Ariel Urlich with Moko (tattoo), painted in Photoshop.

[Sack]

Ariel Urlich with Moko, painted in Photoshop CS6 using Wacom Intuos3 by Dean Packwood.
Tā moko is the permanent body and face marking by Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. Approx 8 hours to complete.

Speed painting video on my YouTube Channel

 

[madFive]

Another great looking painting! Love watching these come together in the video. I am curious how your painting method for this works, if you don't mind giving away too many secrets...

I'm mostly wondering how your painting methods translate to painting directly from real life instead of from a photo, and how much of this you're pretty-much tracing from the source photo.

Do you keep the source photo on a layer directly under what you're painting and just paint right on top of it to make the drawing portion easier? Or do you have the source photo on a monitor or print-out seperately and look back and forth so it's not just tracing?

Also, how do you mix the colors you use? Do you use eye-dropper to pull the colors directly from the source photo, or do you mix them yourself by eye-balling and guessing?

You clearly have the technique you're using now down - I'd like to see what you can do by taking it to the next level and painting some real life objects or people instead of the celeb photo-tracing stuff. Either way, keep up the great work!

 

[Sack]

Hi, thanks. There's no secret. As I am getting back into my artwork after pretty much 20 years, I'm a little rusty. Sorry for all the text here, but hopefully I answer your questions.

So, I've gone back to how I started out, I use photographs as reference. This really put me offside with my art teacher at High school way back as she was into abstract and it was taboo to draw from a photograph. She reckoned artists shouldn't do that, which is rubbish in my opinion. For example, couple hundred years ago, people pretty much had the time to sit for a painting, these days, we get pissed if a photo-shoot takes more than 20 minutes, 10 if you have kids... and it would be nice, but I don't think Britney Spears would come over and sit for me... not yet anyway

To be able to get to a point were you don't need a photograph (especially if you are into realism) you need to practice and build up a 'library' in your mind of what things look like. If you were to paint a Horse, the proportion of the body, muscle structure, color, which way the legs bend etc. you get this knowledge from observation and practice. To draw a specific Horse, you usually still need photographic reference, but not necessarily the same angle, lighting or pose, but just so you can get the 'likeness' of the particular animal. Same for people.

My art teacher would say that it was pointless to draw like a photograph, you might as well use a camera. My argument was that anyone can take a photo but take a blank piece of paper and make it look like a photo, not many people can do that. Skill' has has been lost in art somewhere along the way (guys like Michael Angelo and Leonardo just wouldn't make it these days), to a point where someone can present an 'unmade bed' and the 'Art World' gets all excited about it ... Pfft! My 12 year old son could do that Not saying there's not a place for other styles which I like and want to learn, but i'm pretty sure you know what I mean, it's pretty crazy these days

Anyway, sorry for the tangent there. At the moment, I'm training myself and polishing skills by using a photo reference that I have off to the side on a second monitor on my PC. Yeah, look back and forth and you'll see what you've done well and what needs to change unless you're painting it different from the photo. The reference photo I used for this one has more hair, more defined in some places, shadowing on the face a bit different, no tattoo etc... but still trying to be accurate.

I don't trace but I am using grid reference for know, basically you have a grid on both the image and the 'canvas' for reference. Handy if you want to change the magnification of your art because you can have a smaller grid on the original photo or sketch, and your final art (as you paint it) will be re-sized accordingly. You'll see the grid pop on and off as I use it in the video. In my Jennifer Aniston video on my YouTube channel, you see a clip or two of me drawing on the tablet.

I also use the photo for picking colors however, I change and mix colors to make them more punchy, contrast, subdued or whatever. Digital painting is a bit different from traditional painting, but I have got myself some canvas, oils, brushes etc and I will be branching into that before the year's out, I've never really been a painter, but rather traditional drawing so it's a bit challenging. The main challenge I had to get over is that early on in the painting, it looks like crap, but you can't give up, just persevere and it will hopefully work out... something I don't really experience with drawing.

I've only got back into art 8 weeks ago, we didn't do art on PCs 20 years ago that's for sure. Eventually in the next few months, I plan to be at the point where I can start creating fictional scenes, people etc, but photo-realistic and more lax styles as I like Science Fiction, fantasy etc. I'm pretty sure I can now paint a photo-realistic fictional face with no photo reference at all, as I'm pretty familiar with painting eyes, noses, lips, hair etc... now onto doing full bodies etc It's pretty much just getting confidence back, it's a bit like riding a bike after not riding one for 20 years, you never forget, you're just a little shaky

 

[madFive]

Very cool explanation - thanks! I like the grid concept - very good idea! I'll have to keep that in mind. I do a lot of illustration and a little animation work, mostly in Flash. Most of the time when I need a new element, I'll just shoot a photo and trace directly over it to get the illustration started since it's faster that way. But I do think it's important to be able to just look at something in real life and draw it without any tracing involved. Having the photo on the side with a grid over it is a great middle-ground. A lot of old painters used to carry around a frame with a physical wire grid in it and set it up to paint a landscape etc, 'cause it's easier to break down the elements and composition that way. So translating this to digital isn't that much of a stretch.