Here is a work in progress I would like to share it with Astahosters.

Lately, a friend of mine joined my blogging team at Splat. She had been of great help even before when I was working on my website WiseTome.com though she just joined Splat. To show my appreciation, I thought I would gift her an artwork. And with this, I hope to improve my skills too.

So, here goes.



It is still a work in progress.

I used her photograph as a reference and worked on it from scratch in Inkscape. The basic outline with flat colors is done, and I have just started to work on the details.

I hope to complete it as early as possible, but every now and then, I would post updates here. Nothing much would change other than the shading detail I would be adding. Right now, little work has been done on the highlights - work still remains on the highlights. After that, I would need to work on the shadows.

For those who know vector art, I would like to state that to this point, I have not used any gradients. I have only used bezier paths and polygons with flat color fills. I might use few gradients to give additional depth at the end of it. But as far as possible, I am trying to get this artwork done with flat colors.

Effort Spent: 3.5 hrs
Software: InkScape

   Fri Dec 29, 2006    Reply         

   Fri Dec 29, 2006    Reply         

The blotching look would come, Chesso, since I am still working on it. It still have just basic flat colors applied.

To illustrate the point, look at her left eye and right eye. Her right eye (left one on the image) is less blotchy looking and more crisp for one reason - it has more details. Her left eye (right one on the image) is very blotchy and flat. I have not yet put in the details.

Here are some screen shots from Inkscape of the left and right eye.

Her left eye (less detail):


Her right eye (more detail):



Similarly, her left cheek looks blotchy:


And her right cheek and nose looks smooth and shaded:


Get it? So, it is not because of the compression or something. It just has that much details - I am yet to begin fleshing it out. As indicated it is till in the WIP phase.

   Fri Dec 29, 2006    Reply         

   Fri Dec 29, 2006    Reply         

   Fri Dec 29, 2006    Reply         

What makes you think there too big? They look fine to me, if anything i'd say the nose is too big but some people have big noses so meh.

It's not like there animish .

   Fri Dec 29, 2006    Reply         

QUOTE (Chesso)

Oh I see, it's just that I see that blotchyness alot due to image compression on a lossy level for because of reduction in or stretching in size and what not.

I never thought of an image starting out that way lol but I understand why now.

Link: view Post: 94661

Chesso - no problem. I am glad that I could clarify.

QUOTE (borlafu)

The eyes and teeth you drew are a bit too big, I don't know if she really looks like that, but I don't find it feminin, you should check the proportios of the picture before including more details.

Link: view Post: 94668

I too had doubts that I drew the eyes and mouth (with teeth) a little big than it is. To verify, I overlayed the photo I used for reference on the image I drew with a bit of low transperency. It matched, and it looked like the proportions were correct.

It all lies in the use of light and dark tones to emphasise the curves. I have not yet reached that point yet, and I hope I catch those cruves and creases properly to accent the feminine feature. Thanks for pointing it out though.

QUOTE (Chesso)

... if anything i'd say the nose is too big but some people have big noses so meh.

Link: view Post: 94669

She does have a chubby nose - but yeah. I need to flesh out the cheeks a bit more.

And even now - the teeth looks a bit big now. I studied the photo a bit in detail and here is what I found out. Brighter colours make the objects look bigger than they are. When I add shading, and tone it down a bit they will look in proportion.

QUOTE (Chesso)

...
It's not like there animish .

Link: view Post: 94669

Ha! Yeah. Anime does have the effect on how we expect the images of women to be - big eyes, small mouth. (Most of the times, no nose).

Here I was trying to draw a vector art that was close to reality.

   Fri Dec 29, 2006    Reply         

   Fri Dec 29, 2006    Reply         

I think it would scare me too. I mean what has big eyes, small mouth and no nose?

Here is a quick and dirty sketch up in MSPaint:

   Fri Dec 29, 2006    Reply         

   Fri Dec 29, 2006    Reply         

OK. Here is one update:



Major work on the flesh tones is done. Next, I will be working on the eyebrows and mouth.

Total effort: 5 hrs
Software: Inkscape

   Fri Dec 29, 2006    Reply         

Ahhh there we go, it's starting to piece together and look much nicer now with more detail and colouring in there .

Good job so far!

   Fri Dec 29, 2006    Reply         

Thanks Chesso.

There are so many polygons in there that my old PC is starting to crawl a bit. I hope it holds on a bit longer until I finish this piece.

   Sat Dec 30, 2006    Reply         

   Sat Dec 30, 2006    Reply         

Here is my system spec:
Inter ® Pentium ® 4 CPU 1500 MHz
256 MB RAM
On board graphics card (I am not sure about the VRAM)
80 GB + 20 GB Hard Disk <-- (The 20 GB is an ancient one that I still keep)
15" SAMTRON color montior

Yup. That is about it. Pretty antique kind of specs - I know.
(May be I can sell the artworks I do or work on artworks for commission and buy new PC out of it. )

   Sat Dec 30, 2006    Reply         

That's not too bad, a bit of ram and a half arsed $50 graphics card and you'll be sweet .

   Sat Dec 30, 2006    Reply         

OK. Here is another update. About an hour and a half of work on her eyebrows, teeth and lips.



Total Effort: 6.5 hrs
Software: Inkscape

   Sat Dec 30, 2006    Reply         

   Sat Dec 30, 2006    Reply         

Hmmm. I thought of leaving the eyebrows just like they are now. But after your comments, I might add a little more detail to it after all - I will do it in the final stage when I will adding tiny details.

The lips are done. I do not know if I can cram in any more details there.

You see, this is my 4th vector art. I still have a long way to improve my skills in Inkscape as well as vector art. This piece of work is really helping me learn few tricks here and there.

Next, I think I will work on her top. It is said that the vectoring of hair is a bit hard and requires a bit of advanced visualization skills. And the vectoring of clothes is the next hardest. So, I will work on her shirt/top first. That should get me on track. Then I will go for the daunting task of detailing her hair. (May be once I do the hair, I can do the eyebrows better).

About a month and a half to go for her birthday - I think I have just enough time to complete this work by then.

   Sat Dec 30, 2006    Reply         

Ouch, I can barelt draw a stick figure let alone anything else (wish I could draw 2d stuff on PC or make 3D models, I can program games a little but can't draw ).

   Sat Dec 30, 2006    Reply         

Oookay. Here is another update. I worked on her cloth for about an hour.



This is how much I can vizualize her shirt/top. I know - it is not that good compared to the other parts but for now I seem to have hit the ceiling of my skills. I cannot stretch it anymore. Hopefully it will improve as I work on other artworks.

   Wed Jan 3, 2007    Reply         

   Wed Jan 3, 2007    Reply         

   Thu Jan 4, 2007    Reply         

   Thu Jan 4, 2007    Reply         

Well as of now, it is purely a hobby. I am an IT professional, and my day job involves me in coding, support of few systems, and managing a team. But after that, after few drinks of coffee with some of my buddies, I come home and work on these things. I have been dabbling with traditional artwork for some time, and did get involved in computer graphics, in terms of 3d design and raster graphics (GIMP! Yay!). Lately though, I have almost become an addict of Vector Art, and have been augumenting it with my blog, Splat.

Given a choice and if I reach a financial state where money is not a question, then I think I would be glad to move into the career path of an illustrator or game/graphic designer.

   Thu Jan 4, 2007    Reply         

   Thu Jan 4, 2007    Reply         

It can be quite a lot of work actually. When deadlines are involved. There was this instance when I entered for a competition at a forum. Man! It was really a sleep killer as the D-Day came close.

I too do not have any certificates. Wish I could have had some formal training in arts.

   Thu Jan 4, 2007    Reply         

Yeah, I wouldn't mind having some drawing talent either , well i'd mostly be doing pixel art but either way I suck at both majorly.

It's nice to know someone else out there is working in the field despite not having any formal qualifications. Gives me hope LOL.

   Thu Jan 4, 2007    Reply         

I did try pixel art. You will see some incomplete projects displayed here at the forum.

Well, here is a small update. Small I say in terms of progress, but I did spend about one hour on it.



Just finished one lock of her hair. So much more to go! And I do not even have the photographic reference for the hair, because I restructured her hair than the way it is in her photo.

Total Effort: 8.5 hrs
Software: Inkscape

   Thu Jan 4, 2007    Reply         

   Thu Jan 4, 2007    Reply         

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