Alright, let’s start the countdown!

…10!

Okay stop there, I have just 10 days remaining before this year long project is complete.

That’s the end of talking about that though, because 10 days is a long time. That’s still a lot of artwork ahead of me, and blog posts to write. Wait, no it’s not! I can’t decide. Should I be excited already? Is it really awesome that I made sure to create something and share it online every day for a year? Other people seem to be more excited about it than me, but that’s not to say I don’t feel excited. I think it’s probably just really scary to try and think about what I’m going to do afterwards. Things are still a little bit up in the air.

Though, how is that any different from how I likely felt when I started this project? I had to build a website, and figure out what to talk about every day. There were some times I struggled a bit when technology wouldn’t allow me to post when and how I wanted. Other times, I wasn’t feeling well or wasn’t even home, and I had to make sure I posted something. Now, all of that is going to be behind me, and I can move forward without worrying about posting something precisely on time, or trying to create something when I really don’t feel up to it.

Perhaps I’ll be able to accumulate the desire to create something over a few days and then get it all out in a massive drawing session. There’s still going to be a lot of interesting adventures ahead, I’m sure of it. Even though it’s kind of scary to think that there’s a pretty big question mark straight ahead of me, I’ll just go along with it. I have ideas… and stuff!

Oh, so this picture I digitally painted above is my other niece (Sorry, you happen to be the “other” niece today!), Amber. She’s my oldest niece and obviously she’s extremely photogenic. This was a photo of her I saw on her Facebook page and it was the obvious one to try and paint. I’m surprised with how well it turned out. Though, if I was using actual paint, or even drawing on actual paper, I’m sure I would of got some of the proportions wrong. If and when that happens, the final result doesn’t often end up looking like the original subject. Which is exactly why I’ve never been interested in drawing people. It’s just so damn difficult to pull off.

So, using Photoshop, I was able to take the photo -which had some heavy color filters that she must of applied herself at some point – and add some interesting filters of my own to alter it enough so some of the detail was removed, making it easier to paint later, then I outlined over top of the picture with black to make sure I had everything in proportion. Then I just painted it however I wanted. I actually downloaded a couple of Amber’s other photos to use as color swatches to make sure I got her hair and skin color right. I’m still not sure if I achieved that perfectly, but forget that, it turned out awesome.

Thanks for checking this out! Say it with me…. 10!