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With this piece I’d decided I wanted to do something really funny and simple. Murdergirl is a character I’d designed a while ago and would be a good subject to paint for this purpose. I wanted the painting to have a really free and dynamic feel so I decided to try out a ¾ top down angle. The idea for the whistle bubble came in really early, as part of my very first concept thoughts. To my mind it gives the painting a whole tongue in cheek aspect, which coupled with the dark subject matter, was quite interesting for me.
After some loose sketching with pencil on paper a general composition came together. It wasn’t hard because once the positioning of Murdergirl had been decided everything else; the street, the victim and the window just played off of that.
 
When it came to the actual penciled sketch I would be using to paint from I had to make sure my anatomy was at least mostly right (I usually end up having to adjust it a bit more in Photoshop because for some reason I can work out anatomy better when I’m using values). The fairly dramatic angle made getting the body right quite challenging. I looked at a few photos online to get the idea of the proportions. In the end it wasn’t that difficult because when drawing figures I always use construction shapes to make sure it all fits together properly. Around this time I wasn’t sure how I was going to make the reflections of the swat guys work with the angle I’d chosen. However I really liked the idea and their presence added a lot of dramatic meaning to the painting as a whole, so I was determined to make it work. The building behind her also went through some changes. At first I wanted it to be a corporate type building, but I realized this couldn’t work because after looking at some pics I realized these buildings generally have steps leading up to the shiny glass windows and the composition I had chosen simply wouldn’t work, especially since I needed something for the main figure to lean on to present her in a casual pose. In the end I decided on the dress store because it would make an interesting backdrop.
 
Recently I had started doing my paintings in grayscale first so that I have only values to work with. This really helps because working with colors alone makes it harder to determine what values work best because the colors can distract. Plus grayscale is just fun. After digitizing the sketch by way of Digital camera I loaded it into Photoshop and used it as an over layer in multiply mode so I could just paint underneath it. The solution to my earlier mentioned problem about the men reflected in the glass came to me around this time. Almost unintentionally the angle of the street started to curve like a fish eye lens. I found I really liked this because it increased the dynamism while at the same time allowing a wider field of view, meaning the swat guys being reflected in the window could be there without it seeming Incorrect. Overall the layout was quite simple so didn’t take me very long to get done in grayscale. To make sure again that the anatomy of Murdergirl was correct I painted her without the tutu so I could see where her legs joined her torso. It was all good. Once I’m satisfied that the levels on the painting are striking enough and work well as black and white. I decide to add colour.
 
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