed way too big. The blueline shows a more appropriate size. His left eye and most of the left side of the face has a slight upward tilt. This is a problem that probably showed up in the drawing stage.
The skin tones in the neck and shoulder started getting a little muddy, in part because I realized halfway through the piece that it didn't have a blue light source, but a yellow one. The cools in the shadows were too cool and dulled the skin tone. There's also a little mud in the shadows on the darker side of the face, and the turban tail over his left shoulder. Values in the turban are too low entirely, and the background has too high a contrast for the rest of the image. It should be darker and lower contrast, and the whole turban should be a notch brighter. You can see what I mean in the b/w version. Those highlights should have more pop.
Am I happy with it? It was a good learning experience and the flaws are minimally noticable unless you're looking for them. I'll never get my hourlies' worth out of it, but that's what practice pieces are for. (If you're in love with this, make me an offer. Practice pieces are cheap.) Perhaps I'll move on to the next one tomorrow or the day after.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-13 05:05 am (UTC)In fact, I'd forget your blueline, 'cause I really think it's AWESOME as is. Really nice work. 8-)
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Date: 2010-01-13 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-13 01:05 pm (UTC)That said, of course, it is insanely awesome regardless. :)
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Date: 2010-01-13 02:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-13 07:10 pm (UTC)