Last weekend I saw the highly acclaimed exhibition, 'Savage Beauty' at the V&A by Alexander McQueen  (R.I.P). It was fantastic and I'm really glad to have seen it just before it ended. My partner treated me to a Samsung Galaxy Note Pro a while back and I've been using it for sketching (which is fab, btw), but I was struggling to adjust to painting with it. Here's a study based on a photo from the McQueen book I bought after seeing the exhibition. Hopefully, with more practice I'll be able to paint quickly and freely with this device!

Naomi

P.S. A lot has happened over the past few months.....I'll  write a proper post about it another time. Although if you follow me on social media then you'll  already know of NAOHOA!

I thought it would be a good idea to start developing my own style of painting portraits in preparation for my future career in tattooing. Given that I'm a massive fan....here's a portrait of Lady Gaga I started last night:


As you can see from the original photo, I punched up the contrast and stylised the hair so it would work better as a tattoo. Can you spot the nod to music in this piece?


* I'm not completely sure if it's okay to sell on Society6, so if it isn't and Gaga/her people would rather I take it down, I will immediately.

Another speedpaint study based on a photo I Pinned a while ago. Based on a basic Google search, I think the photographer is Daria Zaytseva: http://www.dariazaytseva.com/

It isn't a particularly strict study but I like the mood of it.

Feeling out of touch with digital work, so I did a speedie. It's fairly off but good practice nonetheless.

Here's a 30-min speedie:




I've also pinned a few new pics in my Cheer Me Up! board on Pinterest.

These have been less frequent 'cause I started another little project, which I can't show yet as they're Christmas presents. :P I'll post pics after they've been received.

I've decided to start the working day with a 30-min speedpaint as a warm up.



They're mostly pics I nabbed from Google Images to do a study of. I've found that since doing this, my confidence in painting and work stuff has gone up and that I generally find it easier to do. Best keep this going then. :)

Interiors next week, methinks.

Did another today. :)



Animated GIF of WIP shots:


I'd love to own the book! Christmas is coming up so fingers crossed, eh? ;)

Here's a link to the project's website again. Definitely worth a look.... http://www.beforethey.com/ 

Spent a few hours on this today:



It's based on one of Jimmy Nelson's photos from his project, "Before They Pass Away", where he travelled the world to take photos of tribes. 

I used two brushes by Sandara.


EDIT: 03/11/13
Here's an animated GIF of the WIP shots:

Today's lunchtime sketch:

I got fed up of carrying and drawing in the big sketchbook 'cause it's so cumbersome so I've downsized to an A5 hardback and splashed some paint on it:

I'll be attending the Eurogamer Expo this year in attempt to get some crits and exposure of my work, so it wouldn't hurt to dedicate some time to packaging to make it more memorable. Normally, I paint a character, but this will coincide with my portfolio so they'll look better together. All in the name of marketing, baby. ;)

The first sketch inside:
Been watching Tangled and Book of Kells lately (excellent films and they're both on LoveFilm) and I like how both used hair as part of the character's movement and personality, so here's what I would look like if I were an animated character of some sort! Though I don't have the tattoo yet....the rest shall be explained when it's in full colour.


These lot are from the old SB:



These were from the Oxford Meet where we went to Pitt Rivers to look at lots of sharp and pretty things behind glass. Miiiight have spent too much time socialising instead of drawing, though. Still, it was good fun.


1-minute poses.


Rawr, abs!

.....still need to practice more and play around with custom brushes and textures to speed things up. These took about 30-60 mins each. Too long considering, really. :/

On a side note, I recently made a Twitter account as a means of networking/finding more information to aid my job hunt. I avoided it for aaaaaages, dismissing it as another fad but it's been surprisingly useful so far and I enjoy the daily updates of inspiring photography from the National Geographic folks (all of the enviro speedpaints so far are studies of their photos).

I also designed some new icons for my site, so I'll spam them here too:


^ Clicky clicky ^
Notice how they're the same shape as my logo? ;)

Some speedy studies of photoshoots from Vogue:


I'm trying to loosen up and get into painting more since I'm normally quite line-based. First one took about 3-4 hours since I was figuring out custom brushes a method but the second took an hour overall. Getting there....hahah.

This is how the portrait turned out after some crits from a friend:


He suggested playing around with overlays to add more tones so I gave it a go. Here's a link to his blog. :) Cheers, Chris!

Lately, I've been feeling the need to take a step back and do some studies and test out some brushes. This is a study of my friend Alena - I liked the way her hair fell in the photo and wanted to paint it. Also, she's actually wearing a hoody but I like to think of it as a medieval cloak. xD Gives it a different feel.

It's a little stylised and I managed to stop myself in time so not to over-work it....which is a minor achievement for me! It's always tricky to know when to stop painting until it's too late, usually - but I guess that's the beauty of painting digitally (not too painful to fix!). ;)

I've recently finished my moleskin sketchbook so I'm now using a big leather one that's an inconvenient size even for an A3 scanner (which I don't have access to anymore, sigh~). It's a nightmare to scan so I'll try my best to take clear photos (which will actually be better since I'm super lazy when it comes to scanning stuff).

Here are some ink hand studies:




^ Playing with le brush pen and different styles.