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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Finding The Edge And Stepping Over

While stepping off of the edge might not be the safest thing to do at times (such as when you are looking at a skyline from a roof top for example...), it is a great thing to do when it comes to your hobby.  Be it skateboarding, painting, singing, dancing; the only way to get better at any of these things is to keep pushing yourself to get to that next level.

I had painted this figure a few years back and was not unhappy with how she turned out.

Not the greatest but I was satisfied and comfortable with it so I left it like that for years, largely because I just couldn't wrap my head around how to create effective shadows on the white and yellow.  Oddly enough, it was recently while I was working that I realized what I needed to do to add some depth to this figure and bring her to life.

My first step was to repaint her skin and hit it with a flesh wash followed with some highlighting to create some solid contrast and definition.  Next I painted all of her clothing a grey and highlighted it using white to create some shadowing on her clothes.  While I was going this, I also put down a white base coat for some of the yellow bits to really make them pop but the recesses I left grey to darken the yellow and create some depth.  Once this was done, I repainted her hair as well and went for something very bubblegum pop which is much more fitting for the model.

Even as I look at her now I can see more that I can do to improve on the paint job (such as a white highlight on the blades to give them some depth as well) but even with how she is now its a vast improvement over the original.  And all that because I found that edge and pushed myself beyond.  Until next time...

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