Sourcing and Sketching Of A Model Photo

in Sketchbook2 years ago

After doing a few digital full-color paintings over the past couple of months I felt like going a bit more simple. And for me, that means graphite pencil. However, I didn't quite feel like getting out the nice paper and pencils, so I stayed digital with my iPad and Procreate App.

I'm sure I mentioned previously that my preferred subject in paintings is faces and the female body. Oftentimes with a touch of fantasy and definitely not very realistic. To find inspiration I quite regularly peruse the internet from Google to Pinterest to Instagram. I always try and keep track so that I may reference the source or - if I'm really proud of my work - even post it to their publication.

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In this case, getting to the sources turned out a little more difficult than anticipated. As you can see I screen-captured this photo back at the beginning of November and apparently the photographer is Ruben Vallejo but I was not able to find him on Pinterest. So I turned to his Instagram which doesn't have this particular photo on it. So, I searched some more because I also wanted to find the model's name. Somehow I landed on Institute Mag a high-end fashion magazine that I think had organized this particular photoshoot, they mentioned beva. And then finally, when searching with these terms: @rubenvallejo_ beva I found her!

Please meet Beva and her Instagram

If you scroll down a little on her Insta page you will find the above photo. Per that post it's a few years old when she was modeling, she posted it as a ThrowbackThursday and she did reference the photographer and magazine (see links above) and also the MUA who was tragacetemakeup. This search took me at least an hour - what can I say

Sometimes it is a bit more involved getting to the source 🤗

But it is important to give credit where credit is due so you have to invest that time. Anyhow, now finally back to my own piece of art.

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So, this is my take on Beva's photo. You can probably tell that I was only focusing on the face and did a lot of detailing of the eyes and mouth while only sketching in the hair with a different non-graphite pencil brush at the end.

As mentioned above this is definitely not a realistic depiction of beva but instead shows my signature large(er than life) eyes and slightly different facial proportions. Yet if you hold the photo and sketch side by side I'm sure you'll see some resemblance.

Per Procreate the whole picture took me 2h 7m. Hmm, that means a ratio of 2:1 drawing vs. research and if you add in the time it took me to put the photos, gif, and post together... that ratio is more likely 2:6. And it is still totally worth it!

Well, this post meandered a little in a different direction than I had intended but I hope you liked my little excursion into getting to the source of things accompanied by the posting of my pencil work. Please check out the step-by-step as well as the gifified timelapse below.

Have a great rest of the weekend - enjoy!

Cheers,
(Ocean)Bee

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Beva.jpg

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Beca1.gif

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Unless otherwise noted, copyright for all photos, dividers and gifs ©Oceanbee|ImagesByCW

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It looks cool. Maybe more shadings would have brough out the forms and more beauty.