Sarah Vaughan

[bjwe]

It's been a while (a long while actually) since I last posted here, but I have been working steadily on a series of portraits of jazz artists and have recently dusted them off and built them into a small portfolio. I'm afraid I don't work very quickly, this has taken me a few years to get to this point, but as they are all drawn in Xara Designer Pro I thought that maybe I would post one or two here. This one is my humble attempt at a likeness of Sarah Vaughan.

[Ron Duke]

Excellent likeness!

[gwpriester]

I would even say, photographic. Did you filter a photograph using a Posterize filter?

[jon404]

It's very good. Post some more!

[bjwe]

Not exactly Gary, I do start with a photograph and reduce it to a very few areas of light and shade a bit like the zonal system (I think posterization works on colour but I'm not completely sure about that) with the intention of creating as much negative space as I can get away with (so giving weight to highlights rather than shadow). Then overlaying a simple grid ( technique I learnt from "drawing with the right side of the brain") I sketch out the areas of light and shade in layers with shadow at the bottom. and then finally assign my own limited palette to the layers so that there is a gradation between light and shade. And then finally play around with some texture overlays to give some depth to the flat colour. It's not very scientific I'm afraid.

[laser1]

bjwe - Keep up the great artwork, I like your effect...
You motivated me into attempting another effect. I created it with Xara Designer X and the same plugins that I employed in my previous post "From chaos to tranquility". Each time that I use these plugins, I have to re-adjust the settings to obtain the desired results. It is important to spend much, much, much time getting to know the plugins, that way you will automatically be able to know what adjustments are needed. The origanal photograph will determing the end results. The one in this posting is horrible, it is mushy, out of focus, with low contrast. One with a fine resolution and is in sharp focus, is great to work with...

There is another plugin that I suggest - it is ZERO and it is FREE. It is loaded with effects...

[gray]

You can certainly see the likeness.