Megan Fox
Digital Painting
Photo-realism
One of the forms of art that fascinates me is photo-realism. Not for it's artistic qualities, but for how technically perfect you have to be to be able to do it well. My first encounter with photo-realism came in College when my art teacher introduced me to the work of Chuck Close. Although much of Chuck's work now involves systematic abstraction, his early paintings were fantastic large photo-realstic portraits. I hadn't seen anything like it before. I wanted to be able to paint as well as this.
After a number of paintings in oil, my technique improved to the level that people would come out with the classic "Wow, that looks like a photo!" But, like the true perfectionist I am, I wasn't completely happy. The first painting that I did that I considered to be photo-realistic was a self-portrait I produced for my Art Foundation Final Show. Soon after I discovered Digital Art through Adobe Photoshop and the Wacom Tablet. I went through the same learning curve with Digital as I had with Oils and soon was able to paint just as well on the screen.
Painting Megan Fox
This painting was the first that I did on my large screen and it made a a massive difference. Having the ability to see the whole image and work on detail at the same time helped achieve a photo-realistic quality quicker than before. The most difficult part of the painting was achieving a shine on the pores of her cheeks and nose.