People on the Go IV - Green Portrait

I've seen this sort of illustration done a few times before, and in an art blog I saw recently. I figured I'd give it a try. I'm happy with the results. What I'm not happy with is the amount of time it took me to do this. I had a couple of false starts (using the wrong tools) and had to re-do the highlight and the shading to get it right. Still though, I feel it took me too long to complete this.

I'm still having a hard time with backgrounds. I tried a couple of 'canned' backgrounds, or just flat brown, it didn't look right.

Can anyone give me a hand with the backgrounds, I need a few ideas there.

Again, comments are always appreciated.

Fourth Pastel - Indy Cigarette Girl

Ok, here's my fourth pastel. I worked on it over two nights. It's based on a photo of mine included in the post.

This is one of my better and earlier photos. I'm pretty happy with the photo. I think I did do a little tweaking in photoshop getting rid of some background items and darkening the hair to meld into the background.

As for the pastel painting, I'm satisfied with it, I wouldn't say proud, but satisfied. I did draw it using the smoother side of the canson paper and I think that helped. I used black paper but in retrospect I probably should of used a lighter colour as it would have made her skin tone more fair.

Items I know I could have done better are;

1. Right eyebrow: The angle is a little off. Erasing that big of a black area would have made a mess.
2. Eye proportions: the eyes are a little far apart and there's not enough skin between the left eye and the side of her head.
3. Right side of the face: I couldn't get the contours right.
4. Right shoulder: Again, not sure how I could of fixed that without making a mess.
5. Hair ends: I'm not sure how I could of ended the hair better.
6. Background/Trimming: I copped out and just used black.

One cool thing I learned during this is that brown and blue make a good colour that can be used as a shadow for skin tones.

I'm looking for some real critiques so let me know!

People on the Go III

Here's another one from my "People on the GO" series. I think I bungled her nose in this one. Not bad overall though.

More Crazy Photoshop Fun

Still playing around in Photoshop today.

This image was originally a picture taken at a 'State Fair' (we call it the Canadian National Exhibition - CNE for short). I love going there, always a fun day for me.

At any rate there were these two entertainers a guy and and a girl walking the grounds. It was a neat show they had. The guy was on stilts but had a suit around him that looked like he was sitting on this tall ostrich. The girl walked around with a magnifying glass. Her costume though made it look like she was floating. It was all very Ren-fair-esque (Renaissance Fair), but insanely interesting.

I hope they are back next year, I'll take more shots. If they sit still for long enough.

Chef in Love

Ok, finally a real colour one. The colour is actually more intense than this. I didn't fiddle with the settings while scanning and/or play with it within Photoshop.

I still like doing my abstract charcoals though, but it's good to mix it up.

Oh I'm also making the images a little smaller and lower resolution. I think it makes them easier to view online.

People on the Go

Here's one that's actually brand spankin' new. I read online about sketching on the train. As weird and creepy as it sounds, it's actually kinda fun. Hopefully I won't get popped in the eye or anything else.

So here's a dude that's on my morning commute into *insert major metro area here* . He's actually quite older than what he looks like in my drawing. His nose isn't quite the same.