Virtues- guides to to a balanced, happy and fulfilled life.
I'm really happy with how this project turned out, I used to find drawing bodies
Ascension
She is the flow of life with each breath and exhale- the awareness found in the mind in the present moment. Soaring the infinite skies, beyond materialism and body. Surrender all fears and dreams to her to discover contentment and serenity. She is patient and understanding, but also sincere and candid. She inspires through her actions, giving life purpose.
https://superrare.co/artwork-v2/ascension-19098
Ascension came first, it was a commissioned by https://twitter.com/Ioannis_AG several months back, the art and style was up to me with no deadline.
When I was half done with Ascension I decided to paint more characters with this style, so I made a set with different poses and wings. They are inspired by the traditional virtues- Faith, Hope and Love, and my mom and grandma were named Hope and Love.
I started with the traditional Ascension pose- upright floating with hands stretched out. However it didn't feel personal or relatable to me, I folded the legs, which inspired me to change to pose to meditative one. I don't meditate enough, but whenever I meditate regularly, it has a profoundly positive effect on me just like working out which requires dedication and energy.
The first part of marking pose and light source doesn't take long. However, detailing all of the wings, skin and clouds takes a surprising amount of time. At least it's relaxing and
I had to make a few reference photos for how the hands and feet are positioned in each painting.
I also did some photo studies of hands from Pinterest: the following was #21 of my 2021 daily drawings:
2021-Daily #19, body photo study. This was based on a photo reference, but I used my own color palette.
For the Virtues I used various references, maybe 10 per body- arms, legs, breasts, stomach, because I made up my own poses and I avoid using a single reference for my personal work, otherwise it's just another photo study. As I mentioned I took some photos on my own as well, to get a better sense of perspective, foreshortening and lighting. The muscles aren't perfectly rendered, but I'm happy with the results as it's original work and I look forward to creating more characters in the future.
I began with a quick line sketch, but then I use a big brush to define shapes as it gives a better sense of volume than line art. This method is great if you don't want to have any lineart in your final work.
I barely use eraser-only on the edges, instead I keep painting over mistakes until I'm happy with the result.
As you may notice, I originally painted a transparent cloth, but my siblings voted against it. I often share my work with them especially my big projects and I love their feedbacks. The coolest part was finding out that each of us has a different favorite painting from this set. My favorite is Innocence, youngest loves Ascension and middle's favorite is Empathy.
I've always loved painting clouds, but I feel particularly proud of these clouds- for the amount of details and how soft they look. I used the ink brush for the finishing touches, so the clouds don't look blurry but soft.
A cloudy sunset: https://peakd.com/hive-156509/@kristyglas/a-cloudy-sunset-what-to-write-about
Innocence
She is hope and happiness free of judgement. Trusting us with pure intention to keep her and all young ones safe. She is the heart of forgiveness, as she knows our good true nature over our impulses and harsh words. Uncorrupted and protected from the outside influences, she bears no malice or jealousy. She rejoices in others' good fortunes, wishing best to all.
https://superrare.co/artwork-v2/innocence-19101
As you can see above, I use basic lineart to get proportions correct like the arm length and where the hips are.
I used the Ascension wings for reference, but I made the feather slightly different and more pointy here. I love painting gold and shine effect, as once you learn how, it gets easier with practice. Essentially, you need to decide the light source, use enough contrast and add bright areas. I still need to work on how light reflects off shiny objects, so that might be my next challenge to learn.
Innocence has a sort helmet instead of a head- a symbol for protection. The spiral in ascension is more like a target point, while Empathy's head symbolizes connection and a sort of eye that sees through our disguises. I made the heads more symbolic so they feel more surreal and other worldly than just humans with wings. I love adding symbolism to art and my goal is to take it further with each work.
Path of the Monolith- https://peakd.com/hive-156509/@kristyglas/path-of-the-monolith-async had the most symbolism so far, but I'd love to experiment with more obscure themes and ideas.
Empathy
She is the unconditional love, connecting everyone. She feels and understands all emotions that we try to hide and our flaws don't scare her. She acknowledges the struggles and pain, making herself vulnerable to achieve a true connection. She helps those in need, as their misfortunes are also hers to bare. Her limitless love makes us stronger and resilient, teaching us how to convey our feelings to reveal our true selves.
https://superrare.co/artwork-v2/empathy-19102
I try to flip canvas often so I can get a fresh look and this works particularly well on body and portraits. Also I've noticed I paint better on the right side of the canvas, might be because I'm right handed, so flipping helps me add even details.
I spent a good amount of time on balancing the contrast on this painting- yellow and blue have much a stronger contrast than purple and blue. At the same time, this give Empathy a more gentle and romantic atmosphere. The wings were particularly interesting to paint here, I've done lots of wing studies in the past years, but I don't think I've painted similar wings pose to this before.
Purple is the color I'm most well known for, so it felt right to make one Virtue/Angel in pinks and purples. I love evolving my style and trying new themes, but I still want the art to be recognizably mine.
I wrote the descriptions based on positive traits that I want to strive for in my life. I've a long way to go, but I feel if I follow these virtues that I'll feel more content and improve as an artist.
It has been a while since my last big art process post, so excuse any grammatical mistakes <3
If you enjoyed this post, I'd love you to check out Reaching for the Stars- https://peakd.com/hive-156509/@kristyglas/reaching-for-the-stars-polishing-an-artwork
If you have any additional questions please let me know in the comments below or on Twitter. I love sharing my art process because I'm a "self taught" artist thanks to many online tutorials, so this is my way of paying it back to the community that helped me pursue art <333
Thank you for checking out! <3
You've grown so much as an artist, very lovely!
Thank you so much <333 These have been a really amazing and motivating months :D Drawing every day so much.
Hope you've been well!
beautiful as always! great works 😍
Thank you!!
Ahh some hardcore Mal'akh XD
I love the wing/feather rendition!
and your seemingly signature hard shading xD
I also found it interesting but completely unsurprising that the three of you siblings favoured/identified with a different piece in the set XD
Also like how you compared and contrasted with your other pieces, it made the post much more interesting and makes me feel wthat I should probably do similar things (but probably won't because I'm lazy and usually forget at the time x_x).
Thank you!!! The wings were really a pleasure to work on, since they're stylized and not different from bird studies I've done :D
Yeahh I was just as surprised about each of us picking a different favorite, youngest said: that means they're all great <333 That was really touching.
As for the contrast: the Empathy on it's own has decent contrast, but it definitely looks weaker when placed next to the other two.
In black and white you can see contrast most easily. So to make the wings stand out I should have made the clouds darker or wings lighter, but color-wise I decided to keep the wings purple instead of making them lighter and more pink :)
Well youngest is not wrong there ;D
These are really great! Thanks for sharing the process. I am currently working on a female figure and going to be coloring her purple like your Empathy. Seeing your process and the end result helped me a bit in my design with the tonal changes and quality. Working out how the light source would impact the hues was giving me some issues. I think seeing your image helped me connect the dots. Looks like Empathy stood up to her name and quality! Thanks Kristy! Keep up the great work.
Thank you so much!! And happy to share, it helps me reflect on the work as well, so I can hopefully make the next project even better <3 :D
I agree that hues and skin are tricky, your best bet is to try warmer hue for light and colder for shadows (try reversed for a more eerie effect). This will make your shading feel more natural, using only one hue makes skin feel flat and even sickly. Good luck, hope this helps ^_^
Yes, it has helped me a lot. The female i am doing is purple and i am coloring her digitally. When it comes to doing this on paper with color it comes natural... but doing it digitally is a challenge. Seeing the way you did the range on Empathy helped me see where my struggles were and how to hopefully correct them. =) THANK YOU =)
I love how you share your process and your thoughts about it, it's very inspiring, and I learn a lot from your posts <3
Thanks for that :-)
These paintings are beautiful!
Thank you very much for checking it out <33 Happy to share as long as people are interested to read ^-^
Have a great day!
They are amazing! Not only the technically, but also so creative especially the way you designed their heads. Love them!
Thank you so much <33 The heads were fun as abstract design is limitless :D