My Boys

[Ken Babcock]

MY IMAGE(S):
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Critiques/upload_spool/05-09-2010/32516_Boys_Painting_-_Small.jpg


GENERAL INFORMATION:
Title: My Boys
Year Created:
Medium: Digital
Surface: Canvas
Dimension: 12x18
Allow digital alterations?: No, please :)

MY COMMENTS:
Digital painting I did yesterday of my boys

MY QUESTIONS FOR THE GROUP:
No questions

[tgsloth]

Ken, this forum is for "traditional" media. Wet Canvas has a digital art forum where you'll get a bigger and more informed response to your art. Terrific image, by the way.

[Ken Babcock]

Thanks.

I know the forum is for more traditional styles, but I figured my digital paintings look more like traditional paintings than digital.

If I didn't state it was digitally created, I'd bet most would think it was an oil painting.

[tlmarchi]

At first glance I was ready to throw my brushes and paints in the trash! But knowing it's a digital design, I think I'll hold onto them a little longer! :) Good lookin' boys by the way.

[Ken Babcock]

Thanks - I think. :)

It's not a digital design. That makes me think of someone taking a photograph and adding Photoshop filters over top of the photograph. I don't do that. There are no filters used at all in my digital paintings. In fact, it's probably harder to paint in Photoshop than traditionally, and I know cause I do both.

The process is the exact same as a traditional painting. Begin with a blank canvas and sketch the subject(s). Then build layer upon layer of paint. Same thing, just different tools. My tablet and pen is the same as my brush. My tablet is sensitive to the amount of pressure I apply, just like a real brush is. Rather than mixing paint on my palette, I have to mix it digitally, which takes longer.

I should paint this with oils. I'll bet you won't be able to tell the difference between my two styles of painting.

[Margaretta]

Now I'm really smiling....beautiful boys and a great contrast to that dark love triangle!:cat: The foliage is so detailed and fine as are the boys' faces etc. The method is intriguing me more as the results are awesome but a huge amount of skill must be required to produce your work and a whole lot of practice.....am I too old to start? :)

(Had a rethink about the car after what you said.....OK I'd be happy to fly in it!:wink2: :thumbsup: )

[Ken Babcock]

You're never too old to start anything. Heck, I'm 34 and just starting things now. Although I was only about 7 or so when I did begin to paint.

Yeah the car was a bit different, but was painted exactly how my client expressed how he wanted it. As long as the client is happy then I am too :)

[Bis007]

Is there a reference photo?

[tgsloth]

You argue that digital painting is harder. Not when it comes to brush cleaning!

[Ken Babcock]

There is a reference photo, yes. I don't have it on this computer I'm on right now though.

Ahhh brush cleaning. I still do that. I'm not totally a digital painter; I still paint with oils and acrylic too. Visions of Bob Ross slapping the 2" blender brush dry while covering everyone. hahaha

[Lindzarelli]

With all due respect, it does look like a digital manipulation.

[Ken Babcock]

Sorry, wasn't manipulated at all. No Photoshop filters used either.

Doesn't matter, I know that I did it and that's all that really matters.

[TScottDove]

Ken, I think many of us are just unfamiliar with the digital painting process. I, for one, just assumed one started with a scanned or digitized photo. (Either way I'm impressed as the whole drawing-on-a-pad-yet-looking-at-a-screen still confounds me.) Do you have any in-progress images? Even some close-up shots would be interesting to see.

As for composition, the boys make up approximately 1/6th of the entire piece. I might have thrown the balance more to the subjects and less about the background.

[Bis007]

Ken, I think many of us are just unfamiliar with the digital painting process. I, for one, just assumed one started with a scanned or digitized photo. (Either way I'm impressed as the whole drawing-on-a-pad-yet-looking-at-a-screen still confounds me.) Do you have any in-progress images? Even some close-up shots would be interesting to see.

As for composition, the boys make up approximately 1/6th of the entire piece. I might have thrown the balance more to the subjects and less about the background.Ken, I have to agree with TScott! IMO i think it was a photo and it was manipulated digitally - leaving the face- it is easy to blur and use the various tools for the foliage. Have ask for a ref, and agreed there was one-I do not doubt your skill- but it obvious especially when the boys's face remain untouch. Maybe you can supply a larger version of this. (I think you forgot to blur the front foilage). Nice work :wave:



Nice painting of your boys. They are the cutest.

[Ken Babcock]

Sorry guys, but again, absolutely no filters or blurring used. Only brushes and colors. I realize the kids look a little small, but when I wrap the canvas around 1.5" stretcher bars I'll lose 3" in each direction so the kids will be more in focus. Done intentionally.

Here are a couple of closeups showing the brushstrokes. Oh, and the kids' faces ARE painted, just hard to see in that image.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-May-2010/32516-Caleb_Closeup.jpg

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-May-2010/32516-Foliage_Closeup.jpg

[Ken Babcock]

I'll try posting the original again in a larger version.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-May-2010/32516-Boys_Painting_-_Small.jpg

[TScottDove]

You and Bis007 misunderstood me, Ken. I said I just assumed you started with a photo, and was intrigued to learn that you did not. That's why I asked to see more images.

[Ken Babcock]

Does it make more sense now with the closeups?

That is the largest size I can post here of the entire image, I'm right at the size limit.

BTW - that foliage closeup is taken from the area in front of my oldest son's legs - where you thought it was a photograph that I forgot to blur, Bis007.

[greensyster]

Coming from an IT professional background, software over wetware is always an interesting debate for me. You have technically wedded the two and with skill.

To give a critique on the medium I think I would have to allow that digital doesn't have the historical record of traditional methods. der! :) I work exclusively in professional oils on stretched canvas for example and use the methods that allowed paintings to survive pretty much anything including rotting canvas (roll off with the gesso backing and attach to new canvas - voila!) With your medium, any good hacker could break it and change it and in a sense there is no one original cos your data is pristine each time it is copied - ie each is an original.


To come full circle then to your chosen medium, the question has to be posed - why use a transient medium? I can think of 14 without breaking a sweat so I figure you have your reasons and I am not to judge those, but to comment on the image you produced.

Lost you yet? :)

Composition is interesting and the diagonals of the fence and road work well.

The foliage is well done but needs red in it cos as is, it is over-poweringly green. Violets and reds live in all greens.

The boys skins are very grey - don't know what RGB you mix but in oils I use lemon cad, aliziron crimson and phthalo green to get a base for Caucasian flesh - and with lads then even a tad more warmth in the appropriate areas.

The eyes are crossing each other in direction - two boys to the left one boy to the right - as the viewer looks almost first at eyes this is a no-go for me in this portrait.As it is so up front and personal and the boys and relaxed and happy could you not have one looking strait at the viewer?

The clothing is brilliantly done!!!!

[lunchbox]

Both sons being in the engineer design process, I know how difficult and how skilled you are. Oh the hours... This is beautifully done, and you have the advantage of zooming in that I wish these old eyes could do. As much as I see the edges softened, there is still an 'edge' if you will between transfers of color. It then appears sometimes more layered than blended. This is not a bad thing, it is merely the genre of this style. Well done!

[Ken Babcock]

Thanks.

I hope the closeups that clearly depict the brushstrokes put to rest any ideas that I "manipulated" a photograph using filters/blur tools etc... I consider that to be "digitally altering" a photograph, and in some cases it might have it's place. But it isn't what I do and I would consider my style to be "digital painting". My canvas is my wacom tablet and my brush is my wacom pen.

Now that this has been cleared up, I think I'll post more work.

[Margaretta]

The more I think about this method the more difficult I think it must be! Ken, to your horror and amusement the only thing remotely like this I could ever remember using was my daughter's toy: a Magnadoodle!!!! It was almost impossible to control the 'pixels' properly as with a whiteboard which is not calibrated. Painting with a sort of stylus brush on a slidey screen would be my idea of a nightmare so you have done a great job. Where could we see a photo of the actual piece of technology please? :)

[Ken Babcock]

Margaretta,

I use a Wacom Intuous 4 tablet with pen. It is pressure sensitive, meaning if I press lightly on a stroke I get hardly any paint coming off, same as a traditional brush. If I press firmly then the stroke becomes more defined with more colour.

If you Google Wacom Intuous 4 you will find the tablet.

It was a nightmare to learn how to use it especially while blending strokes. Obviously a digital canvas in not wet like a traditional canvas is when painting with oils, so there is definitely a learning curve trying to blend colours without that wetness available.

Hopefully I can start selling some of these after I've printed them on canvas. Gotta wait for more canvas to arrive, I'm all out. Poor printer is sitting there waiting.

[Margaretta]

Thanks for that Ken. Fascinating technology. I would love to try this but would like the biggest one! :angel: Think I'll have to wait a few Christmases!!:cat: Could never give up oils now that I have just found them again but this would be another dimension, another challenge. Do post more works.:wave:

[Ken Babcock]

I still use my oils too. This is just something different I wanted to try, and apparently I'm pretty good at it so I kept doing it.

I will definitely post more work, but it has to be later. I'm on the way to the hospital. My wife broke her leg at work yesterday and visiting hours is just about here.

Will post more tonight though. :)

[MvdLinden]

digital or not "hand" painted or not the composition relies too much on the photo, and is frankly weak. You boys are undoubtedly full of spirit and that should the center of focus for such a work.

try a crop that engages the viewer to consider the spirit of the boys and not one that promotes the surroundings

try depth of focus and range of values that is more like what the human eye sees and less what a camera relates..

[justjean]

IMHO I think it looks great, and I like how the boys eyes appear,as a mom of 3 boys I know the looks well :lol: the small one looks like he is teasing his middle brother who is taking it all in fun and the older boy (as older brothers will ) is just ignoring the pair :D

If there is NO part of the original painting in your work you would be welcome over in Painters Alley

[Crowwoman]

If there is NO part of the original painting in your work you would be welcome over in Painters Alley

Amen, I agree...only if this is not a paintover..photo manip..filters...etc. As digital painters...it is easy to spot..
~!~Crowie