Still life - with two light sources

[philwms]

This is my first post in the still life section -- a digital painting done using a Wacom drawing tablet and the beta version of Photoshop 7. I've put some links to details of the picture below it.

<center><img src="http://www.eyewoo.com/show2/still_pshop7/image_sml.jpg"></center>

<a href="http://www.eyewoo.com/show2/still_pshop7/detail1.jpg" target="still">Detail 1</a>

<a href="http://www.eyewoo.com/show2/still_pshop7/detail2.jpg" target="still">Detail 2</a>

<a href="http://www.eyewoo.com/show2/still_pshop7/detail3.jpg" target="still">Detail 3</a>

[walden]

It's a beautiful work. Normally I don't comment on digital work, because I know absolutely NOTHING about it, but I'm breaking my rule because this is so lovely. How long did it take you? Did you work from life or from a photograph?

[philwms]

Lisa... thanks for breaking your rule and commenting... very much appreciated.

I set up the still life and then make a digital photo of it. Next I generally - but not always - modify the photo in the graphics program, Adobe Photoshop... accentuating or demphasising light and moving the objects around a bit here and there. For example, the candle did not stand up high enough, so I added a bit of height to it... and the red pepper in the back was too far left, so I moved it right just a bit...

Then I make a very simple line tracing of the elements - no color - and begin digitally painting using a digital tablet and pen. After the initial composition is laid out with the lines, I eyeball a reference photo for all the digital painting... I say that just to point out that the image is not an over painted photograph.

There are many ways to approach a digital painting. I have a tutorial on my website that explains how I work. If you're interested, take a look... It's at <a href="http://www.eyewoo.com/show2/tut_01/index.html" target="tut">www.eyewoo.com/show2/tut_01/index.html</a>

[walden]

That was interesting-- thank you. :)

[Javier]

This is a beautiful still life.

It must have taken you many hour of work to get the kind of detail that is shown. Really like the high lights.

Thanks for the positing, I have enjoyed the viewing.

[terilyn]

Philip- Abosutely amazing! I had no idea that it was possible to paint digitly, producing works that take my breath away.
I checked out your turtorial and have definitely become a fan of this style of painting (of course, not giving up what I enjoy the most - painting with the ol' brush on canvas). It's opened up a new door for me.
Thank you for you inspiration.

-Teri Lyn-

[philwms]

Thanks for the comments... and Teri, yours was particular appreciated. There are still a whole lot of folks in the art world who do not consider digital painting as being real artwork. Its changing, but slowly...

There's a wonderful resource website for people seeking a portrait painter at http://www.portraitartist.com/ . I asked them to look at my online portfolio. The person running the site emailed back that she thought my work was superb. She made it clear that she really liked it, but she said they had a policy stating they would absolutely not deal with digital artwork... It's really too bad when a place of that caliber has that attitude... Hopefully it will change...