March of Robots entry: Supermodel Fembot Lips

This is a piece that had to get onto paper as soon as it was envisioned.  I had originally thought of it in a metallic finish -even a flat grey- but the allure of red ultimately overcame that idea, and I needed it to easily convey the look of lips.  They are inspired by Emily DiDonato's.  I'm very satisfied with the upper lip, but referencing the outward folds in the lip flesh didn't allow for such a complicated pattern on the bottom lip- so they turned out more square.  The original sketch (after the jump, cat fur strand in-tact) took about 40 mins and the paint-over took about 3 hours.

Enjoy!

Colors of Summer

Summer is here once again, so here's a fresh season opener for my dear readers.  Here to welcome you is the delightful Emily Didonato (same model as "Evil or Ecstasy").  The biggest challenge of this piece was showing the proper form and mixing the colors smoothly enough for her right biceps.  Although there are a number of colors across her arm, I feel like it would've been easier if I had a firm grasp on what the muscles beneath were doing.  At CCS I never had a proper anatomy class, so I've never done a good muscle study.  I think it's high time I try one.  Hit the jump for the line layout.   

Evil or Ecstasy

This piece is meant to convey the presence of an unsettling duality of expression; ambiguity of evil and ecstasy.  I'm quite sure there are a lot of facial communications I don't even realize I've included.  I do wish I had a better understanding of these.  The reference model was Emily Didonato.  

Where's November!?

Here's Tiiu Kuik for Vogue Mexico.  The colors and patterns on her traditional alpaca hat made painting this a lot of fun.  While the colors were important to match, I payed close attention to quickly and efficiently represent the patterns on it, being careful not to spend too much time on them.  The piece took a little over 2.5 hrs, but I'm ok with that because of the detail involved.  I'll likely retouch the hair.

Non-Faux Fox Fur

I spent too much time on this one, and I think it looks too smooth. Over an hour and a half this time.  Getting the one eye to not look like it was looking past the viewer was a real challenge.  I also need to work on impression-izing hair so it doesn't look like I'm trying to render each strand.  The reference was Megan Ewing for Guess Jeans.  

Fabric and Grass Study

This one took a solid hour.  Side by side no-layer paint just like the one of Mia yesterday.  I'm satisfied with the shirt but I don't have a good fast way to do grass yet.  Model image was the always amazing Doutzen Kroes in one of my favorite pictures of her.  Incase you're wondering, her face is obscured in the reference image too- I didn't go all lazy on 'er.

Figure Drawing

Inspired by Ol' Mitty himself, I dug deep into one of my Binders Full of Capable Women and came across a picture of the time Mia Kirshner came over to play with her hair on my bed.  So I did a side-by-side and this is the resulting speed painting.  It is color sampled, but not drawn over anything.  I'd like very much to do more figure drawing.