Charlotte's Works

Fantastic Charlotte, such a great idea and so very well created

Charlotte wrote: Well we have to trust David Attenborough!

Oh, sure, believe that David!

very nice Charlotte.

Great piece Charlotte! The picture is balanced and has great composition and even a touch of story to it.

Still trying to get somewhere on Cersei. No big differences from last time really. Been working a bit on the face, moving the fingers on her left hand (but not finishing the paint - I dunno what I did when I painted the first hand but I can't seem to repeat it!) and added the "heavier" pieces of jewellery. I had some problems painting it and in the end I just went with an entirely opaque ink brush and careless blobs. It looks a mess at 100 % but seems to work at print size (~25%) and smaller

Are you using reference for this Charlotte?

I was wondering the same, and was also going to ask, if she was based off the HBO series actress or the character from the books itself? ... Just wondering.

Also, if you're still working on the fabric, then issue 87 of IFX might come in handy. On pages 95-99 there are some great tips on painting different types of fabric.

Take a look.

Domtopia wrote: Are you using reference for this Charlotte?

Yes and no...

I never have any "exact" references to follow but usually use several for different things. For instance I have one for the neck area and the way she holds her head, but none for the lighting (which is a drawback because my made-up lighting isn't as realistic as it could be). I have refs for the hands but it's not helping me at all, for some reason

For the cloth I've used fabric references and a ref for the folds in the skirt, but again not a "complete" ref and nothing with the right colour or light. I am quite pleased with how all the different fabrics came out and was considering the dress almost finished (considering adding more patterns) so if there's a particular reason I should bring out the tutorials, I'd like to know what is looking off. I'm not really seeing anything particularly bad myself...

For the jewellery I tried using refs but didn't find it helpful so in the end I went with the opaque ink and mess as described earlier.

I don't want to get too tied up with the refs so I always start a sketch (and preferably colour sketch) without them and then try to find refs that show particular bits and pieces that I feel I need help with. I also usually try to maintain some of the bits and pieces of a sketch even if they turn out to not be entirely realistic once I look at references, because I feel otherwise I might lose what made me like the sketch in the first place. So for instance while I've shortened her neck twice, I don't intend to make it "normal length" because the long neck is part of what I liked from the beginning. (I'm not sure if this was part of what disappeared when one of my posts were accidentally overwritten earlier but I did check if there are women with necks as long as this and yes, there are. Also checked the proportion of the head and while there are women with larger heads there are also women with pretty much exactly this proportion - though maybe with somewhat skinnier torsos... think fashion models, mostly.)

And to answer Dave's question, No I'm not painting Lena Headey as Cersei. (I would hope that if I tried that, it would be obvious... )

So... uhm, can anyone tell I should be working...?

I agree with your thinking Charlotte. Sometimes a detail may not be strictly, technically right, but it still looks good and adds to the image.

It was a principle I learned in college, if it doesn't look right, even if it's accurate, change it! Or in this case, keep it if it looks good as it is!

The fabric looks great (the whole image does. You have skills!), it's just that I can't particularly tell what kind of fabric it is. It's not important for the image, but I thought that the reference I mentioned might have given you some more options, should you want to take any of them, that's all.