Category: illustration

Creating a portrait from a digital illustration

My latest painting is a portrait of my brother, sister in law, and their pet cat. I used an old photo of the lovely couple from New Years Eve a few years ago. The original photo shows my sister in law wearing a cardboard NYE hat, but I omitted this from the sketch so that the final result would appear more formal.

The first stage of my process…

The foundation of every good portrait begins with line work. I always sketch my work digitally, then transfer the basic outline to my canvas. Details that are important to defining traits of the subject (i.e. the small patch of white hair on Armani the cat’s chest) must be captured. With line work, it is important to remember that the essence of the form should be captured first, followed by finer details. The profile of the subject (the head shape, neck, and body) is important to be captured accurately. When doing line work, I always endeavour to avoid getting too caught up with facial details (dimples, beauty marks, and aging lines).

With line work, it is important to remember that the essence of the form should be captured first, followed by finer details. The profile of the subject (the head shape, neck, and body) is important to be captured accurately. When doing line work, I always endeavour to avoid getting too caught up with facial details (dimples, beauty marks, and aging lines).


The second stage of my process…

Once the outline is captured, colours are layered on the canvas. I always use a watered-down paint mixture to “wash” the early layers of each colour in. By using a wash technique, the colours are able to be “built” upon. “Building up” layers of colour allows for a much smoother end result. Notice the magenta colour of my sister-in-law’s shirt: I made a mistake here and did not water down the first few layers of the magenta colour. Because of this error, one can quite visibly see that there are uneven applications of colour. You can also see very distracting brush strokes…(I am so disappointed by that!).

I think that having brush strokes visible makes the piece look amateur-like. As I improve my technique, I really want to work on this. I think that I get overly excited when starting and finishing a piece; and I skip important steps. I seem to mainly have this problem with my portrait work though.

The third stage of my process…

This stage is where final details are completed. My heart and mind race during this stage. It is the part of the process where everything comes together, and if it fails to execute, the long hours of work put in may have been wasted.

My artistic style includes basic shading and highlights as my skill improves. I am working on making faces appear more life-like. The final painting is shown below in detail. My brother was impressed by the work, and I presented it to him for Christmas.

2019 has been a year filled with surprises. For the past several months I have consistently posted new blog entries on a weekly basis. My desire was to see where I could take my blog with consistent and measured attention. As I have grown as an entrepreneur, so have my goals. I am beginning to become involved in more diverse projects that require time and dedication- some of which I will need to borrow from the anieksteph blog. As a result, instead of weekly posts the anieksteph blog will become a monthly blog, and will focus on rewriting and curating existing content.

Our landing page will likely change to a static front page with information on how to contact me, and links to the current areas of the site. The blog posts will still remain- so do not worry about where to find your favourite posts.

Thank you for stopping by. If you are interested in reading more about my upcoming projects visit my Instagram page, or my new Facebook page at Art by Konu.

Happy New Year!

-S

by @Lillybochic

Acrylic Portraits

My latest work is a study in portraiture.

African woman with gold accent and blue background acrylic on canvas by Stephanie Konu
African woman acrylic on canvas by Stephanie Konu
African woman with blue background and gold Accent acrylic on canvas by Stephanie Konu
African woman acrylic on canvas by Stephanie Konu

It was an unexpected leap to go from illustrating portraits to painting them. I had a few gut-wrenching interludes, yet I found myself happy with the finished work.

Young woman of colour 1 of 2 acrylic on canvas with green shirt and blonde hair
Young woman of colour 1 of 2 acrylic on canvas with green shirt and blonde hair
Close up blue background Young woman of colour 1 of 2 acrylic on canvas with green shirt and blonde hair
Close up Young woman of colour 1 of 2 acrylic on canvas with green shirt and blonde hair

I enjoy painting details with fine brushes. Usino a watered-down high quality black acrylic, I achieve an easy flow to outline each figure.

portrait of artist Stephanie Konu in 1980s vintage style colours green, blue and ebony
portrait of artist Stephanie Konu in 1980s vintage style colours

I’m having so much with this and I am excited to see what I develop next.

Thanks for stopping by,

S

by @Lillybochic

Llama unicorn illustration

Greetings!

I have been trying my hand at using humor in my illustration work. I like to think that I can be quite funny, but telling jokes is not one of my strengths. I often mix up the details of a joke by telling the punchline too soon, or by laughing at the joke before I have finished telling it. I am better at giving witty remarks and comebacks than telling structured jokes. I always marvel at standup comedians who are able to recall hours of jokes and retell them in what seems like an effortless fashion.

My latest illustration work is a funny and misleading drawing of a llama with a horn. The wording beneath is acerbic, and doesn’t match with the fun and bright picture it is paired with. I think it works well for that specific reason.

White llama with unicorn horn funny caption everyone you know hates you
Llama with funny wording why stephanie konu

I think that this would make a great book cover. I would love to write somthing funny that would fit with this title. Perhaps I should begin working on my joke telling abilities.

Thanks for stopping by, and remember to check out my free ebooks. The links are at the top toolbar of this page.

-S

by @Lillybochic

Illustrating comics with 3 panels

3 panel repeat illustration black woman
3 panel repeat illustration

One of the things I like the most about illustration is that it allows me to express ideas in a diverse way. I have more freedom to explore ideas that normally would have been difficult to attempt with paint and canvas. Furthermore, with illustration I can use technology to copy and paste multiple sketches, change their size, and manipulate the scenery much easier than before.

The above illustration is an example where I have used technology to manipulate a previous sketch of myself into a 3 panel repeat illustration. I have copied and repasted the image into 3 panels. I added an abstract motif inspired by green cactus to make the image more decorative. I like the way it turned out, and it has a fun “summer” vibe to it.

Asian man covers eye illustration by Stephanie Konu
Asian man covers eye illustration by Stephanie Konu

This illustration has the same idea as the previous one, except the decorative bamboo leaves are in the background of the illustration. Using technology, I merged the repeated subject at the shoulders to create continuity along the bottom edge. Thinking back, I would have been more creative if I had the subject covering his ears and mouth in the repeated images to make a “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” reference. It is an amazing feeling to play around with different ideas and to see the end result. I am looking forward to working on more comic type illustrations that include words and meaningful quotes.

Thanks for stopping by.

S

by @Lillybochic