Start the year off with this field trip to the studios of some of the best digital portrait painters in the world. This special collection was selected because they leverage black and white – non color – to create rather special portraits
Who says spectacular art has to be in color. Many times, simple black and white evokes more emotion, place and time that color ever could. These are wonderful examples of art created by master digital artists from around the world!
Portrait of a Women
Otaku-J is a graphic artist of many talents currently in France. Although his work seems to lean toward cartoon art in the Asian tradition — this portrait exhibits a truly serious side as well. He used Photoshop Elements 5 and claims the art completed in 2.5 hours… Note edge lighting as the secondary light source and remember how important lighting is in black and white images. (see his reference image, and the step-by-step)
Portrait of a Women
Search for the Hiro by Lewis James Greenslade-Trump
Search for the Hiro… is by Lewis James Greenslade-Trump, (18) in the United Kingdom. His work is fantastic in detail and realism. See his folio at deviantart.com
Search for the Hiro by Lewis James Greenslade-Trump
Another Portrait by Ahmed Abdelmohsen
Ahmed Abdelmohsen is an artist in Egypt with a wide range of art, some spectacular and others not so wonderful. As you scroll through his gallery you’ll see that while his art is accurate, he infuses a certain personal style and attitude into each piece. This one was our favorite.
Another Portrait by Ahmed Abdelmohsen
Portrait Drawing by Cristian Landero
Portrait Drawing w. video by Cristian Landero from Panama who often combines his drawings with videos! (These are quite fun ) I love this painting because of the lighting — deep, dark, I don’t think there’s any pure white in this at all! And, feast your eyes on her hair and blouse! masterful!
Portrait Drawing by Cristian Landero
Eyes – digital portrait by San Paiya
San Paiya calls himself a ‘perpetual’ Art Student and resides in India. This piece is a radical departure from his regular style, which is dreamy abstract visions in color.
Eyes – digital portrait by San Paiya
Lisa Edelstein, by Kate Jones
Kate Jones is a Traditional Artist (29) in the Netherlands. Her art included color and black and white drawings — many, many of animals and pets. Be sure not to miss her Gallery of “Work in Progress” art … wonderful stuff! (I think she must like the “HOUSE” TV show!)
Lisa Edelstein, by Kate Jones
John Lennon, by German Covacevich
German Covacevich (34) is a digital artist from Argentina. His work in black and white is wonderful, but he also does masterful works in color (as evidenced by this painting of the Beatles!)
John Lennon, by German Covacevich
Jimi Hendrix, by German Covacevich
Another from German Covacevich is this stunning portrait of famous rock idol Jimi Hendrix. Count the light sources in this one, and note the differences in brush work betwwn foreground and background. Here’s another where brush strokes help ‘build’ the countours of the solids in space.
Jimi Hendrix, by German Covacevich
Kurt Cobain, by German Covacevich
This is another by German Covacevich. As you can see he enjoys drawing / painting portraits of famous musicians! Also, don’t miss his painting of Bono!
Kurt Cobain, by German Covacevich
So, do yourself a favor. Get out a pencil and paper and try your hand at such drawings… or, take a color photograph and repaint it in Photoshop or Painter. Discover the cool powers of black and white. If you’ve discovered visions that should be shared in the Design Center gallery, just let us know.
Thanks for reading
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