Category Archives: Drawing

Pens, pencils, fingers, twigs.. everything goes.

Perception of beauty – a painting study

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Have you ever wondered what is it about a certain face that we find attractive, or boring, or scary? How about your own face? I have days when I wake up, look in the mirror, and I swear it’s a totally different face, and not a flattering one at that. On the other hand, I also have days when I catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror and think to myself “hm, I look really nice today.” I am sure you have moments like that too. You know your face doesn’t magically change overnight though. It’s the same face, but somehow it looks more or less attractive on day to day basis.

To demonstrate one of the ways in which we perceive attractiveness I created a character for us to play with. I painted this character in a digital painter program (Corel Painter 18), using artist oils. It is essentially an oil painting of an imaginary girl of more or less my age, displaying a more or less neutral expression. She will be our model for today.

Since this is not an oil painting tutorial, I will not take you through the step by step process of her creation, but rather jump straight from sketch to (fast forward 24 hours) the finished oil painting of our Jane Doe.

A rough sketch of what my girl will look like.

 

Paint, paint, paint…..

 

A day of painting later, she is complete.

Now that we have a face to work with, let’s study it for a minute. Obviously we all have different tastes and our own personal reactions to every face. Some of you may find this girl attractive, some may find her rather dull, some may not care one way or the other. Probably, very few people will find her ugly. In this painting I went for a more classical painting approach, presenting a face that is pleasant to look at, but not distracting with exotic beauty or an unusual  emotional expression. I wanted her to be just a girl, like me.

I painted my girl in what I imagine to be soft, defused daylight, illuminating her face pretty evenly. This way we don’t have any extreme shadows adding to the way we perceive her.

Let’s see what happens to her if we add just a little bit of definition to the areas around her eyes.

I am adding just a little bit more color and shadow to the eyelashes, eyelids, and eyebrows.

 

I am not changing the shape of the eye or the eyebrows. I am simply adding a touch of dark brown tones around the eyes and to the eyebrows.

I was very gentle with my edits, but look at the difference that it made. She is the same girl, but somehow she looks a bit more vibrant. Just a touch of definition on the eyelashes and the eyebrows, and we intuitively perceive this face as more lively.

Let’s see what happens if we go from our neutral face in the other direction, removing some of the definition around the eyes.

In this case, I am softening the definition around the eyes, making the eyebrows and the eye lashes more pale, and also smoothing out some of the lines around the eyes.

 

Once again, the edits were minor, yet her face changed quite noticeably.

A pretty dramatic change, isn’t it? Whether you find her more or less attractive, you must agree that she looks somehow more vulnerable, her expression plainer. She doesn’t have that glow and intensity of the eyelash girl. Her eyes, without the definition of lashes, brows and shadows, seem smaller and further apart.

Our limbic brain naturally perceives bigger eyes as more attractive. That stereotype has nothing to do with Hollywood, or fashion, or modern makeup trends. In fact, those trends work because they are based on what our brains already perceive as attractive. So, as a painter, illustrator, colorist, or make-up artist, if you wish to make your character look, I hesitate to say less attractive, but rather plainer, tone down the definition around the eyes. On the other hand, if you want to make them more interesting, more seductive, more expressive, try adding just a touch of definition to the eye area.

Notice that we never changed the face. The bone structure, the direction of the gaze, the lighting, the parting of the lips, none of these things were ever touched in this experiment. We only played with adding and removing definition around the eyes.

Let’s get back to the mystery of my ever-changing morning face. Most of the time, the definition around the eyes is created by the changing light throughout the day. In the morning we wake up with our eyes slightly poofy and squinting and we usually admire ourselves in brightly lit bathrooms that are anything but flattering to the perception of the face. What we see is smaller, less defined eyes and we immediately perceive them as unattractive. Run that through an emotional filter of “I just woke up and I am not exactly filled with positivity” and you got yourself a recipe for seeing yourself as plain awful in the morning.

As the day progresses, however, we wake up, wind up, start interacting with people or animals. The sun rises, and we are now illumined by natural light that is cast from above, creating those beautiful eyelash shadows on our eyes. Even without the use of makeup, our eyes look more defined and vibrant in daylight than they do in that awful morning bathroom light. Plus, now we are adding (hopefully positive) emotion to our face, which naturally makes it more attractive, and viola – your face has transformed into something that is pleasant to look at even to yourself.

 

I hope this has been helpful and inspiring to you not only as artists but also as people struggling with your self-image. Now, go out there and practice making your characters and yourselves look more vibrant, and don’t forget to smile.

Painting reflective and transparent surfaces

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Today, I will be digitally painting a still life, concentrating on composition, multiple light sources, reflective and transparent surfaces and light as its own character. I will be working in Corel Painter 18 with mainly acrylic brushes. As always, I invite you to join me and try something similar on your own time. You can apply the principles that i am about to show you to both manual and digital painting.

The final painting

 

Interesting still life subjects

The first and most important thing in still life painting is, of course, selecting interesting subjects to depict. But what makes subjects interesting? You may think that that you need fancy trinkets or exquisite bouquets of flowers to paint a beautiful still life, but you would be wrong. The only thing you need for a gorgeous composition is interesting lighting and a good vantage point.

In fact, simple, everyday objects, often make the best compositions because most viewers will be able to relate to these things. If you do your job right as an artist and depict an ordinary object in an extraordinary way, that magic that you envelop your subject in will remain with the viewer for many hours, days and years to come. The next time they see a broom or a set of keys, or ordinary drinking glasses they may just see them in the same magnificent light that you introduced in your depiction.

Searching for a better angle

For my ordinary subjects, I chose to work with these colorful glasses. There is nothing special about them. I have one of every color in my kitchen. I chose only the yellow and the orange, however, because the day is very warm and cheerful, and there is gorgeous golden sunlight coming in through all the windows. I place my two chosen glasses near some other interesting reflective surfaces and begin looking for a fun angle to view them from.

I took some photographs of my subjects from different angles solely to illustrate the process of seeking the perfect composition. I highly recommend that you do not draw form photography but rather from real life. Set up your subjects, set up a drawing or painting area nearby, and paint the three-dimensional objects that you actually see, not a photograph of these objects. Once you are comfortable painting from real life compositions as well as from memory and imagination, you may use photographs for reference, but the process then will be very different than just copying the photo. For now, let’s work with what we actually see.

After moving my subjects around a bit, and myself shifting around them, looming over them and kneeling to look up at them, I finally find an angle that is the most interesting to me. From this vantage point, down on one knee, the yellow glass becomes completely obstructed by the orange one giving it an extra burst of color. I really like this effect and will go with this composition. In a photography course that I am taking, I learned that most subjects become more interesting when photographed slightly from below. I will apply that principle here and situate myself slightly lower than my subject. Relocating the subject to your work station is of course also an option, especially if you have great natural lighting in your room or studio.

As always, we begin with a rough sketch. This is the composition that I finally decided to capture. Working in my digital painting program I create a square canvas and begin sketching the scene that I already cropped in my mind. I am only interested in the composition and the simple structure of the objects at this point.

 

 

When drawing geometrically accurate and symmetrical objects it is often tempting to use guides, rulers or a compass when working both digitally and analog. I strongly encourage you not to fall into that trap. We are not creating a blueprint. We are depicting what your eyes tell your brain to perceive. We do not see perfect lines. We see concepts. Here, from where I’m sitting, I see a glass that is slightly warped by perspective. I will sketch it exactly as I see it, and if it comes out a little bit crooked it will be received even better. There will be an element of imperfection, of cuteness to it.

 

Because I am working in a digital program I can apply geometry to my sketch AFTER it is done just for the sake of demonstration. Notice that while my glass appears to have realistic proportions, it is slightly inaccurate. The three virtual ovals are not exactly parallel to each other. Yet, they are not randomly placed either. From where I’m sitting the glass looks almost like it is slightly curved. I want to exaggerate it a bit to give it kind of a cute sense of grandeur.

 

For the sake of demonstration, I will apply a virtual grid so that you can see that the perspective lines I have created for my glass are not perfect, yet consistent. Had I applied the grid to begin with and used the circle tool to create perfect ovals, my glass would have looked too graphic and unnatural. I do not wish to create a graphic design. I wish to create a painting.

 

I remove the grid and continue with my free-hand sketch. It is important to keep your composition simple and readable. Mine consists of three main layers/subjects. The first and most important layer is, of course, the glass itself. It will receive the most attention to detail as I paint it.

 

The second most important layer in this composition is the lovely reflective metal and a little glass weight that I have laying around. They are there to demonstrate space and depth of field. They create the scene for our glass. They will receive a lot of attention, but they don’t need to be quite as polished in the final draft as the main character.

 

Finally, there is another object visible in the background. It is not very importanyt in terms of detail or even focus. It is pretty much a backdrop. It will receive the least amount of attention.

Now that I’ve established what I am depicting, I begin adding little structure lines to my most important subjects to begin building their shapes. At this point, I am also marking the lightest parts of my subjects, the brightest glow that appears on their surfaces.

 

Inspecting my still life I realize that light is as much a character in this scene as the objects that it illuminates. In fact, it is really the sunshine that I am painting with the help of these objects. I’ve marked the potentially lightest parts of painting as a demonstartion for you in this graphic.

 

Since light is now a character that we are depicting, I shift my attention to the beautiful orange and yellow glow that is cast through the glasses onto the shiny metal. The glass in combination with this delightful artifact now become my main subjects.

 

Now that I have the scene built, I prosede to apply rough brushstrokes to the parts of the objects that look the darkest to me.

 

This will take a while, especially if you are working with pencils. This light technique, however, is ideal for brush painting with acrylic or oil paint, or the digital equivalent of the two.

 

At this point, I realize that I actually prefer to be working on a tonted background. Thankfully, I an drawing digitally, so I can simply add a cream colored layer underneath. When working on actual paper, I recommend that you start with tanned paper, or prep your paper by paining it with a base layer of a ligt cream color. However, working on a pure white background is not a problem at all. Starting with a bit of a tone is just a way to speed things up a bit. If you have a way to add pure white as final details, try tinted paper.

 

Keep an eye on your light source. If it is artificial light, it will remain constant. However, working with natural light, you do need to get all the light information down on paper as quickly as possible, becasue eventually, the sun will rise or set and your light source with shift.

 

Becasue this image is all about light and color, I don’t spend much time on shading and building up details. I start introducing color right away. My glass is actually orange in color, so I introduce orange. The orange gets reflected in the tin behind it. Remember that yellow glass that is hidden behind the main object? I see that tone reflected in the tin as well. These are points of interest. They are the colors I will continue to build up.

 

A common beginner mistake is to focus too much on individual details and lose track of the bigger picture. Don’t worry about all the little light artifacts on the glass at this point (unless you are working with watercolor. That technique is completely different from what we are doing now) Instead, start giving your objects shape by building up shadows and adding more and more color where you actually see color. I like to use a softer digital brush to add faded soft grey shadows to my background layers.

Always look at your subject. Your eyes should be going up and down between the composition and the page all the time.

 

Continue buidling up shape and color by applying dabs of paint all around your composition. Do not fixate on one part yet. Pay a little bit more attention to the objects in the foreground, keep your brush strokes broader and messier on objects in the background, and build and build your composition up.

 

I like for my paintings to get gradually brighter and more sturated, rather than go staright into strong colors. Whether working manually or digitally, I create many layers of paint, each a little bit more saturated, each a little bit more defined.

 

I continue to add detail with each layer.

 

Adding darker brush strokes here and there helps define the shapes of the objects.

 

To make the dark parts appear even darker, I add more contrast with light yellow and near white highlights.

 

Now I have enough information to start adding the little artifacts of light that I see on the surface of the glass. Little dots and bads here and there that suggest glitter and glow.

 

These do not have to be exact. Nor do they have to be exactly where you see them in real life. When I zoom in a bit, you can see that my brush strokes are by no means flawless, and you have no way of knowing if every dab of white and yellow that I have depicted here really corresponds to what I see on the objects, but it feels realistic. It is believable. That’s the goal of this kind of painting, to convey a recognizable scene.

 

I always continue studying my subject as I paint it. The glass is thick and colorful and it’s easy to overlook that it is also transparent. Not very obviously trasparent, but some lines can be seen through it. I add the necessary transparency suggestions.

 

As I am nearing the completion of my painting, I check my light source. It is still coming from the same direction (from up and left). As this is morning light, I notice that the angle of the sun has changed a little bit as the day progressed, but not significantly enough to change what I see. I check my lightest spots and confirm that they are consistent with the current light source.

 

I check my main subject and its colorful shadow artifact. They are indeed the brightest and most interesting parts of this composition and appear to capture the natural light quite beautifully. If anything feels awkward or uneblievable at this point I tweak it without referencing the still life. Remember, this doesn’t have to be 100% true. We are more inetersted in the feel.

 

Now that we are nearly done, let’s revisit the shape of the glass. Remember those perspective lines I drew earlier? The vertical is a little bit curved and the parallel ovals are not exactly parallel. I chose to make this glass a little bit warped, and not 100% geometrically accurate. Looking at my painting now I am very pleased with the trick that this warp plays on the eye.

 

For the final touches, I use pure black to really bring out the darkest parts of the painting. I only use a few brush strokes, and only in the areas indicated here with green circles. This step is optional. I actually debated doing it for a few minutes. I like the soft, fuzzy look that I already achieved, but in the end, I chose to add just a touch of sharpness and higher contrast by introducing a few dabs of pure black.

 

I call that complete. I sign my work, and save my file.

 

I hope you enjoyed creating this digital painting with me. This tutorial was a result of several requests from my fans on Facebook. If you enjoyed this painting process and would like to see more, please don’t hesitate to propose new topics. Come join me on Facebook at my personal art group TALM – The Art of Lisa Mitrokhin, and tell me which art techniques interest you.

Shellshock – behind the scenes of chapter 2

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Chapter 2 – DON’T JUDGE A FOX BY HIS TAIL

The dog behind the character

Foxtail

Meet Foxtail. Foxtail is the first dog that I rescued off the streets of Santiago, a loyal and reliable friend, and a mentor to our heroine Shellshock. Before Shelby (or Shellshock as I call her) came into our lives Foxtail was the only dog of the household for a whole year. His life was chill, and maybe even a little bit boring. He didn’t mind though, because the life that he endured previously was anything but fun.

Santiago is a city populated with feral and homeless dogs, the way that most big cities are filled with pigeons. Here, generations of dogs breed and colonize city streets, alleys, and local dumps for generations on end. Many of these unfortunate creatures don’t know what it’s like to have a home. Foxtail was born and raised on the streets, but he had high hopes of one day being a house dog. That day came when he was less than a year old.

In Chapter 2 of Shellshock, Foxtail will tell his tale of how he came to be a house dog and what it was like living on the streets prior to that.

In the meantime, I will tell you a little bit about him and what an incredible job he has been doing in helping me raise Shellshock.

Foxtail teaching Shellshock how to drink from water dishes. Shellshock’s day 3 with us.

When Shellshock appeared under a tree in front of our house one day, she was badly hurt, starved, and had difficulty standing, breathing, drinking and even keeping her eyes open. She spent the following three days in a nearby clinic, in the hands of a very talented and devoted veterinarian. When she was finally released into our care, she required constant attention and assistance. She was still very weak and seemed to not know anything about being a dog. Foxtail, who is usually not very interested in socializing with other canines, took her under his wing immediately.

Foxtail sharing his favorite pillow with Shellshock.

He began sharing his most prized possessions with her, sharing his favorite pillows, and teaching her which areas of the yeard are used for which purposes.

Shellshock enjoying a dog house for the first time ever.

He even invited her to share his own summer dog house, and let her put her name on it. She didn’t know that such luxuries existed.

Before long, these two were inseparable, and as soon as Shellshock gained some strength and weight they were always playing, scheming and laughing together.

Foxtail and Shellshock laughing at a joke that only they could hear.

It soon became apparent that Foxtail’s new job was not just to teach this pup how to dog, but also to keep her out of trouble. Her energy turned out to be endless, and her mind never-resting. We also began finding her in high places all of a sudden. One day she would be hanging off a windowsill, one day she would be on top of a wall, or on a garden trellis. We began to suspect that this pup can hover.

Today, almost five years later, we live far away from Santiago, in the countryside. Foxtail and Shellshock have several acres of land to play on. They share an elevated dog den, equipped with two rooms and a terrace, and when it gets chilly outside they live and play in the house more than they do outdoors. The two are completely inseparable. Where one goes, the other immediately follows. They hunt together, play together, defend their home together, even take trips to the vet together when only one of them needs the attention.

Goofing off in the field.

Rolling around on their terrace.

Going to the vet together. Foxtail is not a fan, but Shellshock remembers that a vet makes everything better.

Sharing everything.

By turning these two amazing companions into graphic novel characters, I want to tell their story from multiple angles. The aim of “Shellshock” is not to burden the readers with the tragedic reality of street life, neglect or abuse. While these topics are addressed, I try to balance my novel with humor, delight, and beauty that these incredible creatures teach me every day. I don’t want to make my readers to cry and to harbor negative emotions towards the human race. “Shellshock” also demonstrates the generous and kind side of humanity, as well as the dangerous and reckless side of canine life. Life is complicated and messy, and so is the issue of homeless dogs. Mainly, I want my readers to see dogs the way that Shellshock and Foxtail are teaching me to see them and to enjoy their journey.

Working on the novel

On average, a single edition of a given graphic novel is 35 pages in length and takes between three months and a year for a team of four to ten people to create. Kat Dattilo and I are the only two people involved in the creation, editing, production, and publication of “Shellshock,” and we do it all in our spare time from our day jobs, paid artist contracts, commissions, a farm and a family to manage. In total “Shellshock” consists of 6 books, or chapters, each roughly 35 pages long. The entire story is already written, by me, and together we work on illustration and coloring one chapter at a time. Because we do not have the luxury of taking this project on full time, and because we each have to fill multiple production and post-production roles, it takes about five to six months of continuous work to produce one chapter that will take you guys less than half an hour to read, but days, months and years to enjoy the artwork. Finally, with all said and done, we get to keep $2.00 each from each book sale. Needless to say, we do not do this for the money.

Why do we do it?

We both feel that Shellshock’s story is one that needs to be told. Through her amazing character and a splash of fantasy, we can cover a wide range of dog and human issues that are very important to address. Issues like homeless dogs, where they come from, why they spread, why they may be dangerous as well as sad and helpless, why they need help, how they can be helped, how this situation can be prevented, how house dogs are treated, and finally, the climax of it all, the ethics of dog racing. At the same time, we want to entertain the readers and present dogs in such a human and relatable way, that people will want to spend more time with their dogs, and take that one extra step to house or help house a dog in need.

Separately from raising awareness about dogs and entertaining dog lovers, Kat and I plan to donate to actual dog rescue groups. Our promise to you, the supporters, is that with each new 100 sales made, we will donate 30% of our earnings from those 100 sales to a new dog rescue group. Announcements on these events will be made on Facebook in Shellshock’s personal page. Of course, 30% of what we make is not much, but it’s a start. Help us spread the word about Shellshock and we can start making a bigger difference for real dogs.

How we do it

In an earlier article, I took you through the step by step design, drawing, coloring, and formatting process that Kat and I follow when creating these books for you. If you haven’t yet read that one, I think you will find it very interesting and informative. It takes you on a journey from the very first sketch, through a sea of edits, all the way to the final brilliantly painted by Kat color version of a given panel. You can read about it here. This behind-the-scenes information also appears at the back of chapter 1 of “Shellshock.”

In this volume, we have a surprise for you. When Foxtail speaks and tells his tale, the drawing style switches to a new and different format. I think you guys will really like it. But, you must wait for the book to come to find out. The new chapter, and every new chapter from now on will also start with a few “previously on Shellshock” pages to get you guys caught up with the story in case you did not read the previous chapter, or in case you need a refresher even if you did.

A bit of a tease

Please enjoy the pictures. Visit Shelby’s personal page, check out Chapter 1 if you haven’t already, and do stay tuned for Chapter 2.

Thank you all for making this possible.

Previously on “Shellshock”

 

My line work in progress

 

Kat’s panel painting in progress

 

One of the pages inside Chapter 2

 

Thank you for reading.

You can purchase your own copies of Shellshock chapters here. They come in a printed and bound paperback format as well as e-books.

You can even read them for FREE with Kindle Unlimited.

Remember that 30% of every 100 sales will be donated to dog rescue groups, so every purchase makes a real-life difference.

 

Back to the basics

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Regardless of how comfortable you get drawing complex objects and composition, it’s always important to practice and review the basics. Today I will be drawing three apples and I want to invite you to join me.

I am working in my digital program Corel Painter 18, using pencils and dry acrylic brushes. I am doing this digitally for two reasons. One, I am involved in a lot of digital painting projects at this time, and it’s the Corel brushes that I personally need to practice using. Two, I can take high-resolution screenshots. This way you see exactly what I see. Taking photographs of pencils drawings always introduces a level of distortion, depending on lighting and the angle at which the photo is taken. The principles that I am about to introduce apply to any style of drawing, however. You can achieve the same exact effects with pencils, pastels, chalks, watercolor, acrylic paint, oil paint, etc. I hope you join me on this little journey. So grab your paper and pencils and let’s begin.

Ideally, the best way to practice drawing is to draw from life. I set up my three apples on the table. Because I am taking you guys along, and because I want you to practice drawing the same exact subjects with a fixed light source, I took a photograph of my apples. Feel free to save it, print it, blow it up on your computer screen. However you choose to do it, you should always have your subject clearly displayed in front of you as you draw it.

 

A photograph that I took especially for this exercise

I will be drawing my apples in a realistic style with a touch of dry brush strokes. I want the final result to obviously look like a color drawing or a painting. I am not going for photorealism. Yet, I am aiming to have the apples look as much as the photograph in shape, color, and light as possible. I will not be adding elements of fantasy or caricature or any type of abstraction. I am going for mathematical and biological accuracy, depicted in a painterly style. You may choose a different drawing/painting style, ranging from simple sketchy illustration all the way to highly-polished photorealism.

My finished drawing

Now that you have your photo of the apples and a blank page to work on, where to begin? First, we must observe what we are about to draw. Don’t rush to start sketching. Look at what you are about draw and decide what exactly you are depicting and why. In this case, we have three apples. Why three? We want to practice drawing an apple, and having multiple apples in one scene allows us to practice color, shape, and position variation in a single composition. Having multiple apples will also allow us to practice a little bit of depth perception. Finally, three is a great number for this exercise because anything more than three would be either too busy, too boring to work with, or so large a number that the subject would no longer be a few apples, but a pile of apples. The pile would become a single object, and we approach drawing something like that differently. Finally, when depicting multiple objects, it’s always good practice to use an odd number rather than even. Our eye just responds to odd numbers more positively. Odd numbers suggest natural randomness, while even numbers suggest arranged symmetry.

Inspecting this photo, we clearly see three apples, with one obviously in the foreground. I mentally mark my apples in order from more to least important. The apple closest to us the most important one to me. It’s in focus and it displays the most interesting details, like the imperfections of the skin and the little extending stem. This is the most valuable subject here and I will spend the most time working on it. The second apple is the one on the left. It also shows some level of detail and a stem, but it is slightly out of focus and is less interesting. The third is barely a spherical shape in the background. Its job is just to help set the scene and suggest space and distance. I will spend the least amount of time on it.

Assigning value to your subjects

Now that we know what we are looking at, what it means to us, and what we want to show our audience, let’s begin.

For many, it’s good practice to begin with a light sketch. Using a pencil or a piece of chalk, mark out where your subjects will be. Make sure to keep your lines very light, and barely visible. You want to be able to either erase or cover them completely as you proceed. Some may feel comfortable making only mental sketches, as I often do. But, it’s ok to actually draw your lines. Just make sure to not draw thick and defined outlines. There are styles that call for nice clean contours, but that is not what we are practicing here.

The sketch lines should be quick, rough and barely visible

 

Depending on your tool, style of sketching, and hand stability, you may sketch cleaner, simpler lines. It’s all very personal.

For the ease of presentation, I made the sketch lines a bit thicker and bit darker than I would when drawing. Working digitally, of course, I have the luxury of erasing the outline layer with a click of a button. When working with real pencils, do take care to keep the lines very light.

Personally, on something like this I do not use sketch lines. I go straight into building shapes with larger brushes. Selecting a dry acrylic brush and a neutral greyish-purplish color, I begin to roughly shape my apples by marking the darkest parts of the fruit.

First brush strokes

 

Still working with very rough and very casual brush strokes, I add more color to begin building my spherical shapes

When drawing from life or photographs, many people make the mistake of fixating on the tiny detail, and that is how they lose track of the whole picture. Examine the photograph once more. Do you see all the tiny specs and marks on the skin of the apples? To copy them all exactly as they appear in life would be madness. It would take a really long time, and unless you are going for some kind of a photorealism record, it would be completely pointless. After all, the photo already captured all that detail. In art, we aim to convey the feeling of the object rather than its absolute accuracy. How do you see these apples? They are obviously round in shape, they are vivid in color, and they are somewhat glossy in texture. That’s what we aim to depict. At this point, we are focusing mainly on the shape through the basic use of color.

I keep adding color while referencing my photograph. I also take a moment to roughly place the shadows to begin the three-dimensional feel

 

Layer by layer, I add more color, still using very broad brushstrokes

While you are building your shapes, it is important to be aware of your light source. It’s a good idea to set up direct lighting to create a fixed artificial light source that will introduce sharp and dramatic shadows. In this case, I took the photograph in soft, natural sunlight, but you can still clearly tell that the light is coming from up and left. I, therefore, make sure to place the shadows cast by the apples to the bottom right of the canvas. I also make sure to keep the lighter parts of the apples on the left and the darker on the right.

Always keep your light source consistent

At this point, the composition and the light source are pretty well established and I can proceed to the fun part – the detail. Now, there isn’t that much detail in apple painting, but we can still have fun with color and texture.

I now use smaller brushes to clean up the edges and to introduce detail to the stems and the skins

 

I keep adding minor detail to my number 1 apple

At this point, you may have noticed that I am paying a lot more attention to my number 1 apple while leaving 2 and 3 more imperfect. Note that I did not give clean edges to my fruit. Apple 3 barely has an outline at all. This is softer on the eye and a lot closer to how we actually perceive objects in space.

Now onto the really fun part – a bit of artistic expression. I am happy with the level of detail on my apples and I want to make them stand out more, so I am adding a splash of blue to the background. Here I switched to watercolor effect. On paper, you can use real watercolor to achieve a similar result. I am a huge fan of mixing media.

I experiment with color in a different medium

Our eye tends to see shadows as slightly blue. You may notice a touch of a bluish hint in the photograph. This is why I chose blue for my background. Also, blue really makes those red apples pop. The contrast of blue and red todgether makes both colors appear brighter than they really are.

I keep working with my dry brush to smooth out the flat background

While working with my somewhat abstract background, I still follow the rules of light and shadow. I do not just blindly place blue watercolor splashes behind the apples. I make sure that the blue is darker where the shadows would be darker in real life. Finally, I smooth out my watercolor layer with more dry acryslic work to really bring the whole composition together. I am almost happy with how this looks.

Applying final touches

I switch back to the large brushes and go over the whole picture, adding a bit more color and contrast. I notice that while my light source is strong and consistent, the apples will look better with their stems casting shadows. Now in the photograph, we do not see clear shadows cast by the stems. That is because the light source was too soft. I made my light source a bit sharper in this composition and I want to enhance it even more. I add the shadows that I cannot see in real life but that I know will be there if the light source is inhanced. Now I’m happy.

It is important not to overwork your piece. I can keep painting this for many more hours, perfecting every little blemish on the fruit surface, and making the stems hyperrealistic, but that is not what I set out to do. When I look at this painting, I cearly see three very vibrant apples. I can imagine the sound that one of them might make when I bite into it, and the sound another might make if I drop it on the floor. These apples have clearly defined shapes. You can tell that they have some weight to them as they seem to be rolling off to different sides. They are a little bit reflective, therefore probably very smooth to the touch, and they are very bright, made even more so with the introduction of that beautiful blue. I call this a success and I will leave it at this.

 

Now it’s your turn. Grab some apples, or eggs, or rocks, and start drawing. I will be posting some photos to work from in my Facebook group, TALM. Please feel free to drop by, grab some photos, and post your work in progress as well. I hope to see you there.

Shellshock – behind the scenes of chapter 1

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It all began one sunny day, on a dead end street in Santiago Chile, 2014. That was the day I found a dying discarded pup, carefully placed under a tree by my house, a little bit of food and little bit of water by her side. That day and that dog changed my life. Shellshock is a graphic novel based on the broken little pup that grew into a beautiful swan. It is a heart-warming story that will take you on multiple fantastic adventures and will shed some new light on the magical creatures that dogs really are.

My Inspiration

Real life Shellshock is my dog Shelby. She is my best friend and loyal companion. She is a living reminder of human ignorance towards dogs, and also living proof that traumatic experiences can be completely forgotten. There is never a trace of sadness in Shelby’s eyes. Quite the opposite in fact. Her big amber eyes glow with mischief and joy her every waking moment. Her energy is endless and she is always looking for trouble. It is her “human” personality that inspired me to tell her story in illustrated form.

Shellshock is a novel in 6 parts. It tells Shelby’s story through fantasy and adventure. For instance, because we really don’t know who placed her under the tree and why, my husband and I always joke that she just appeared in the “puppy portal” one day. That’s a much better reference to the place where I found her than “the tree where she was left to die by an ignorant coward.” In the book she travels to the puppy portal from ancient Egypt.

The novel will reveal that in ancient Egypt dogs were the dominant species, and humans were their pets. It was a peaceful world, where pets were loved and cared for. Unlike in the modern world, where dog is supposedly man’s best friend. While some dogs in some parts of the world have very cozy lives, there are millions still who are chained up, beaten, and even forced to race at the track. I wrote this book to illustrate the real problems that dogs today face in South America. I chose South America because this is where I live and these are the problems that are see every day. I didn’t want this book to be heavy and depressing. I didn’t want the readers to feel sad or guilty when reading it. Instead, I wanted each page to be entertaining, funny, witty, and just beautiful. This is why Shelby (or Shellshock as I often call her) is my main character.

Just like in real life, Shellshock conveys no sadness, only joy. Her illustrated character is equally goofy, fun-loving, ridiculous and just plain lovable. By following Shellshock on her adventures through the 6 chapters, the readers will enjoy a good action-adventure, while also picking up on the darker moral dilemmas on a more subconscious level. I want to get people thinking. Really thinking. I believe that cruelty is rare and is a small part of dog problems today. Ignorance, however is a much larger beast.

Shelby’s first moments with me.

Take Shelby, for instance. The person who left her under my tree, when she clearly had hours to live, wasn’t cruel. They had good intentions. They placed her in front of a house that already had a dog in the yard. They placed some food a water near her to indicate that she is left there intentionally. But what if I didn’t come out to mow my lawn that day? I shudder to think, even today, that if I was mowing only a day later, I would have found a dead pup instead of my best friend. It was pure chance that Shelby got rescued by me when she did. The person who left her, didn’t think to ring the doorbell or leave her on the doorstep with a note. They didn’t take her to the vet. They didn’t take steps to either heal her or “put her out of her misery.” They just hid her in the leaves, under a tree, on a dead end street. What is that? Cowardice? I say ignorance. That is someone who was never taught how to handle finding a dying pup. They did the best they could and it happened to work out fine. But how many of these stories don’t have a happy ending?

The Book

Shelby making a silly face.

Shelby is a such a colorful character in real life, that it is only natural for me to make her into a goofy cartoon personality. As an illustrator, I love creating characters and their setting. I wrote the entire story in a month, and during the following month I roughly sketched out all the panels for Chapter 1. As I began drawing actual panels and characters, it quickly became obvious that I need a colorist, a great colorist. My strength is character building, but I am also anxious to always move forward, create more panels, set those characters loose on the pages. I don’t have the skill or a patience to paint every panel in full detail. But I know someone how does.

Katherine Dattilo is a brilliant digital painter, who has already collaborated with me on many unrelated illustrations. When we met as artists, we clicked right away. She takes my line work, and breaths life into it with her colors. I wanted her for this project. Kat’s strength in digital painting is light. I don’t know what she does exactly that’s different from other painters I know, but her depiction of light and shadow really takes you to a different realm when you look at her work. She also paints my illustrations in the exact light and mood that I envisioned when I drew the image. It’s like she reads the energy in my lines and translates that energy into something that others can see too. This kind of an artistic relationship is very rare and is priceless. I was thrilled when Kat accepted my proposal to work on Shellshock together.

My line drawing of an ancient Egyptian dog market square.

 

Kat’s magical coloring of exactly how I imagined the place lit.

Chapter 1 of Shellshock is set mainly in ancient Egypt. It took a lot of research both for me in drawing the settings, and for Kat in getting the colors and light just right, to bring our ancient canine Egypt to life. For instance the sky map seen on the wall of the Seers’ workshop, is my dog version of actual ancient Egyptian idea of the sky.

Ancient Egyptian sky map.

The sky map seen in one of the panels in the novel.

Of course the most exciting part of bringing this book life, for me, is drawing Shellshock herself. In order to depict this amazing character exactly how I envision her, I spend a lot of time chatting with Kat about my Shelby. I sent her many photos, videos, and stories of Shelby’s real life adventures, facial expressions, and crazy dog decisions that she makes. It was very important to me to really capture Shelby’s personality in my book. Kat had no problem transforming my line drawings into my Shellshock.

One of the line drawings that I sent to Kat for transformation.

 

The transformation begins.

 

Transformation complete.

 

As a special bonus, Chapter 1 also features several behind-the-scenes pages of how Kat and I work. In these pages you will learn some of the technical secrets of our craft.

My Aim

Can I really be angry at the stranger who left Shelby under my tree? After all, she ended up with me. Where do these broken pups from anyway? Why are there so many dogs roaming the streets of Chile? Why are the ones behind household fences chained up with not even a water dish in reach? Why are there no dog shelters in this country? What ARE people supposed to do when an injured dog shows up on their doorstep? All these and many other questions are the reason for Shellshock the novel. Nothing is black and white in this world, and human cruelty is not the main reason for dogs suffering on a large scale. Lack of education is the main reason. Lack of action. Lack of planning. I aim to change that, one story at a time.

My real life goofball.

In real life, Shelby likes to tell her story to as many people as she can. She (with my human help) signs petitions against dog racing, including the petition banning racing in Argentina, which we won! Shelby and I also take the time to explain the importance of dog sterilization to locals, to prevent the ever exploding population of feral and homeless dogs here. Feral dogs breed, form into packs and gangs and very quickly become unadaptable. Legalizing hunting dogs (a recent Chilean development), while claiming that sterilization is immoral, is a backwards thinking. Shelby and I like to shed better light on the situation.

One of the greatest reasons for dog mistreatment and neglect in this part of the world, is that dogs are not seen as the amazing, intelligent, emotional creatures that they are. Instead, they are often viewed as objects. They are left behind when a family moves to a new home. Like a piece of unwanted furniture. They are used as alarms when they are kept on chains outside homes. They are used to breed to sell puppies of desirable pedigree. Depicting dogs in a very human way in my book, is one of the ways that I aim to change the view of dogs. In my book, dogs have all the same emotions as we do, and they face all the same problems and dilemmas. I hope that by bonding with my canine characters, the readers will see other dogs in the same magical light.

A fragment of Shellshock’s training scenes in Chapter 1.

 

Another fragment from a panel in Chapter 1.

Kat and I also plan to designate a portion of our royalties, every 100 sales, to reputable dog rescue organizations. We will be announcing these events when they happen, with proof of sales and donations.

Publication

You can purchase your Shellshock here. It is available in print as well as on Kindle.

If you are already enjoying this book, please take a moment to leave an Amazon review. It will be greatly appreciated.

 

We also invite you learn more about myself, Kat, and Shelby by following us on Facebook. Yes, Shelby has her own Facebook page, where she posts her real life adventures. She is a very social dog, and she will be thrilled to have more followers. Click on the names below to visit our profiles.

Lisa Mitrokhin

Katherine Dattilo

Shelby “Shellshock”

We thank you kindly for your interest and your support. Help us spread the word about Shellshock by sharing this article with your friends and family.

 

Shellshock and I wishing you a great day.

 

Creating a romance novel book cover

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When Callystin Collum approached me about painting her main character Sarah for a paranormal romance book cover, neither of us suspected how magical our working relationship would become. Before accepting the job I wanted to introduce myself and explain a little bit about how I work and where my inspiration and skill come from. I explained that I am a self-taught, life-long artist, who just happens to also have a classical art university degree which I hate giving any credit to. I described briefly how I work one-on-one with my commission clients, and how after ten years of working as a high-end exclusive tattoo artist “my style” is always primarily “my client’s style.” While my artistic hand is clearly recognizable no matter what work of art I create, the actual feel and mood of any creation is governed by the desires of my client. If I wasn’t able to adjust to various required styles I wouldn’t be much of an artist. Mentioning my tattoo career is alway hit or miss when talking with new potential clients. Some people still harvest very narrow and negative stereotypes about this art form, and about all those who participate in it. As always, I was prepared to be uninvited from this project based on my work history, but I was pleasantly surprised by Callystin’s response. She was very excited to hear about my experience in creating tailored tattoos for people all over the world, saying that she wanted to hire a tattoo artist to do her book cover since before she even completed the manuscript. Naturally I was intrigued and now it was her turn to tell me about herself, her book, and her characters.

It turned out that Cally’s main character Sarah was in need of a custom-made tattoo from someone with experience in just that craft. The tattoo is so significant in this book that it’s almost its own character. Cally didn’t have to do a lot of talking for me to have enough mental images to begin my work. She simply shared with me three of the 662 pages of her novel, and I knew everything I need to know about what Sarah looked liked and enough about her personality to portray that through body language and choice of clothing. One of the advantages of working with an author is that they tend to be quite articulate. After all, the readers have to see her character in their minds just as clearly as I was about to see her on my digital drawing page (for a more technical description of my digital painting process check out my article How I Paint Digitally). Cally had a few basic requests about composition and pose. She imaged Sarah with her back turned to the audience, which is a reasonable choice for a character with a meaningful full back tattoo. However, I felt that the requested glance over the shoulder was not enough to show Sarah’s personality. I wanted to reveal more of her face, so I took a chance and painted a wall mirror that would show a little bit more of her gentle girlish features with a daring splash of curiously, and also to show where her eyes are pointing (the next part of the arrangement I was to work on). Even though Cally did not imagine a mirror in the composition she fell in love with the concept and picked one of the three versions I provided her with. The version she selected, which is also my preference, is the one where the mirror reveals only suggestions of facial features, but not in full photographic detail. This book is clouded in mystery after all. Suggestions would work better on this cover than straight up full focus hyper details.

Now that I had Sarah’s body, face and hair painted and approved by Callystin, I moved onto the most important part – the tattoo. Sarah’s tattoo is complex enough for an artist to design for a real back. It would be a challenge to tailor it for a fictional 1200 by 2200 pixel painted character. I had to approach it the same way I would a real tattoo. Having read Cally’s description of it over and over again, I drew a fully detailed cat-o-nine tails whip with a braided leather handle and cherry blossoms scattered all around. I then wrapped the design around my character, curving and blurring it to match my painting style in this piece. Actually, the most time consuming and complicated part of the process was the amount of distortion I had to apply to my otherwise flawless and highly detailed tattoo design in order to make it look realistic in the given light and remaining true to my brushstrokes. The application of the tattoo to Sarah’s back was a week long project. After submission, Cally requested a few edits and adjustments, specifically in relation to individual tails and their direction, the placement and color of specific blossoms, and clearly readable text “Never Again”. After another few days of edits we arrived at the tattoo that we both agreed was perfect. The only final adjustment she asked for was the removal of visible scars from Sarah’s back. I imagined that most of Sarah’s scars would still be visible, if not for any other reason but for the reader to see that she has them. Cally had a very firm and specific request to remove the scars, explaining to me that the whole reason for the tattoo is to hide the scars all together. The audience does not need to know the full scar story from the cover. They will find out while reading. After discussing the technicalities of actually covering scars with tattoos, we came to an artistic agreement and I cleaned up Sarah’s back, while Cally cleaned up some textual details on the matter.

My next subject of interest was something that my author described as optional, but I immediately saw as inevitable. While Sarah is an obviously attractive young woman with an enticing full back tattoo, this is more than just a romance novel, it is a paranormal romance novel. I felt that the paranormal part was important to at least suggest visually. This is where Sarah’s glance direction comes into play. I specifically painted her looking down and at her hand, in order to have a platform to introduce a mysterious supernatural hand inviting her into its otherworldly haze. Now it all comes together. Now we know what seduces Sarah’s curiously. It is this human, yet animal-like, hand in the mist. This was probably my most favorite part of the project. I wanted the pale beastly hand to appear as mysterious as possible, revealing nothing of its character yet teasing the audience into having to find out. I wanted the viewers and the readers to be as intrigued by the hand as Sarah is.

Now that the mysterious hand was done and approved by the author, I moved on to polishing up the details on the image as a whole. This is a part of any digital painting where I create a lot of new layers, each with very minute but vary valuable information on them. I spent a full day on making sure that my light source was consistent, the parts that needed to be in focus were clearly in focus, while the ones intended to be blurred were sufficiently blurred. I played with darkness, contrast, definition and saturation on my fused layers, and of course scanned the entire image for imperfections, artifacts and inconsistencies. After a couple more back-and-forths with Callystin, we were ready for formatting.

Formatting a book cover is surprisingly more complicated than people realize. Correct resolution is the single most important factor. You don’t want any detail to be lost in the print. Color balance is also essential. The printed version has to look exactly as the digital version does on the screen. Finally, sizing mistakes are unforgiving. Depending on the publisher’s format demands, you have to make sure that your full cover spread, plus the spine, will not be cropped even a millimeter off from the desired layout. In order to achieve this, one must know the exact thickness of the book’s spine, which is calculated by multiplying the number of double sided pages by the paper thickness. To do this you must know the paper your author has chosen for her publication and her manuscript length according to paper style and size. As Cally was making last minute edits and adjustments, the thickness of her book spine also kept changing, sometimes by a fraction of a millimeter, but every pixel counts when it comes to professional formatting. I think for Cally, this must have been the only frustrating part of the project, understandably so. Well, good things come to those who work hard, and in time we worked out all the nagging technical details and the Fayhted Contender was ready for publication.

After three weeks of work and collaboration, Cally and I have become good friends and discovered that we share many similar views and opinions. I suppose it only makes sense, since we were able to work together so smoothly and quickly, understanding each other’s visions and motivations.  This has been an incredibly rewarding artistic journey, but in the end nothing could have felt better than receiving my own copy of Fayhted Contender with a personal inscription from the author on the first page. Reading someone else’s novel with my art on the cover took some getting used to, but since this book is so easy to lose yourself in I soon had no trouble forgetting about the cover art and following Sarah on her journey.

 

Callystin Collum’s Fayhted Contender is available on Amazon in print and in kindle versions.

A behind-the-scenes of drawing a coloring page

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Many of you already enjoy my published coloring books and various individual coloring pages that I create from time to time to entertain my group members. I invite you now on a small journey behind the scenes of actually creating one of such pages. I create all of my line art designs in a program called Corel Painter, using a stylus to draw directly onto my Wacom drawing screen. (For a more technical description of the process check out my articles How I Paint Digitally and What Is Digital Painting)

It all begins with an idea. Once I have a clear character concept in my head (which is teaming with ideas at any given moment) I open a new blank document and begin a rough sketch with my pencil tool set to a charcoal or a rough pencil, and usually in a color other than black. I tend to sketch in purple or brown. At this point I am only interested in working on the composition. I freehand my characters the way that I would on a notepad with an actual pencil. I erase a lot to correct my lines as I shape the desired composition. I continue sculpting in this manner for the next hour or so, depending on the complexity of my design. In this case, you will be following the creation of “The Musician” page for an upcoming book. Since this is a book project, instead of a blank page, I am working on a pre-made “frame” page that will be consistent throughout the book.

Once I have my composition I create a new layer. I dim the purple layer a bit, and begin drawing clean black lines over the transparent sketch. At this point I have my pencil tool set to “single, circular, (soft) cover” and, generally working on a 2400 x 3000 at a 300 px/in resolution, I set the pencil/brush in the range of 3.2 and 4.2 at a medium to lower opacity, with a rest value of 70%, bleed 40% and jitter at 0.04. The combination variations on these settings are of course unlimited, and every artist sets his own stats according to personal preference. This is by no means an instruction manual on how to set your controls. This is simply what I find to be the most effective given my screen with its wear and tear, the pressure of my hand as I draw, the current tip of my stylus, etc. These numbers are set and adjusted according to so many variables that it would take a book to explain it all. For our immediate purposes, let’s just say that I found my sweet spot and I work with it for best results and consistency, in coloring pages only. I have completely different preferences for other types of digital creations. As a matter of fact I have several palette layouts saved in my window arrangements, and I switch between them depending on my project.

Once my clean black line work is done – a tedious and careful process – I can kill my purple layer. It is no longer needed. Of course I don’t have to erase it all together. I can dim it, or just make it invisible for the time being. Looking at just the black line work, I can see imperfections and inconsistencies. I now zoom in and out a lot, looking for anything that needs cleaner lines, smoother turns, etc. Because this is to be a coloring page, my lines need to be flawless.

 

This particular book will be a character centered fantasy compilation, with each individual page presenting a new character drawn in a style closer to my natural drawing style rather than a traditional color-in mosaic page. However, to compensate for this fluidity that may be intimidating to some colorists, each page will also be embellished with elaborate background designs and patterns. Knowing that I will be drawing this character, I already created her background pattern days ago. All of my patterns are my original creations, drawn in the same manner as I am drawing this page, and saved as .jpg files for further use. Now that I have my background pattern, I can copy and paste it onto “The Musician”, resized, styled, and otherwise altered to suit my needs.

In this case, I minimize my pattern and make it into a gel layer, which I place under the main line layer. Now I can play with cropping and shaping it to appear just in the oval behind my characters. There are multiple ways of doing this. The first being simply starting my design with a patterned oval, then dimming it to comfortably draw my characters in a different layer, and once drawn filling my characters with white inside the outlines, and then bringing up the background pattern. There are many other methods of creating this effect using the fill tool and multiple layer arrangements, and even multiple file combinations, but I chose to do this in a bit of a primitive way this time. When I began this page I had a clear vision of my characters and their positioning in relation to each other and the page, but I did not yet know where and how I may use the pattern that I created days ago, or if I would even use that pattern at all. Having left my pattern work to the last minute, and having under-layed it in a gel layer, I just work around with my eraser tool, taking off all unwanted spill. A bit tedious, I know. With all this technology you would imagine that I can just click this and drag that and voila! a pattern fill, but no. Now I sit for nearly half an hour carving my pattern out to fit its shape. Sometimes that just feels like the better way to do it. This way I know I have complete control of my edges and their cleanliness.

Now I look over my creation and take some time to add tiny detail and decoration. On this particular page, my characters are not wearing any fabrics nor ornaments, so my only decorative bits are the cello details. In some cases I like to draw very fine lines in the hair, giving it shape and volume that is almost realistic, but in this case the background is too thin and busy. If I add many new lines to the characters’ hair, It will be difficult to see its general shape. I chose to leave the hair on both girls nearly blank, with just enough lines to define its structure, allowing the colorist variation in coloring style. There will be many more characters in this book with very finely drawn hair.

Finally, when all is done, I create yet another layer to give my line work more definition. In these complex compositions with multiple layers of fine detail, I like to use lines of various thickness to make the design “readable” and not overwhelmingly complicated. I carefully outline my two main characters and the two tulips with a thicker liner. I take yet more time to slowly revise every single line at a very close zoom. This is the most important part of the entire project. Usually I leave it to another day. After having worked on this page for so long, it is difficult to see mistakes or imperfections. After I’ve been away from the image for some time, I review it again with a fine toothed comb. When I am satisfied that there are no artifacts, spills, or ghost lines, I fuse all my layers into one and save my .riff creation as a .jpg copy. I actually print the image on my layer jet home printer to make sure that on paper it looks exactly as it does on the Wacom. Looking at a printed version may also reveal imperfections that I failed to see on the glowing screen that I’ve now been staring at for days. If any final imperfections are located, I make the necessary adjustments, make more test prints until I am happy with the result, save my image as a PDF file, and it is now ready for publication.

 

I hope you enjoyed this little journey along with me as I drew “The Musician”. In a couple of months you will see it among several dozen other images in the new book flip-through.

 

How I paint digitally

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As a followup to one of my recent articles, I have been asked to write more in depth about my personal digital painting process. This is not a tutorial or a step by step guide on how to create the same image that I am about to share to with you. I cannot tell you which software to purchase, or recommend one drawing tablet over another, nor can I insist on order of operations. Creating art is a very personal process and is unique to every individual. I can, however, share with you some of my own secrets and perhaps they will inspire you to try new techniques or even new drawing platforms.

My Setup

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What IS digital painting?

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This is one of the most frequent questions that I encounter as an artist. My skill level and style in both analogue and digital drawing and painting is more or less the same, and at times it is difficult for my audience to even tell the difference between something I drew by hand on paper and something I drew using a stylus in Corel Painter. Digital painting is one of my favorite ways of artistic expression, but it is often misunderstood.

The mystery revealed Continue reading →