Last Painting of the Year

Not really part of Beauties and Beasties but this is a tradition for me - The Last Painting of the year. Before the year is over, I try to create one more artwork. Sometimes they are just doodles but this year I decided on doing an oil painting.

I do have a slightly different style when painting in oil...

Art in Progress

I don't have a title for this one yet - as a matter of fact, I don't even have a clue where this is going....

"Monkey Wrench Wench"

Done! What do you know? I actually added elements in the painting that kinda made sense... To me anyway.

Expecting

Ok so here is my painting process from start to finish... Remember that if you are going to paint something, make sure there is more to the piece than prettiness. It's great if you have the skill but if your work does not say anything then what is the point? Checkout this guy's work: http://bnolin.deviantart.com. Amazing skills! I wish I can paint like that but what else is there after the audience get past the skill of the artist?

Initial sketch

Refining the sketch and the idea

Let's start shading!

I pasted a picture in the painting for reference since the arm position in the picture is similar.

More shading and color...

Background is added. I wanted a farm type scene. Desolate and sparse.

The face on the original painting is not working out so let's use a pictures for reference.

More detail is added. I decided to turn the setting to sunset so you know that dark is coming soon.

Just adding more details, shading and athmosphere. The barbwire is created by painting a section of it and then using the stamp tool to copy and then warping it.

Props are added.

Oh now she is wearing a top! It does not make sense to fight vampires topless right?

I also added some fog to the scene for extra creepiness and to separate the foreground from the background better.

Finished! I cropped the image a little for better composition.

What is she pointing at?

Smugmug

All the pictures in this blog are hosted by Smugmug.com...

Anyway, this morning I received this email from Smugmug:

"Heather Walker [SmugMug Hero], Dec 06 09:22 am (MST):

Hi Jhoneil,

We hate to bother but we have a complaint that your gallery Beauties with Beasties is violating are Terms of Service. We have unlisted this gallery and set both the SmugIsland settings to No. We also placed a password on this gallery to TOSviolation so it is protected. Please reread the Terms of Service that state:

You are solely responsible for the User Content you post or transmit and you agree not to post, transmit or otherwise publish through the Site any of the following:

1. User Content that is unlawful, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, indecent, lewd, sexually suggestive, harassing, threatening, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, abusive, inflammatory, fraudulent or otherwise objectionable or harmful, including without limitation photographs or other User Content containing nudity that would be unacceptable in a public museum where minors visit;

Please make sure to lock down any content that is not suitable.

If you any other questions or problems please let us know.

All the best,
Heather
SmugMug Support Hero
www.smugmug.com/help"

Wow! My first censorship! Now I feel like a legitimate artist! Thanks Smugmug!! This means my pictures are not accessible through Smugmug website anymore but can still be access from www.jhoneil.com

Interesting note - I found a gallery with pictures of nude women and complained about them and they are still up there.

Weird

Flight and Roses

Here, you can see how the right element can totally change the dynamics in a piece. Balloons? I don't think so.

Adding flowery undies and pigtails made the character more wholesome looking...

Fly Specks, Latex, and Tom X

This is my friend. She works as a dominatrix.

Foxxy Angel

I am working on a painting based on actress Foxxy Angel. She sent these pictures for reference:

Finished!

"The Foxx and an Old Guy from the Boondocks"

Welcome and step by step tutorial

Well Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!!! Welcome to my new blog. This journal is specifically dedicated to a series of illustrations that I call "Beauties and Beasties". Basically, a portrait of a beauty accompanied by creatures, monsters, robots or what have you. Sometimes the beauty is also the beast in some of these artwork. I am not sure where to categorized these paintings : Science-Fiction Art, Fantasy Art, Horror, some Pinup?

In any case, the prints are available for sale at:

http://jhoneil.smugmug.com/Art/Beuts-and-Bsts

Anyway, let's start with a simple step by step process on how I paint these illustrations.

I usually use Photoshop as my main painting tool...

Sometimes, I start from a reference photo. This makes the job easier since you can see how the light affects the figure and you don't have to guess too much on anatomy and such. I suggest artists should collect reference photos and have a library that you have handy at all times. My library is online so I can refer to it anywhere I have access to the internet. Reference photos are great but please don't rely too much on it. Sometimes a figure looks good in photos but not so much when painted.

Here is a quick sketch to work out the composition and the figure. You can see that the drawing is not quite the same as the picture but it's great to have an image to refer to. I decided to exaggerate the body of our main figure for that pinup look.
Here, I laid down some quick colors. I usually have a palette of colors somewhere in the painting that I sample from.
Smoothing it out and adding more details...

Started adding detail to the "Elf". At this point, I like to try different backgrounds colors in the painting. The foreground is usually on a different layer from the background so I can try different backgrounds without affecting the other parts of the painting (Don't you love layers?)

Adding more elements - in this case I added a coat to the Mrs. Claus

More details and experimenting with the background.

And here is the finishedPainting! Order a print for your weird friends as a Christmas gift!

http://jhoneil.smugmug.com/Art/Beuts-and-Bsts/14504318_nNKui#1100685890_B8PM7-A-LB