![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
What I did all weekend...
(Text cut and pasted directly from my DA comments, because it's almost 2 AM and I have to be at work in 7 hours.)
I created a random art prompts generator to provide myself and others with potential inspiration. I've got a big file of potential pictures now, and this is the first one that I've done.
The prompt the generator came up with was: "This is a picture of a flapper in a library, with a theme of the light of the dying day." Yeah, ok, so the theme didn't really come through because I didn't show sunset colors on her face like I intended to. OH WELL. YOU'LL LIVE. As I was doing the background, which I did first, my thought was OH GOD THIS IS ABOUT TO KILL ME. And then I did the rest of it, and my thought for every single part of it was OH GOD THIS IS ABOUT TO KILL ME.
Done entirely in Photoshop, along with a number of unhelpful errors generated, as far as I can tell, by my Wacom tablet driver going wonky on me. Time: probably 10-12 hours.
And ponder for a moment before you tell me her eyes are off: I traced the major lines from a photograph of myself and yes, my eyes really are that far off. (And I prettified the picture so it no longer looks like me. I mean, for one: she actually has an upper lip. :D)
I'm quite proud of how the face and hat turned out, and hate everything else.
Well, I like it <3
Re: Well, I like it <3
Re: Well, I like it <3
So, what knitted cloche patterns did you like?
Re: Well, I like it <3
I liked this one (http://marniemaclean.com/patterns/erte/index.html) the best, as it seemed to have the most authentic shape, *and* had a brim shorter in the back so it wouldn't hit my collar and fall off, like a lot of hats do. :) Don't particularly care for the flowers, but that's neither here nor there. There's a bunch of other cloche patterns out there, but they all tended to be more of a toque than a cloche, without a flared brim. This one (http://www.pieknits.com/blog/2006/11/stella_cloche_hat_pattern.html) was close, but doesn't look quite authentic enough, really.
Re: Well, I like it <3
So, want to talk commissioning? If you're interested, I'd want to start by me buying the pattern and making sure it's not felted, since I don't have much expertise with felting. Then we could talk yarns - there's various levels of how fancy you get with sock yarn, and I could send you to various websites to look them over.
no subject
Anyways, very nice. Looks like it would have taken a loooong time. Really like how painter-esque it looks ^^
no subject
Thank you! I think the bit that took the longest, if we discount putting aaaall that detail in on the books, because that was merely tedious, was the most boring bit: her dress. Which had to have enough structure to look like a dress, yet had to be boring enough not to draw attention away from her face and the book in her hand. And it didn't help that I hadn't worked out how the dress was made before starting in on it. :D
no subject
That's a compliment, in case it was unclear.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I'm having a hard time reconciling it with the "But she does look like you!" comments, but Harriet Vane is one of the fictioal characters I'd most like to be. :D
no subject
I love the contemplative look on her face.
no subject
Thank you!
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
I think I'm most taken by her expression. Somehow to me it's not only sad and pensive, but more specifically an expression of regret. (Of course, I could be wrong, and she may just be worrying about whether she shut the bedroom window before she left for the library ... )
Having said that, I do also like the various book spines. I think I can see some of those volumes from where I'm sitting here at my desk in the stacks!
no subject
Or maybe she's really thinking what I was thinking as I shot the reference in my bathroom mirror: "Do I have the lens zoomed out enough to get all of my head in the shot? Is it angled enough so that the flash won't completely wipe my face out?" :D
Thank you! :)
no subject
-Kaz
no subject
no subject
no subject
Background - started with all straight lines, done with the line tool and with drawing boxes with the rectangular selection tool and filling them in. I then rounded the tops a bit with a soft round brush and started shading them by selecting the color of the book - that's why there's very few books of the same color next to each other, so I could select one book at a time - and brushing the darker and lighter colors on with a soft round brush set to a low opacity. Then added details with same soft round brush set to same low opacity, but shrunk to a much smaller size, for the most part.
Figure done with brushes - not round, but rectangular and splotchy - set to slightly low opacity to block the colors in (80-90%), then set to very low opacity (15-25%) to render the shading. Go bak and forth working colors in - put down the light skin color, then the dark shade. Then use the eyedropper tool (hit ALT to change the brush to a dropper) tp pick up the light color, work it over the dark at the transition point, then eyedrop to pick up the new color (since the brush is transparent), then work back over the new transitions points, etc, going back and forth until it's reasonably smooth. Use small brushes that are more opaque - but not completely - to put in the details.
That's the basic idea. I probably did lots of other smaller stuff that I can't really remember now, but low opacity and working back ad forth over an area, picking up the new colors that emerge with the eyedropper is the basic idea. That and putting the intense red at transition points like teh cheek and nose, because skin colors are more saturated at the points of transition from light to shadow.
no subject
And she looks like her mind is a million miles away.
no subject
no subject