Illustration: Model in profile

I have been itching paint something in colour again for a while in Krita. I finally got some time to over theist week or so. It took a longer time than normal to sketch it out... the fingers were a confusing mess but also what I thought made it more interesting. 

I did my current technique of a solid colour silohuette and then added blocks of colour for shading and highlights, getting more detailed each pass until it looked ready to blend the colours into more natural tones. This seems to make it go quicker, maybe because this approach lets me see problems before doing tons of details and having to redo them. 

The guy wasn't the best of people, to be honest, but he made a decent model. He knew what he was selling but made the mistake of thinking everyone was looking to buy it. 

Illustration: Shane

 

Made with Procreate. My first finished drawing of the new year. I learned a little more of the procreate basics, like how to set opacity and blending modes. I still don't like using smudge as a blending tool very much. it's hard to control and I am spoiled by the multiple blending options in Krita. Doing the freckles was a nice challenge to figure out. Another from an old photoshoot sitting in a folder on the desktop. 

Illustration: David dance o2

 This was different sort of challenge. The reference photo was a scan from a session I did almost 30 years ago of a print that had been damaged by water. The negative and the prints are long gone and the paper used was textured so while I loved the pose, it wasn't something I could use anywhere. So I thought turning it into an illustration wit Krita might be a good way to "resurrect it". 

Another challenge was that the reference was black and white and I wanted it to be colour. Luckily the dancer was a good friend and even rented my spare room for a time so I had other photos of him that showed off is skin tones to work from. 

The graphic element in the background seemed make him stand out more than just a solid colour would. 

Illustration: Michael stretch

 Procreate, digital pen and ink with digital white pencil. Another from the vaults. I went back and forth over keeping his tattoo and decided it added to the drawing. There are many more little dots in this than you can possible imagine. I also tried the smudge tool in procreate which I have had issues figuring out. It's good for blending colours as I have found out and that was the missing piece for me to try a colour painting in Procreate. So... I guess I should try that soon. 

Illustration: Sterch 02

Another inspired from my catalog of old images sitting in folders. I think this has a more natural paint look to it. I added a more "studio portrait" backdrop than I usually do. 

illustration: David 01

 

Procreate ink and white pencil. The reference for this was from a series of photos that I took almost 30 years ago with my friend David who was dancer and taught colour guard to high school students. Sadly most of the negatives disappeared before I could scan them so I only have scans of finished photos printed on textured paper so they don't look so great. I have at least one more that might be better now as a drawing and "redeem" my old photos somehow. We had a lotto fun and he was so great as a model, I wish I knew what happened to him. 

Illustration: Paul torsion assise

 A bit of skin in my last 2 drawings I guess. This was from 20+ year old references as well and the quality was better than my recent diver references but still somewhat degraded. I had quite a few of them this time so I think I got more out of this one. You don't find many guys with muscles as defined as this. 

I did have to change the pose and some details slightly. This was mostly for clarity of the image. A few toes from the crossed over leg were really distracting and there was a hint of penis which is not something that I would normally hide but it took me some time to even know that was what it was. I also removed his tan line. To be honest it was pretty sexy looking but, again, distracting from the pose. I thought emphasis was on the shoulders and back, not his butt. 

Paul in crow

I am thinking of making this into a series. I'll need a nude male model who can do all sorts of yoga positions,  however.