Making of Song Hye Kyo in 2Dby Brett David Gordon, USA Web: www.brettgordonart.com


Wow, doesn't this look a lot better than the previous step? You can start to see why I am not afraid to start out really dark because I can always lighten it up (it's a little more difficult darkening up a painting when starting out too light). A trick many painters use to create light, is to be sure they have lots of dark. I've begun to "flesh out" the facial highs and lows. I want her brow, nose and lips to "come out" from the painting, and I want the eyes to slightly recede into the sockets. I never make the "whites" of the eyes, white. No one has purely white eyes. Eyes, like skin, are reflective, and they cover over a myriad of blood vessels. Here, I've added a gray-blue to the shadow area of the eyes, and I've added a touch of very pale pink to the corners. I've also added some nice mauve color to her mouth. Notice how I am not concerned about keeping my colors within the sketch lines. This is because I want to quickly lay in color, and I don't want to be distracted about perfection - not yet. Besides, all the color outside the lines will be covered up later...

Remember what I said earlier about a painter using dark color to draw out the brightness of the light color? Here, I have added a touch of the dark hair color around her face because I need to see if I can go lighter, or if i need to add in some darker tones. I added some lights to her neck to get a feel for this, and as you can see, I can safely and confidently add more light color to her face. I've added a little more detail to her eyes, nose, lips, and open hand. Even though the painting is far from being finished, I like to define the eyes early on. I want to see someone looking back at me so we can go through the paining together. At this point in the painting process, I should start to see a soul coming to life behind the eyes...


Notice that as the features of this subject (such as her face and arms) begin to really take shape and form, the blue sketch lines begin to disappear! This is exactly what I want to happen. I don't need to worry about eventually erasing the sketch, because I'm simply going to cover it up with paint. I have added more light color to her face - not just white, pink, and yellow, but also the greens and blues (keep in mind that the skin is very reflective). It is for this reason that I never use paint labeled, "Flesh Color". I always mix my flesh colors. Start will LOTS of white, and just mix in tiny amounts of reds, yellows (ochre's are excellent) pale greens and blues. If you look closely enough, you will see the greens and blues in her skin. I've also made indications for her cute dimples, and painted in more detail into her eyes and mouth. So far, the only thing I do not like about this painting is what she is doing with her open hand. It looks like she's nervously picking at her nails. I need to think about what I'm going to do about this, but I will leave this problem to the end. For now, I just put it away back in some sub-compartment of my mind so that I can be free to get everything else right...