Late Night Creations, Breaktime Ills.

Mercy Running, Mercy Found.

for the last week or so i have been nicking away @ this one on breaks @ my dayjob. it started out as an "i can't sleep" drawing that after completing i knew i wanted to color it. and i had visions of a mix of styles--lots of shape and better-than-usual colors. i wanted to render it in a more digital painting style than just stark colors as i usually do. i took to two artists in particular i follow for inspiration. one Alice. X.Z. and TheIrisOn (Erik Jones).

the image is of an MC named Dessa. i've been in love with her talent for a few years now and credit my earlier bigger paintings to her music in the background (and some Yellowtail). if you are unfamiliar with her, check her out!! when Dessa is behind a mic she lashes out in pure hip hop fashion with such fury most only dream about having. and just when you think that's the extent of her talent, she sings harmonies and melodies unheard of in hip hop. Dessa has a very soft, soothing voice that touches the soul and--in the same song--can embarrass your favorite rapper with ease. so i wanted to color this in a similar contrasting fashion. below are some progress shots.

i laid all my flat colors down first and then the background. i wanted to keep it a bit cosmic without the darkness of space. next i began some shape work on the left side of here face. i played with solid v. gradient fills and ended up using both for different shapes. then i began doing some gestural strokes on the other side. i watched one of Alice's videos to get some technique inspiration and rendered her whole face in a similar, expressive manner. poking around for more inspiration, i then found a video of TheIrisOn and used some of those more softer techniques to go over the rougher strokes. i was much more pleased now as i felt the shape and softness contrasted much better now, but still leaving some of the gestural strokes throughout.

next i began adding more detail; eyes, more shapes/colors, value, etc.. i bounced on rendering the eyes white or brown and eventually settled with brown. i explored Blending Modes quite a bit through this piece on many different layers. i love the look of gradient-filled shapes overlapping each other and producing third colors where they overlap. who knew Venn Diagrams would find their way into my art as i grew older.

i then began to push the highlights and shadows a bit more and even used some stark shapes on the right side of the image so it wasn't so "down-the-middle" contrast. i cleaned up some of the more airbrush-y areas that overlapped, added a few more stars, and then voila!!--DONEZO. this was a lot of fun to do but very time-consuming. i did enjoi pushing my digital painting to a new level for myself and plan to do more in the future. if you made it down this far then a Gold Star you have earned as well as my thanks.

Stay Creative and Push Your Own Limits,

Bluzilla One.