Comments | leyna55: How I paint portraits

leyna55

How I paint portraits

Jan 03, 2010 12:04

Recently, I received several comments which suggested that I took "heads from pictures and then ran them through filters." and possibly "stole the bodies too." Now I was annoyed, and the matter has been dealt with, but I would like to set the record straight. There are people who are justly proud of their photomanipulation and photoshop skill, but ( Read more... )

how i paint, wip

Comments 37

(The comment has been removed)

leyna55 January 3 2010, 09:05:03 UTC

I like seeing WIPs - but with other projects I kept forgetting to record the various steps myself so I thought it would be best just to do a simple project solely for a WIP set.

xenakis_ January 3 2010, 04:37:55 UTC

Ohhh! It's really nice to see your process here. *stares*

The final product is also very... YUM. *stares some more*

leyna55 January 3 2010, 09:05:58 UTC

*g* Thank you. (My subject matter is so predictable lately!)

xenakis_ January 3 2010, 09:11:25 UTC

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a healthy obsession with barechested men. Really ;)

miscellanny January 3 2010, 10:22:41 UTC

Wow. You are awesome.

leyna55 January 3 2010, 10:58:24 UTC

Awww thank you *g*

bellewhan January 3 2010, 10:35:22 UTC

I just glared at the first sentence -- implying your stuff is the equivalent of heads-pasted-oh-yeh is horribly insulting. I am annoyed on your behalf.

I figure that the person(s) aren't familiar with the limitations and tools available from art computer programmes -- I don't know what half of the things you mentioned in your tutorial are and I've been drawing on a computer for a couple of years now. I have “cheated” in the manner they describe with creating background material in a larger picture because of submission-time limitations. And to be frank it looks a little pants. People can’t do what you’re capable of creating with filters, magic or otherwise.

What are they expecting, for you not to use source or reference material? I've drawn Rodney looking all sweet and kissable and I didn't do that without looking at a lot of pictures and I traced the outline of his face in a similar manner to which you describe above.

leyna55 January 3 2010, 11:41:23 UTC

Thank you for the support!

Yeah, I'm puzzled about the comments, too, and I'd like to know more about this magic filter - but even if I had one, I'd still be painting instead because I enjoy it. Well- maybe I'd make an exception just for doing hands *g*

Some of the tools and paintbrushes mentioned are probably just Painter specific names for things. I like using Painter - the painting side is nicely straightforward. It took me a while figuring out how to add text to the last image up there, though - which shows my lack of any fancy digital graphics ability :D

Most, if not all of the tutorials from really good realism artists, mark out guidelines to start with. And I certainly don't consider combining painted and manipulated sources cheating at all, unless someone claims they painted it all, I guess. Otherwise generally I think it's obvious and we just admire the artist's skill in combining different media.

bellewhan January 3 2010, 12:05:01 UTC

and I'd like to know more about this magic filter - but even if I had one, I'd still be painting instead because I enjoy it.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, you can’t just run things through a filter and get the picture in your head onto paper. I just worked on something which was fully realised in my head, but the final version consisted of five layers with fifteen separate bitmaps. And the creation of that final version required five other individual paintings with their own layers (at least three) with separate, sometimes multiple, bitmaps per layer. And it was fun. I enjoyed doing that.

nargynargy January 3 2010, 14:09:05 UTC

As someone who does do photomanipulations, I knew immediately that your work isn't...which makes me a bit surprised that someone would actually think that. It would take a lot of filters and graphics manipulation to get even to half the level of your style. I'm baffled on your behalf to be honest.

Anyway, it was cool to see your process at work!

leyna55 January 4 2010, 01:46:29 UTC

*g* Thanks!

Seriously! I'm only annoyed at the implication I would lie. If I was good enough to do serious photomanipulation to get this sort of appearance, I would be proudly upfront about it. Otherwise it bafflingly assumes that photomanipulation is somehow easy, or that the Photoshop art filters aren't immediately and obviously fake, and therefore easily used to trick everyone (which unfortunately is an attitude I've seen around).