[ken]

hi everyone, long time no post.

this is for the cover of a 7" vinyl record by chris vrenna. it has a remix from the alice soundtrack on one side, and a remix from the matrix reloaded on the other. hence, alice versus the matrix. the hands are traced from a photo of my sister's hands. everyone says the hands don't match... it doesn't really seem like that much of a problem to me, but i'd still like to hear all yours crits and comments.

thanks a lot to malachi and nivbed who gave me some great crits in progress, and astrosim for supplying me with refs.



WIPs:



^ the borders you see are the bleed areas.

^ these hands are the photo.




^ i liked the colors of the new hands, so i repainted the face using the original lineart, but the new colors. it didn't have the same impact as the original face though, so i lowered the opacity and blended the two. i used this strategy a lot - doing changes, then blending them with the original.

at first i was going to try and get it as photorealistic as possible, but the picture didn't want to go there. i drew the eyes about eight times, and picked the three best ones. i overlayed them to get an average image. then i duplicated them to another layer, flipped them and lowered the opacity, to get them more symmetrical. everything else is drawn in photoshop.

-Ken
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[maxetormer]

IMO great job both on ligths and tecnique, the concept rocks too, u made quite a nice job very profecional ill buy that cd for sure nice painting as for the hands they do look kinda weird but it is just a small isuee, kee it up!!! ( maybe the hands are too smouth, i can see the brush strokes on Alice�s face and arms as well as on the dress, but i can�t see the brush strokes on the hands so that i think separates the two elements a bit)

keep the great posting up =)
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[4nton]

Indeed, I think this is very cool. It's very nifty to look at and think about.
Here's my take on the hands issue...
They don't look too bad, but they are a bit noticable - so it all depends on how nitpicky you personally want to go with it.
Three points you could work with to get them a bit closer:
- The hands have more of a pink undertone, especially in the fingertips. This hue should show up a tiny bit in the cheeks and it doesn't.
- The glossyness of the fingers is a bit higher than the face
- There's a slight underlighting that you used on the fingers that might look good along the chinline

Mostly though... this is well done, I like it even if you leave it as-is.
Especially that chair. LOVE the chair!
You also did a good job of making the image look "dusty", which is perfect for capturing the mood of both american mcgee and the matrix.

[Critical Pete]

It looks really great, but listen to 4nton, as he brings up very good points. The arms are quite noticeable different than the hands... Smooth out the shading on the arms, or roughen up the shading on the hands.

[Nucleardan]

Great painting ken, as usual. Though, i have to say that i think the perspective on those hands is funny. Albeit they might be proportionally correct, they just look kinda like Meat Mits. (little too big, but only by a smidge.)

Other wise, great work.

[PhatTexta]

man i think she is beautiful! wd u reallt captured the creepy feel aswell
and using photos like that is great.. i assume u used photos? anyways if u didnt and u brushed em ur a mutant

i love it man wd

[Max]

I love it...by far one of the coolest pics I have seen here lately!
Well done Ken!!!!

[Malachi Maloney]

This turned out great Ken. Are the mixes on the 7' any good? If so, where can I grab a copy. I'd love to own something with your work on it.


Keep on keepin' on brotha.


~M~
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[ken]

thanks for the comments, everybody.

the general consensus seems to be the hands are a problem, so i might go back and rework them if i have time - make them a bit smaller and rougher, and smooth out some of the rougher areas elsewhere.

4nton: thanks for the tips... didn't think about the glossiness or the pink on the fingers. the 'dusty' look has probably more to do with the restricted cmyk gamut than anything else.

phattexta: the hands are brushwork, but traced and copied from photos.

mal: i haven't heard the mixes, so i have no idea . i'll let you know when i hear them.

-Ken
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[Duracel]

But you can also detail the rest of the picture i think.


"I'll show you just how deep the rabbit hole really goes."
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Detailling a speedpainting is nothing but speedpainting in detail.

[Malachi Maloney]

I'm surprised they didn't ask you to listen to it... See if it "inspired" you.
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[CwStone]

i personally like the hands - i guess they do look a little funky but i really dont see it as a problem.
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[ken]

update:




katheryn, blindfish and imp head were kind enough to do paintovers for me on eatpoo, so i started out by layering the three paintovers lightly over my original. it's amazing how well this technique works. the enlarging process smoothed out some of the rough areas but also left the picture with a slight filtered look. i started reworking areas with the brush, hardening edges, and totally repainted her sleeves. they're still far from perfect. i spent more time on her eyes and hair, made her hands 3% smaller, and painted over them a bit. lastly, i added a green soft light layer.

her neck is still annoying my GREATLY. it's okay if you don't stare at it, but when you do, it looks totally wrong, especially compared with the arms.

-Ken
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[aColdOldKodiak]

When I cover her eyes with my finger, I see that the rest of her face looks real, while her eyes are still cartoony. Just an observation, I still like it as is.
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[Bg]

Did this overpaint few days ago, didn't have time to post it earlier.. and now you've fixed almost everyting I was going to crit (softer chair etc.) my main crit was that the lighting of the head doesn't match with the hands, and I would pay more attention to the eyes. Also if you want good cloth reference check out Spooge's pirate pics, he's the man!





All in all I Love the image and the drawing is beautiful & captivating! I think I'll go visit eatpoo now, to see if there's more great pics like this

(btw. I'm doing one alice in wonderland themed painting myself, the little beast you've painted at the end of the arm support )
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