Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Deadwood - Rex's Close-up...

Sorry for missing last Wednesday's post. I got tied up with a few work-related issues.

However, I actually did do some Deadwood art last week... but this time for someone else.  The publisher's of my 3D software were sponsoring a Portrait Contest, so I decided to continue my work with Rex and post it over at the Daz3D Web site. I'm not going to provide a link to the contest because you have to be a registered member of the forum to see it -- and I really don't think most of you are interested in registering for a forum just to see two images that I'm going to post here.

Rex -- Maybe he's had a little
too much moonshine?

This first WIP (Work In Progress) image that I created was trying to "show a little bit of crazy" in his eyes, but that actually became the problem. You see, I captured the crazy, but because I started with the image of him looking over his shoulder, his eyes didn't come out with an even expression. It just seemed a little off to me, so I redrew his eyes looking straight ahead (more or less). This just combined to make this an okay picture, but not a great one.


Rex - A little calmer... and maybe a little grumpier.

So I revisited the image and made some changes. I was in a time crunch, so I removed the mug of coffee from his hand (I had issues parenting it to his hand -- something all 3D artists recognize as a pain in the you-know-what). And I also changed his expression.

Unfortunately, I think I tamed him down too much. This a nice image, but it kind of lacks the immediacy and sheer character of the first one I did. In this one, however, I do like the way i combined the crosscut filter with the color better than I did with the straight b&w crosscut effect I used above.

As usual, the postwork effects were created in Photoshop with Flaming Pear's India Ink filter. I believe Filter Forge has a similar filter/plug-in, but I have not used it.

I haven't heard from the contest people at Daz, but I don't expect to win anything. This was really just an exercise and a chance to get some work out there.