http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/ dianae's gallery of images en-us 120 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/713140

HAPPY NEW YEAR !


Nimue, the Lady of the Lake

A personal version of this character from the Arthurian Legends.


I've been sick all night so I couldn't do anything but to stay at home for the New Year's Eve… I felt so frustrated that I spent all my night painting something personal (I had not done this for quite a long time ^^' )

This is also a pretext to try some new custom brushes I made and to experiment with abstract + "realism"

Photoshop CS3
7 or 8 hours
No reference used

Inspired by Ewa Karpinska, Gustav Klimt and Odilon Redon art.

If you don't know Ewa Karpinska, you should really check her artworks out ! She's an amazing painter who has a very unique way to use watercolours (she's also my boyfriend's mother so I've had the honour to see her paintings in real life, which really inspired me)



Brushes used for this painting please credit me in the description if you use them, these are for photoshop CS3

Wallpaper pack (many resolutions)





]]> Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:36:03 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/691483

Cinabre is the central piece of this tryptich (because of its warm color compared to the 2 other pieces which are using cold color schemes).

Its name comes from the french name of the cinnabar stone, which is considered both as a poison and a symbol of eternal life (it has been used as a drug of longevity and resurrection).

Cinnabar is also used as a pigment.

All these images are meant to look very stiff, icon-like and full of symbols (bugs, colors, stones…) and will be printed full size (200cm x 60cm) as door ornaments.

Original size : 7087px x 23622px , 300dpi
Photoshop CS3
Wacom Intuos 3A4
No direct reference used (ie : I didn't copy a photo) though I used many references for the peacock mantis, a real pomegranate on my desk and a mirror for the hands.
40 hours approximately.

You can see the WIP here

Some closeups (40% size)


EDIT : thank you very much for the frontpage plug ! What a big surprise when waking up today !

Since many people asked me what are the symbols in there, here's a very quick explanation.

She's red, color of fire, life, passion and blood. Yet, she's very pale and has "dead" skin. White has different meanings in different cultures yet it's almost often associated with calm/peace. I added green too, to enhance this opposition. The colors symbolize life duality.

The pomegranate is based on the myth of Persephone : it's a symbol of death and life too. Persephone ate 6 pomegranate seeds which caused the world to suffer winter.

The dice are meant to represent chance/fortune which are to me very important in life (I mean life in general, with its beginning and ending). I added the cards symbols (spade and heart) to enhance this aspect (heart = love. Quite easy ^^ spade = life, both soft and spiky, skull = death. Easy too )

She's wearing a very bright red dress full of feathers and some "light bulbs thingies" (some kind of metaphorical fire) which symbolize the phœnix : also associated with life and rebirth.

The cinnabar stone, as mentionned previously is associated with eternal life and death too.

The horns/antennaes are associated to Nature and insects (these are very organic). Insects have been associated with eternal life and death in many many cultures (Egyptian one for instance). Mosquitos carry fatal diseases and steal blood, beetles/scarabs carry eternal life, worms/flies are symbols of death…

This painting is full of dual symbols and tries to depict Life in general in a very iconic way, such as the two other pictures of the series.

By the way, one of my friends told me that the narrow shoulders bothered her a bit, do you think I should fix it ? The proportions are ok (7,5 heads can enter the whole body, the forearms are as long as the head, same for the hands which cover the whole head, etc…) but I made the shoulders quite narrow (a bit less than 2 heads) because I thought it was elegant… Is it really too much ?

Thanks for your looking ! Critiques, comments, etc… are very welcome !

Here's an animated WIP just for the fun :

]]> Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:20:29 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/706820

This is a quick illustration done for the december part of the DrowInside Calendar by Kanuka76 on DeviantART

Closeups (size : 55% except for the face which is 30%)

WIP steps

Photoshop CS3
Wacom Intuos 3A4
No reference
Original size : 3450px * 10630px, 300 dpi
18 hours approximately.

And now, time for a stupid cute story which adds nothing to the painting :
Lakkenäa is listening to Snowball telling her where she can adopt an other snowdragon (and a specific one by the way : he fell in love with a pretty she-dragon and wants her to be his girlfriend ! ), hence her little smile.
And no, she's not cold, there's some fire behind her and let's pretend she's using magic to feel warm (actually, I was quite tired when I started painting this so I guess my brain was not really working when I put an almost naked woman under snow… Maybe these "dark elves" don't feel cold ? *cough*I know, it's lame*cough*)

I hope you'll like it

I know it's still a bit sketchy, but I was already late to give it to Kanuka76 since the official deadline was over :/

I may refine it someday when I have free time though, so constructive critiques are very welcome ! ]]> Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:10:48 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/704180

This is the cover illustration for "Miranda and the Tiger's Eye" by author Sara Beacham.

This is a novel for children (8 - 12 years or age) which would greatly be appreciated by fans of Harry Potter, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, and the Spiderwick Chronicles.


Book Cover, front

Press Release


Photoshop CS3
45 hours approximately
References provided by Robin Beacham (the author's daughter).
Some textures from CGTextures

I was given total freedom for the background (it had to be jungle themed), but I had to follow my customer's sketch for the characters (their poses would have been different if it were up to me).
Please note that I didn't make the cover design, only the illustration !

Thanks a lot for looking

Some closeups (50% size)

]]> Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:00:19 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/647004

A very long time overdue artwork for my metal band, which will be used for posters / ads.

The character is Syllia (same as the name of the band).

She's meant to have huge eyes, proportions of both a child and a grown up person, and to be completely mad…
Actually, she's not a young girl, she's ageless, hence the weird proportions.


Details and WIP here
You can also find a very detailed description of this character there.

We'll be playing live on Saturday, so I had to finish this artwork in a hurry… I wish I could have had more free time…


Photoshop CS3,
Wacom intuos 3A4
No reference used, though I used a mirror for the lower part of the body and hands. I'm trying to practise anatomy as much as I can.
50/60h

It looks much better in real life… details have disappeared due to jpg compression, as usual. The most damaged part is the hair : there are no details anymore. The legs also look "dirty" while they look textured in the full version.


Thank you very much for viewing !


For more closeups please click the link above Thank you !]]> Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:07:18 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/619762

For the ones who already have seen this : It's my mistake! I have edited it, but couldn't fix the previous image (it didn't want to change on the gallery), so I've deleted it, I'm very sorry for the ones who had already seen it....

Anyway, thank you very very much for your help everybody, I reworked it according to your critiques!

Previous version can be seen here

This image had been done for a workshop for ImagineFX issue 26. Unfortunately, my old monitor broke at this time, so I had not been able to refine it. The magazine version is here

Again, I'm sorry for the ones who have already seen it...


Some details here (I have reworked eyes and lips though).

Photoshop CS3
50 hours approximately
Wacom intuos 3A4
No reference, I challenged myself trying to paint my boyfriend from memory, and I'm pleased with the likeness.

Image size : 8268px x 6248px, 300dpi

I know there still are some flaws, but I think I'm done with this one... Maybe I'll edit it some day, but I'm calling it done for now.

I hope you'll like it!
]]> Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:00:23 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/600114

Hi everybody!

I've finally found enough motivation to finish this piece.... (though I may fix some things later, I don't know... I'm just way too tired of this one for now!)

The story behind this painting is quite simple : the girl (you're free to find her a name if you want) is some kind of a noble witch, she was born blind then discovered that she had the power to see through the eyes of animals.
The serval cat she's holding is now "her eyes", he's bound to her (that's why he has human eyes).

I started this painting as a study to practise curly hair mostly and I ended up finishing it....

You can see the WIP thread here

Some closeups

More closeups


Photoshop CS3
Wacom Intuos 3A4
80 to 90 hours approximately (maybe less, maybe more... I can't remember...)

No direct reference used, but I googled some image of serval cats to create my own serval and I used a mirror for the right hand.

I hope you'll like it!
]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:42:14 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/545338

This is my entry for Saimain's contest on Medowhaven.

The characters are Faeren, a young elf knight and Snoots, his little enchanted pet. The theme of the contest was to depict the relationship between Faeren and the Forest of Illusions, since he's part of this forest.

I wanted to make him look as a tree and also live as a tree, growing after the rain.

I've had a lot of fun painting it, I hope you'll like it

Photoshop CS3
Wacom intuos 3A4
50 hours approx
No reference used (it has been challenging and fun to paint ^^ )

Please take a look at the CLOSEUPS, everything is lost in this version, there are lots of details that can't be seen in small size.

You can see the whole progress HERE

Faeren and Snoots belong to Adele.

]]> Mon, 01 Oct 2007 02:14:22 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/578172

Please full-view it, the small version makes it look blurry :(

Do you recognize her? She's Jessica Rabbit from the movie "Who framed Roger Rabbit?"

If you have not seen it, go watch it right now

This is my own interpretation, I know she's meant to be a cartoon, but I wanted to make her look a bit more real... just for fun. I know her dress is meant to be shorter. By the way.... she's not bad. I've just painted her that way.

Photoshop CS3 as usual, lots of hours spent on it (approx 25 I think) with my beloved wacom intuos 3A4

youtube video (this is the video I used as a reference to paint her)

Closeups

Lineart for the ones who would like to color it (please don't forget to link to my profile and also send me a link if you color it and post it somewhere. This is for non commercial use only!) : click here!

My photoshop brushes (all the photoshop brushes I'm using)

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!]]> Mon, 31 Dec 2007 04:36:08 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/565969

EDIT : Here's the tutorial, with all the links to the videos, my brushes, and some other nice stuff. I don't know if it can be useful, but I hope you'll like it!



Hello everybody!

Here's my new painting, I had promised a long time ago that I would write a tutorial on how to paint a portrait without using reference so here's the base image. I had started doodling something for the daily sketch forum capturing the process while painting (theme "pretty things") then I have decided to finish it and to make a tutorial out of it. I'm writing it, I think that I'll finish it during the weekend then I'll post it on my blog if some of you are interested in this technique.

I know that everything looks blurry except the face, it is just a base image for a tutorial I may edit it later, although I really don't have time at the moment, maybe next year or at least after Christmas time.

I have enjoyed painting it a lot, I hope you'll like it too! It has been challenging because I wanted to make her look half Asian and half european, which is not as easy as I thought (I don't know if I have succeded in it, but I like her eyes and expression) and also because it is a very unusual color scheme for me. Her face is painted (she is some kind of a young Geisha) so her skin may look unusual.
I will make the videos available on youtube as soon as my computer has finished encoding them.

Oh, and Hanagumori means "late spring where blossom haze.
" (thanks a lot to *gohodoshi on Deviantart for the translation!!!)

Quick WIP animation :




Closeups (100% size)

Photoshop CS3
Wacom intuos 3A4
12 hours approximately
No reference used

Edit : GO CHECK THIS OUT!! It just rocks Thanks Andrew for doing such a funny sketch inspired of this painting ^^ ]]> Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:19:17 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/567511

This painting is a collab I did with Aaron Sikstrom aka Seethrou

He did the lineart, I colored it.

His original drawing can be seen in here

You can see the painting process here

It is the most time consuming painting I have EVER done! I spent 142 hours on it, I lost the file 3 times and I have finally found the motivation to finish it today because it was just making me nervous and feeling guilty because I had planned to finish it ages ago. Now it's done!!! Wheee!!

I hope you'll like it (and I know it's not realistic, the anatomy, lighting, water, skin, plants, etc... are full of "artistic freedom")

Some details here]]> Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:16:20 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/541317

After a lot of work, I'm now calling it done

Pan is the god of Nature, Selene is the goddess of Moon. In the Greek mythology, Pan has seduced Selene offering her white oxen.
I liked this myth so I've decided to paint it, I hope you'll like it!

Please full view if for details! Everything is lost in the preview version. Click it for a larger version

Photoshop CS3,
20 hours,
No reference used (Pan has ended looking a bit like my boyfriend, I must have painted him too much ^^)

More about Pan and Selene here

WIP Thread


If you have some time, please check THIS out and let me know what you think of it (it's my rock band new demo) ]]> Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:32:22 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/531168

A very old painting I've finally finished
It has been time consuming and I'm still not totally satisfied with it (in fact, I'm never satisfied with my paintings ^^)

Work in progress
Details

I hope you'll like it, crits and comments are very welcome

I'm sorry for not being very active here, I'm very busy so I can't comment on artworks as much as I would like to...

Photoshop CS3
Wacom intuos 3A4
60 hours approx
No reference used

I may fix it someday ]]> Mon, 20 Aug 2007 20:34:59 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/587418

This is for Nekro who won 2nd place in the Fall Contest. He requested me to paint my own vision of his world : "13 Inches", so I have chosen to paint his Key Master character.

Photoshop CS3
Wacom Intuos 3A4
12 hours approximately.

The original file looks much better than this small web optimized version. All the details and textures are lost unfortunately...
Anyway, I've had a lot of fun painting it, It's a very interesting character and you should really check out Nekro's gallery if you have not already done so.

I hope you'll like it ! ]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:17:27 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/524678

This painting has been done for a tutorial I'm writing for psd magazine.
It's another mermaid, but I've done it on purpose since lots of people had asked me how to paint see creatures/hair/translucent skin/gills (I've tried to put all these things in one picture).
I hope you'll like it
The composition may look unusual and a little bit empty but since I'm planning to use it as a wallpaper (you can also download it to use it as a wallpaper if you like it), I've put some "empty space" (not really empty, but dark enough to avoid being too distracting) on the right part.
Enjoy

Photoshop CS3,
Wacom Intuos 3A4
20 hours approx

Reference]]> Wed, 01 Aug 2007 17:10:28 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/520766

Hi people !

Finally, I've finished my entry for the Poison Ivy Challenge runned by Pamzylove on deviantart.

I've spent a lot of time on it, I don't like this colour scheme so it has been very challenging. I must have redone the face and hands at least 500 times....
I hope you'll like it

Feel free to comment and crit! (I don't think that I'll edit it though, I'm tired of painting her...except for minor edits)

No reference used, except for the poison ivy leaves, I've at looked at some photos of them using google image to see how they looked like.
I'm trying to learn to paint without references, I think that it's a good exercise. I'm not totally satisfied but it may be a matter of time and practise

The anatomy must be totally off but I've really tried... I'll do better next time!

Photoshop CS2, wacom intuos 3A4
40 hours approx.]]> Sat, 21 Jul 2007 15:29:57 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/516921

This painting is a concept for a videogame project about Atlantis. The characters are Atlas, the king of Atlantis and a Nereid : Dione.
It had to be a little bit similar to "Deep Sea Creature" because this one has become part of the game aswell (so I've added the same features on the faces under the eyes, a similar composition, etc...)
This is some kind of a "speed painting" (10 hours...) and yeah, I know about the blurry hand... boo boo, it's ugly ^^ I'll fix it when I have more time so it's a little bit messy...
I had to meet a deadline so I've not had time to make it look better and I'm a little bit too busy at the moment to work more on it.
Comments and crits are most welcome, I may update this image soon
Photoshop CS and my beloved wacom, my bf used as a ref for Atlas face and a mirror for the Nereid's face (each member of the team will be converted into one of the game characters and since my name is very similar to the one of this Nereid, I've painted myself as her More coming soon! )
By the way, we're still searching for 3D artists/musicians, etc, so if you're interested, just send me a message
Thanks for viewing!
]]> Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:41:31 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/516216

Hi !
First of all, I'm sorry for having been away for so long, I've been very very busy, so I've not really had time to paint or comment on artworks, it may change soon though since I'm going to have some free time.

About the painting : this is a character design for a personal project, it was meant to look like some kind of a mix between various animals (lemur eyes, sheep horns, some kind of bat wings looking hands, etc...) and human being, I hope you'll like it.

Photoshop CS, wacom intuos 3A4, 50 hours approx, no refs used.

Feel free to comment and crit

Details]]> Sun, 08 Jul 2007 22:40:20 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/460204

Hi artists!

This painting has no particular meaning, I had just started doing a hair painting tutorial then I've finished the sketch I had done...
Nothing special

Please note that it's a quickie compared to my other works so it may look a little bit rushed (I've spent 7 hours on it).

No refs used, I've had a hard time figuring the hand... it still looks off but since it's not something I had planned to paint nicely, I don't really care

C&C are very welcome!

The tutorial can be viewed here so you can see how different is the final image

Edit : I've spent some more time on it (4 more hours), it didn't look good so I've tried to fiw some flaws (there are still flaws but I prefer this version).

I hope you'll like it!

Details can be seen here (baaad quality due to the jpg compression :( )]]> Tue, 06 Feb 2007 00:12:37 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/451632

Hi artists Happy New Year!

This is my new painting, "Morgan le Fay", based on the Arthurian Legend.

Morgan le Fay was an enchantress who practised lots of sciences and knew how to make poison (the little bottle she's holding contains poison. The moths are meant to represent the souls of her victims, attracted by poison - you can see some sparkling dust around them, coming from the bottle)

It was meant to be just a lighting exercise at first (I was playing with my wacom and a mirror) but I liked the colours so I've decided to turn it into a painting.

Photoshop CS and my wacom

35 hours approx

no real refs used (I've just taken a look at some nightshots of streets, you can see them in the WIP thread located HERE ).
I've used a mirror as mentionned above. The hand was the hardest part to make, it's still not perfect (there are some flaws in the painting but I was tired to work on it so I've called it done) but I've really tried.
The tones are brown and green on purpose, the lightsources are candles (and a little bit of magical light, she's a sorceress ) so there's no real diversity in the colours and the contrast is not very high.

Btw, the internet optimised jpg compression looks very very bad, I've lost all the details in this version :( the contrast of the lights was better, the hair was more detailed, the skin had some texture but I can see nothing of that in this version....

lighter version for dark monitors

details

I hope you'll like it, crits and comments are very welcome!]]> Mon, 15 Jan 2007 20:16:29 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/400448

Mermaids have been lots of times described as beautiful and kind creatures. But that's not the way they are described in mythology. They are said to be crual winged creatures that turned into a crual mix between human beings and fish. They were singing to attract sailors then they eat them.

This is my own version of a mermaid/siren, a deep sea creature using photophore to attract preys.

Photoshop CS and a wacom intuos 3A4

No reference used (only doing some google search to see how the photophore of the anglerfish looks like)

30 hours approx.

You can see details here and the whole painting process there

Crits and comments are most welcome! ]]> Sat, 02 Sep 2006 23:30:15 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/376693

Each night, he comes on Earth. He comes, following the nightmares way through the stars. Nightmares are there, waiting in the fog of this dark road. They try to reach his hands. He'll take one of them, the others will have to try again each following night.

Just a quick story

I've done it with no idea of what I would do at first, it was just a bad quick sketch that has become a painting. It was the first time I was painting spacescapes, it's very hard to do but I'm quite pleased with the result.

No reference used here.

I've only taken a look at my left hand when I was drawing for the nightmares hands(then I flipped some of them horizontally.... lazy me!)

I hope you'll like it, it has been hard to paint but it was interesting since it's the first time I was doing something like that.

If you think that some parts could be improved, please tell me, I would like to fix the flaws. All crits are very very welcome!

Photoshop CS and a wacom intuos 3A4, approx 40 hours.
Thanks for viewing!

You can take a look at the whole progress here

Thanks a lot to everybody who has helped me in the WIP thread!]]> Sun, 02 Jul 2006 21:21:50 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/372709

Hi artists!

I've always been fascinated by a strange mushroom called Clathrus Ruber. It was meant to be used by witches some centuries ago because of it's strange aspect and because it's very smelly. This mushroom produces a very dark cream (that's the smelly part) that contains its seeds. This "cream" is eaten by green flies mostly, that's the reason why I've added flies on the "dress".

When I was a child, I thought that it was built by small forest creatures (I would not have admitted that it was ONLY a mushroom due to all the legends about it and due to its aspect) so I've wanted to represent what I was dreaming about. I can't really explain it as I would like since my english is not very good.

I think that I've spent 50 or 60 hours on it (I don't know exactly).

Photoshop CS and Wacom Intuos 3A4

The ref is linked in the WIP thread but I'm going to link it here too. I had picked some Solanum Dulcamara flowers in the forest then put them in a glass of water on my desktop to use them as a reference.

I really need to find a model that would like to pose for me because I'm a little bit tired of painting my face, so if you're interested, please tell me

WIP thread

Details

Reference

Grid method used as you can see in the WIP thread.]]> Wed, 21 Jun 2006 16:58:06 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/389860

It's Fire, the second piece of my elements serie. The first one is Sea Dancers - Water ( I'll rework it since it looks flat and a little bit sketchy compared to the fire one )

I've wanted to use magma instead of fire because I consider it as more "natural" since human beings can't really create magma (at least, not totally the same as the volcano's one). The horns symbolise her power, she's not meant to be an evil creature but since volcanos are feared by humans, they often associate it to evil forces. It may look "cliché" but I've enjoyed painting it, it has been a challenge to paint hot glowing lava.

I dedicate it to Rachael , she's the beautiful model of this picture.

You can checkout the WIP thread here

Reference

Face closeup

This kind of liquid lava is called pahoehoe, if you want to see how it looks like in real life, click here

Photoshop CS and a wacom intuos 3A4, approx 35 hours (maybe more). Everything has been painted with a round hard edged brush. I've also used round soft brush for the glow. I'll try to do a tutorial if some of you are interested in it

Crits are very welcome!]]> Sat, 05 Aug 2006 12:31:59 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/362309

This painting is part of a project I'm actually working on about the 4 elements. This one is Water.

Everything has been painted from scratch in photoshop CS. About 10 or 15 hours.

References used for the face and body.
Everything else is imagination.

Thanks a lot to Link for the wonderful stock image he provides!

Body reference : Link

Alternate Version (green one) : Link

WIP : Link

References : Link

Closeups : Link


I hope you'll like it!

All critiques and comments are very welcome to help me improve.
]]> Fri, 26 May 2006 05:25:11 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/470072

A quickie I had started yesterday and I have finished tonight. It's a speedpainting compared to my other works
I've spent 8 hours on it so I couldn't do a very detailed work.

Different from my usual "sad ladies with long dress" paintings ^^

It's some kind of a "commissioned" work (though I've only done it for fun for a friend who wanted to look like a pirate)

I've used a grid for proportions to make it look similar to the photo (small one unfortunately so it has been a little bit difficult)
then I've put the photo on the top in the end to fix the proportions issues and I've been surprised to see that the grid method was far from being perfect! (I was tired though ^^) My friend wanted an almost photorealistic image so I had to match the reference as close as possible (it was very small though...)

Clothes, ropesand background are from imagination, I've taken a look at some moon pics to make it look right.

I've worked on 3 layers : one for the bg, one for the figure and one for the ropes.

I hope you'll like it

C&C are welcome!

WIP
Reference]]> Sat, 03 Mar 2007 21:55:34 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/458532

Hi artists!!
This painting is a collab with Aaron aka seeThrou.

He did the original drawing. It can be found here : http://seethrou.gfxartist.com/artworks/125386

It has been very fun to paint though I had stopped working on it for a very long time (I had started it some months ago and just finished it yesterday)...

Photoshop CS and my wacom,
25 hours approx

Thanks Aaron for this collab, it has been very fun and challenging

I hope you'll like it, feel free to crit

The colours may look too light or not saturated enough, I've tried to calibrate my monitor LOTS of time, but it doesn't seem to work well...

The closeup contains "explicit" stuff (the little sleeping thingie is nude) so if you're afraid of seing a naked thing, don't click it ]]> Thu, 01 Feb 2007 10:31:06 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/467552

This one may be the most time consuming piece I've ever done...(and I don't think that I'll do it again, I had started to hate it in the end ^^)
This is part of a serie I'm doing with my best friend about celebrations (Christmas, Valentine's day, etc....), this is actually the first painting of the serie. She's doing the 2nd one, then I'll do the 3rd, etc...

It's about some persons who can harm people who love them then and being lonely and cold, searching for a heart to take, blinded by they feelings, trying to "hunt" for a "love prey"... I don't know if it's very clear...

The tree is a human hearts tree (that may be a little bit erm... gross, I don't know... I just felt like painting real hearts so here's the result ^^).
The peacock feathers symbolise pride and also bad luck. The eyes... well, she's blind ^^
The snow leopard is meant to symbolise her "hunter" behaviour (now blind aswell), the fact that she's sitting on a tree is meant to represent how lonely she feels (and it's also a nice place to search for hearts, remember )

I know that she's breathing against the wind, but making breath right looked wrong so I'm gonna call this thingie "artistic freedom".
The lighting is typical flat snowy weather lighting so there's not a lot of volume.

Photoshop CS and my beloved wacom
50 hours approx.
Ref used for the body and I've taken a look at some snow leopard shots (google is my friend!) to remember how they look like.
No refs for the fabric so it's totally off but I don't really care since this image is not intended to be realistic (I've never seen a heart tree )
I don't know what else to say... I hope you'll enjoy this image, feel free to crit
Thanks for viewing!

There are 2 versions. The compo and colours have changed. The jpg compression has totally destroyed it unfortunately...The dress looks very flat and monochromic compared to the psd version, I can't find a way to make it look right, it looks even worse everytime I try to edit it :(


Closeups
Previous version
WIP Thread
Reference
]]> Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:40:20 +0000 http://dianae.cgsociety.org/gallery/362795

This painting is the latest version of a character I had designed for a GFXartist challenge game. It's now part of a personal project.

Previous one : Link

Personal references used for the hypericum flower and for the face. Other elements are imagination.

References : Link
Link

Closeups : Link

Painted in Photoshop CS.
Wacom intuos 3A4
About 60 hours.

Unfortunately, the jpg compression has flattened it. I've tried to edit it using the levels, but it's not as good as the psd file.
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