Gin Rickey Steps (lots of pics)

[soul8o8]

Yo!

I like these kinds of posts where people show how they do stuff, so I thought I'd show my appreciation by doing one myself :)

Ok, this is something I did to gain some understanding in glass and ice and stuff like that..

I took the N.Y. Bartender's guide and picked the first picture I liked to use as a reference.

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/iceref.jpg
Excerpt: Page 115 - New York Bartender's Guide

[soul8o8]

Then I did a quick outline. (It was never my intention to do a "replica" of the reference..)

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice01.jpg




Then I started to paint.

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice01b.jpg

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice02.jpg

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice03.jpg

[soul8o8]

After a while I realized that this was going nowhere. The smudge tool was simply wrong. So I repainted it with a larger brush and very low opacity.

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice04.jpg

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice05.jpg




At this time I felt that the ice cubes looked real strange. I pondered repainting them but I didn't. I felt it didn't matter.


Now it was time to go at it with the 1-pixel brush.

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice06.jpg

[soul8o8]

Here I felt that the picture needed something more to catch one's interest. One of those cocktail pins would probably do it.

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice07.jpg

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice08.jpg




Ok it was time to get rid of the outline. The lemon came to life.

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice09.jpg





More bubbles.

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice10.jpg

[soul8o8]

The lime was tricky. At first I focused on color but realized that the lime is all about texture - so i "golf-balled" it :)

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice11.jpg

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice12.jpg

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice13.jpg

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice14.jpg

[soul8o8]

Some reflection was added. Note the pin's head!

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice15.jpg


On the inside of the glass. I realized the reflection was actually wrong - but who would notice ;)

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice16.jpg







Clean-up and lime shading.

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice17.jpg





At this time I knew there was a lot to be done. The reflections in the floor looked awful, the lime was stil too "plasty", the ice was strange looking, the bottom of the glass looked like...etc.. But I decided to bug out and just see how far I could get it as it was..



Now the next steps was really fun! Here I used the good ol' Curves. I wanted a more 70-ish looking color scheme. Also the drink was way too grayish. Gin has that magically beatiful bluish color and I wanted it! :) Added some background too. Note the drop of condensed water running down the side! I mean does it get more cliché? ;)

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice18.jpg







And finally the Thirsty text and some more Curves.

http://soul8o8.no-ip.org/ice19.jpg







Hope someone like this walk-through! I like walk-throughs :)



ciao!

[mos667]

Simply amazing man. I absolutely love the bubbles on it. I just noticed something about the class though, it seems as though you didn't really paint it as it being a real object, more as a photo. It seems like there should be more mass, or something else at the lip of it.
Not mine to critique, it is great!

mos.

(Is this actual size, or is it bigger? If bigger, I would LOVE to see some detail shots of the bubbles ;))

[soul8o8]

thanks again mos! :)

yes, there's is something missing with the glass.. hmm, i looked at ot for a while now and i think there's some reflections missing on rim as well as on the sides and such too.. yes it doesn't really "come out"..


anyway, the pic is in 1:1 size, so you can open it i Photoshop and just zoom in and you'll see exactly what I saw :)

I made this picture so small cause i see it as good practice to "know your pixels". i mostly worked in 200-400% zoom and then you really see what happends to your precious little pixels :)



ciao!

[winjer]

how about a walkthrough on how to make a real one. :beer:

[Signature]

Thanks for sharing.

I guess some steps are kinda chaotic. But the result is amazing.

Maybe you can try to get the values right sooner ... don't just think in colors.
For example the gradient on the fruit.
The values where too close in early stages I think.
You fixed it in later stages though.

You wrote that you like step by step tutorials?
You might find this thread interesting if you don't know it already:
http://forums.sijun.com/viewtopic.php?t=34409

[DragonGX]

Thanks for sharing. I love to see WIPs especially step by steps like you've given!

Liquids are extremely hard to draw or paint in translucent containers, I've tried it a few times! Looks good!

A quick run through on the way you created the background? I really like it!

[soul8o8]

thank all for your feedback!

Here's the real one:

4 parts Gin
2 parts freshly squeezed lime
fill up with sparkling mineral water

Use a precooled highball glass, stir gently!
:chug: :beer: :chug:

signature << chaotic, yes, hehe - ahum, could you elaborate on how not to only think in color? and on how to get the values right sooner? i think i see what you mean but i'm not sure.. i'm afraid i'm missing something valueble ;)


the background:
I wish I had more inbetweens here but i don't. I used a large soft brush (like from 5px to 200-300px with pressure or so) and worked a lot with pen pressure, hence the thinner parts. I mainly used yellow and blue and gray. The gradient coloring is due to Curves-adjusment. Without Curves the background looks much more like brushstrokes. The background is only a few strokes back and forth, and some dots here and there. eh, hope it helped :) A lot in this image is really just Curves, i think..

[danteort]

could you elaborate on how not to only think in color? and on how to get the values right sooner? i think i see what you mean but i'm not sure.. i'm afraid i'm missing something valueble
Basically, you need to think in grayscale when dealing with value. Forget about the color for a minute, and just think about lights and darks. Also remember that color has value as well. For example, yellow is naturally a lighter value than purple. It might help if you make some quick pencil sketches before painting, so you can understand the values better. Understand where the lights and darks are, and THEN worry about what colors will convey them.

My watercolor teacher places the importance of value extremely high. In fact, she says that the difference between a mediocre painting and an award winning painting is nailing the values. If your values aren't correct, then no amount of color will make your painting better.

I hope I'm not messing something up in my attempt at an explanation. Feel free to correct me.

EDIT: As an example, in the photograph the lime has a clear light side and shadow side. Remember that nothing in the light side can be darker than anything in the dark side, and nothing in the shadow side can be lighter than the light side. So you need to choose colors that convey this. The way your lime looks right now, you have the shadow appearing at the bottom, yet the light source is up and to the right. However, you tried to copy the colors you saw in the photograph, so it looks like the lime is multi-colored.

[Signature]

Here's the real one:

4 parts Gin
2 parts freshly squeezed lime
fill up with sparkling mineral water

Use a precooled highball glass, stir gently!
Again thanks for sharing ;)

Yeah what danteort wrote is pretty much what I meant.

Ron Lemen's color theory notes cover it pretty well.
It is a lot too read though.
This graphic might be interesting.
http://lemenaide.150m.com/pt2.jpg

It's from this thread:
http://forums.sijun.com/viewtopic.php?t=31438

If theory doesn't bore you too much you can check out the
tutorials by Fred Flick Stone:
http://forums.sijun.com/viewtopic.php?t=31503
http://forums.sijun.com/viewtopic.php?p=304170
http://forums.sijun.com/viewtopic.php?p=304171

There are two more threads in Tutorials & Past Round Tables @ Conceptart.
Don't know if there's additional information though!?
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9504
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9505

If your values aren't correct, then no amount of color will make your painting better.

Correct. There's ANOTHER thread @ Sijun ... look at the last post
(by jfrancis ... who knows the thread might be bumped)
http://forums.sijun.com/viewtopic.php?t=35050

( Taken from http://www.digitalartform.com/ )

[soul8o8]

:) hey! thanks a lot danteort and signature!

yes i think color is damn tricky! i always get the feeling that i don't really know what i'm doing when picking colors!

how would you start off the lime?



..ok, i'm gonna experiment now.. this is great!

ciao!