I decided to start a new painting project. I wanted to do one for x'mas but its a pretty busy period so I had to delay. This is meant for New Year 2009, thus the name. I do not think I can finish before New Year though, but I hope to finish before Feb. Concurrently I am working on some freelance 3D models. I will try to spend a few hours a day on this.

I started with...well nothing. I have no idea what to paint, except a rough idea that its gonna be some babe. So I thought of a random pose, and the picture starts coming in. Its gonna be a lady sitting by a bar lifting her cocktail glass in a "Cheers" manner. Yeah, kinda simple.



1. Simple pose making
2. Fill in the shape
3. Add rough details
4. Simple color block.

As usual I started off with the face. I dunno if this is a natural tendancy, but when it comes to drawing babes its always the face first. May it gives motivation?

I made a simple sketch to mark the features and give her an expression for me to work towards.



I wanted to decide on the rought lighting early on. Maybe a strong blue lighting on her right and a dim warm light on the left. Backlight is probably dim.



Eyes first. I like to draw the eyes first. The problem with drawing eyes comes when you have to make one eye match the other.



Lips next. Need alot of reference to get them right.



There you go, did up the nose and brows. I did not make a progress image for the nose. I don't have a step by step to drawing nose except keeping drawing until it looks right. Also when I draw nose I have a tendancy to go onto the entire face. Probably the way nose skin blend into the face.



Added mild highlights and shadows to show the contours of the face.



Guess what? Suddenly the smile disappeared! Zzz....

Looks like I have to spend some time touching up on expression. Also I want to slim down her face.
But this is about it. The face isn't complete but most of the rest comes in when other parts of the scene falls in place.