Comp 1.1 Level Up Coursework - TKaney - Donatello Self Portrait Study

After a long bout of not posting, I finally got a new study uploaded here. I don't like making excuses for myself normally, but I had toiled for hours on a Van Eyck study using Krita. Due to the system's and software it uses, when my laptop went to power saving mode, that file got corrupted and was unrecoverable. Sadness. Then, I searched for another program, and found Gimp and this took less time to get a decent enough result. I know it is not perfect, and I am really trying to let it be what it is which is an 1 or 2 study of the light and comp. Due to learning new software, once again, while doing this, my personal satisfaction is not high, but satisfactory. Oh, and did I mention I was out a week due to my old wacom bamboo pen and tablet going down as well? Yeah. Now I have a much nicer Intuos Art Medium. Way better.

So this is a study of Donatello Self Portrait. Whether from wear or style or both, the image is not the best from which I was working. There are a lot of middle values that mix with borders and edges. However, as with what seems to have been a sign of the times, much of the sharpness, contrast, and details focuses on or near the eyes, nose, and mouth. Likely, back then, it was important for others to use that focal point to express the identity of the subject of the portrait. There is a companion to that focus in the economy, low contrast, etc being used outside the main face and focal points. The use of these items portrays Donatello as a wizened old craftsman with years of labor, toil, and effort under him, while still having the eyes send a message of wisdom and knowing.

A fun process all in all, if not tiring, redeveloping my entire workflow, losing hours of work, and recovering from hardware failure. Whew. On to the next.

Another note: I see I forgot to fill the one I did with a black background as when I saved it the background turned white and is in some places visible in the dark areas where it should not be. Lesson learned with this. Only noticeable when saved out into a jpeg.

Read more: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php/323878-Comp-1-1-TKaney-Donatello-Self-Portrait-Study#ixzz4Db2fMFC5