So this is the color study that I did many moons ago. I knocked it out in a few hours based on a photo that my brother emailed to me. The painting is roughly the size of my hand. I very rarely do paintings based on photos, but this was one of the first offspring from the Ziegelman brood! (That we can verify...) I tried to keep the painting fresh and try to make it feel like it was not from a photo. I hate when you can tell photo reference was used... While I did like some of the feeling of it, I didn't mean to make Sadie look like Winston Churchill. I let it sit around for probably 1.5 to 2 years before even attempting a larger version of it. I worked primarily from the color study for the larger version to avoid the "photo look."
So I decided it was time to do a larger version since I have been doing more painting lately. This is the underpainting. Right now I was just dealing with placement and some values. At this point I could tell that the drawing was a bit off...
I decided to start laying in some color areas roughly at first. Larger shapes.
It was at this point I decided to really begin to figure out the facial features of a newborn. It was very difficult for me because compared to an adult, there are no hard planes. Everything is so smooth and delicate, but I think I started to see some definite improvement on the likeness.
After the face was in a pretty good place, I moved onto her clothes and the background.
I then jumped to the blanket, laying in values to make it look like it lived in the same lighting scenario.
All that remained was noodling in the background more and other fine details. I was pleased with the outcome. I like that I moved her flesh to a more warm look as compared to the original color study. I am also pleased that she doesn't look like Winston Churchill anymore. I hope that she likes it...in, ummm...15 years or so!
So this is the color study that I did many moons ago. I knocked it out in a few hours based on a photo that my brother emailed to me. The painting is roughly the size of my hand. I very rarely do paintings based on photos, but this was one of the first offspring from the Ziegelman brood! (That we can verify...) I tried to keep the painting fresh and try to make it feel like it was not from a photo. I hate when you can tell photo reference was used... While I did like some of the feeling of it, I didn't mean to make Sadie look like Winston Churchill. I let it sit around for probably 1.5 to 2 years before even attempting a larger version of it. I worked primarily from the color study for the larger version to avoid the "photo look."
So I decided it was time to do a larger version since I have been doing more painting lately. This is the underpainting. Right now I was just dealing with placement and some values. At this point I could tell that the drawing was a bit off...
I decided to start laying in some color areas roughly at first. Larger shapes.
It was at this point I decided to really begin to figure out the facial features of a newborn. It was very difficult for me because compared to an adult, there are no hard planes. Everything is so smooth and delicate, but I think I started to see some definite improvement on the likeness.
After the face was in a pretty good place, I moved onto her clothes and the background.
I then jumped to the blanket, laying in values to make it look like it lived in the same lighting scenario.
All that remained was noodling in the background more and other fine details. I was pleased with the outcome. I like that I moved her flesh to a more warm look as compared to the original color study. I am also pleased that she doesn't look like Winston Churchill anymore. I hope that she likes it...in, ummm...15 years or so!
