Inspiration for the Week #3 – Digital Portraits
For this week, digital portraits. Creating realistic portraits causes quite a debate in the art and design circles. Usually along the lines of: “Why bother? Why not just take a photo?”.
Having attempted one myself, I know a lot of time goes into it. Mine was from reference (using an existing photo to look at as you draw/paint). I spent roughly 10 hours doing it with a mouse. The result: something softer and similar looking to the original reference. Why did I bother? It was practice. Getting used to the techniques and such before I tackle my own ideas. No doubt I will do a few more from reference in the future.
Do people deserve credit for copying photographs? I personally appreciate the efforts of anybody who has put time into their work, whether other people think it is pointless or not. Though, what I really appreciate is when something is added to the image which takes it beyond what any photograph can achieve. That is when the artist really does get credit they deserve.
I have featured below a few digitally painted portraits which I really like.
[Note - When looking for portraits, I came across an article which featured my own painting! It was quite a surprise to say the least. You can see the post here]
Fat-JedGfx | Thom Yorke the Android
Click the image below to see the full size wip of the above image.
BikerScout also has a little tutorial on painting skin textures which you can read, link below.
Enjoy.
April 20th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
These are pretty amazing, Nykolai | Quietly especially. Good hair too! Have you started any new ones?
Advertees´s last blog post..Formaldehyde Free discharge printing on T-shirts
July 8th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
[...] artist is Mike P Mitchell. You may of seen that I featured his self portrait piece in my previous inspiration for the week. I love the ideas that he comes up with for his concept artwork. You should check out his websites. [...]
May 18th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
these look really good, i like the slight cartoony effect and the light through the hair on the blonde girl
good work!