IF - Garden

Here's my submission for this week's Illustration Friday theme "garden".
It's an older piece, but it fits the topic!

Oil Self-Portrait in Corel Painter

Corel Painter offers so many brushes, it's near endless. I've decided to try a new field: oil paints. Here are step-by-step visuals of a self-portrait I created. I don't do self-portraits commercially, there are artists specialized in that. But it was an interesting experiment, to familiarize myself with the oil paints in Corel Painter!

I used only 3 brushes: wet brush, dry brush, and grainy blender. If you hold the pen down while using wet or dry brush, you can use them for blending too.

Step 1:
Using a photo as reference (try quick clone, you can blend it in and out), I lay down the basics.


Step 2:
In this case, I decided to change the colors, and I worked out the color areas some more.


Step 3:
Starting to add a backround with a large brush.


Step 4:
I made the background more loose, making sure I keep large hand movements. This gives the image more movement and makes it more interesting. I also added more details: the eye had much more subtlety than the rest of the image. I therefore decided to add some fine brush strokes of similar quality on other areas of the painting, to make it more harmonious and interesting. I also adjusted the color areas in the neck and face, adding more rose-pink tones. This not only picked up the background color (which would be a natural light-reflection, and making the overall image more harmonious), but it gave the skin a warmer, softer color.


Step 5:
Usually I use Photoshop to adjust colors. It has a wider and more professional choice of adjustment tools. In this case, I tried using a tool from painter to make the colors more vibrant. Effect - equalize gave me a stronger saturation, so I think I'm happy with this result.
This would be my final painting.

how to keep projects coming

I found this inspiring link on BODO (business of design online). For anyone who is bored and doesn't have client requests coming in... here's inspiration that will get you going again!

Posted by: Neil Tortorella
Staying Afloat In A Tanked Economy