Some of my artwork

[Digitised]

Ok so i draw.
Not professionally its just kind of a talent which i never use because i find drawing the least interesting thing to do with my time.
However times are hard, uni did not go well, so i am having to explore my natural ability in order to start a decent career.

I drew all of these images in photoshop using a high resolution (usually!) reference picture on a separate display beside me.
i don't use grids or cheat for accuracy in scale and proportion.
This is all done by eye and the occasional side by side line-up comparison to judge, and measure by eye to gauge accuracy.

If anyone in the art or graphic industry thinks i have any potential, or can give me advice obtaining work (not involving degree courses etc) please let me know since this is a path i am seriously considering. I dont really have a specialisation since i have had no training in art, unless you consider GCSE/A-level to be training.
I have been able to draw and paint from a very young age but my output has been next to zero since it is always been a useless talent to me.
When i was 19 the only work for artists was....basically none. You were either famous for not drawing (like damien hirst and tracy emin..) or you were a struggling artist trying to sell portraits and get recognised from the millions of other contenders.

A few years ago i saw some videos on youtube where people were drawing in photoshop, with graphics tablets. I purchased one soon after and got hold of a copy of photoshop and found that this was a dream come true, since it removed all the limitations and cost of traditional formats and materials. I had absolute control over the image and found i could produce (after some initial struggle with the software) photo-realisic results in merely a few hours of work.

So here is some pieces i have done in the last few years... (bearing in mind i was at uni studying). I will post more when i have found the files and converted them to jpegs etc.

These are in order from earliest to current:

Kate Beckinsale (7hrs approx)

Thaila Zucci (2-3hrs approx)

Kristin Kreuk (7-10hrs approx - starting to get used to the tools now)

Nicole Sherzinger (3-4hrs - last peice i drew, only a few months ago. I have timelapse video of this on my youtube page)

 

[Digitised]

New piece i just started tonight.

Its about 45 mins worth of work, the girl is myleene klass (shes a uk tv person, incase you dont recognise her), im tempted to do colour this time.
So my results might be catastrophic since i have not done colour pictures in photoshop before.
But if all goes wrong, i will just go back to this reference picture and finish it in monochrome.

 

[nasher168]

The last one isn't quite as recognisable as the others. I mean, they're all extremely good, but I wouldn't have known it's Myleene Klass if I didn't already know. That said, the eyes are very well done, you got those done very well.

 

[Digitised]

Ok here it is 3-4hrs in.

I went with the colour idea...brave new move. I got it looking amazing, but i realised the head was far too narrow so i spent 30 mins with the smudge tool moving everything about to get it perfect.
Sadly now all my hard effort got smudged and it looks like an out of focus photo...

I hope to finish this in the next 3-4hrs, if i got the head right it would be almost done by now.

 

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face so far (2hrs later!)

 

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ok here it is at 90% complete.

About 10hrs work maybe...

I increased the resolution earlier (hence the large face picture) the full size version can be seen in this link.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2775/4331298981_de95efa390_o.jpg

 

[Squawk]

No two ways about it, you're frigging awesome at this. Given that this is your first go at colour the results you got are just awesome. I have a thing about black and white though, I tend to convert a lot of my photography to black and white so I prefer the black and white version.

There is a career here I think, no question you have the ability to do something with it.

 

[nasher168]

Ah yes, it looks more like her now.

 

[OGjimkenobi]

What the hell?!?!? These drawings are fucking terrible. I can't even tell what they're supposed to be of, are these supposed to be drawings of people or something?


Gah, ok ok, I confess I'm just extremely jealous. All I could do was lash out in anger at your talent for not being my talent. I am truly humbled as an artist.


Nice work Dude.

 

[Digitised]

I could do a tutorial jim, but like i said this is something i have never worked at and just comes naturally from intuition.
Its kind of like Usain Bolt giving people lessons on how to run fast, i guess he just can with little effort or serious training, whereas other people have some physical limit.

I think art is about a mental limit, either you can understand how to put things together or it just stumps you completely.
I find art very simple to grasp and i use very few tools. I pretty much use spray for nearly all the drawing and painting, i use a tiny bit of brush tool for a fuzz effect on skin, and some cunning use of burn to get edges and shadows looking natural (although only when using colour).
The hand tool, magnifier and dropper would bring my total tool count to 6 (5 in black and white)!


If i knew what your stumbling block was, then maybe i could shed some light? Ill see what i can do, and maybe once ive done some more peices this week i might start some tutorial videos. But then again i dont want to give all my secrets away lol! The last thing i want is my career path being saturated with people who are using my techniques

Sounds selfish but as far as i can see this is so easy, and i worry that people will just copy me and my work will be marginalised by thousands of competitors.

 

[Nyar]

Very impresive! That last one is almost as a photo.

 

[Digitised]

ok here it is at 99% complete.
Which means another few hours of me wasting time getting everything perfect

here it is full size :

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2707/4342253318_29be39bca3_o.jpg

 

[MillionSword]

Her lips, dude, look like a fucking photograph. Awesome skills.

 

[Digitised]

ok myleene is done, i took a week or so break to do some other things and just finished it last night.

as usual full size can be seen here : http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2690/4362272578_cc74fbd199_o.jpg

 

[Digitised]

Salma Hayek

i didnt sleep again...