Blackjack Betty *mild nudity*

[liquidwerx]

NEWER VERSION BELOW.

This is a concept for a new character I've been developing for a series of personal werx based on Betty Page. Kinda in the cheeky vain of the old Heavy Metal stuff. Fakk, Tank Girl, etc.... Used a reference of Betty Page for the face, everything else is from the head.

Blackjack Betty:
http://www.liquidwerx.com/blackjackbetty.jpg
PS7 and a 9x12 Wacom.

Used this image as referance. (http://www.liquidwerx.com/betty24.jpg)

Here's a detail shot. (http://www.liquidwerx.com/blackjackbetty-deta1.jpg)

And here's a little mixed media speedy:
http://www.liquidwerx.com/zombie1.jpg
Ink and watercolor on board, scanned into PS7 for some additional painting. About an hour of total work time.

Hope ya dig. :)

Take it easy,
Malachi

[dusty imp]

Wow, awesome stuff.
Very, very inpirational.
I would only suggest to make a shadow for the girl and add some bright highlights on skin and armour.

[Loga4]

Wow,of course I like it!:)
Good jop!

[nardfrog]

Bettys face is distorted, the eye on the right is little bit too low. If you cant tell , go into photoshop and horizontal flip the image, thats what i do to get a fresh look at my work. Also the way her hip conects to the leg looks odd because of the way you have the highlight go from leg to hip unbroken. Makes her look like plastic. Its not a huge issue so you might be like "what is he talking about?" but i recommend having the highlit on the left thigh divert onto a path that follow the direction of the pelvic joint/crease. If you are confused let me know and ill do a quick paintover to show ya.

Like another viewer noted, i strongly recommend increasing the highlights on the outfit; it is hard to tell what is goign on. Either that or make the BG light. THe problem is you have a dark character on a dark background.

[mrbright]

man thats cool

[Highfive]

Very nice smooth rendering and very clean linework, malachi. The design of her armour looks unique and appealling, yet her pose is well balanced. Nardfrog's pretty much said all the crits worth paying attention to, but I'd also recommend thinning the linework in the finer details around the centre of the figure. The thickness of the lines of her bikini line seem to suggest there's a lot of shadow there.

[liquidwerx]

Hey thanks for the comments folks. :)

On to the crits:

As far as her face goes, I should have flipped her during painting to make sure her facial features were more accurate, but at the same time, I wasn't really trying to "nail the reference" exactly. Plus, with the lighting change, she was bound to look different, even with everything in the right place. Still, I do agree, I should have flipped her, at least while I was painting her face. I can't argue with good advice.

I'd like to see a paintover if you're still up for it nardfrog, because I honestly don't see an issue with the lighting on her upper leg. Of course, I might in a couple weeks from now, maybe I just need to see it with fresh eyes.

As far as adding stronger highlights goes, this is the crit I don't really get, or see much a "need" for. If you sample from the lightest highlights towards the top of her armor, you'll see that they're almost pure white. I mean, I can get any lighter than pure white. I do however think she should be against a lighter background, maybe even plain white. That should help to make her pop a little more.

Highfive, thanks for the crit. I see what you mean about the lines. I'm just recently incorporating lines back into some of my work, I still need to get a more cohesive relationship between my lines and my painted stuff. I'll work on that.

Ok, thanks so much for the positive feedback and constructive crits. Just some of the many reasons I love CA. :)

Take care,
Malachi

[nardfrog]

Here 'yar. I changde the hilights on the hip to help define the pelvic region

http://chemicalgraffix.net/visualconcepts/images/blackjackbetty.jpg

I Still think you should either lighten the background cuz she kinda falls back into it. Hope im of some help.

[warmblade]

liquidwerx

Overall I love this panting great job man!




Nardfrog,
Thats amazing how you changed the highlight on the hip. Something so small really did make such a big difference..
Good eye!

[liquidwerx]

Great paintover nardfrog. I totally see what you mean now, thanks. :)


~M~

[nardfrog]

Glad I could help. Thanks guys

[Layil]

i like the idea behind the piece, and anything to do with betty of course. over all its pretty good.

id definately pump the highlights a bit, and vary up the background so its not such a flat shape, but brings out the best parts of the figure and compliments the composition. I figure you have a clean style, but a touch of brushwork instead of the gradient lines might give it a bit more movement. You could also use some reflected light up in the shadows, around her neck area. its too much of a dark flat shape, its distracting for her face and wouldnt actually look like that in life, especially with so much metal arond to bounce light off of. lastly, you need some kind of shadow under her feet and sword, cause it looks a bit like the sword point isnt actually on the floor, and she couldnt possibly hold that thing up with one hand.

if you want to get REALLY nitpicky, the anatomy on her hip and hand are very slightly off, as is the perspective on the sword. it looks like you put so much effort into this piece already, it would be cool to retouch these little things, make it really strong and use it as a portfolio piece.

otherwise, i dig it. i especially like the design of the sword and armour. good job!

wow, id never have even seen half this stuff before the workshop! i cant wait for everyone to start critiquing my stuff!

:D

[liquidwerx]

Thanks for the crits, Layil. Very much appreciated. :)

I should add though, no gradients were used on the figure. Everything was done with brushes. Take a look at the detail shot to see the brush work better. ;)

Lataz,
Malachi

[nardfrog]

Yeah man, ur smoothness is awesome.

[liquidwerx]

Ok, made some quick edits to the piece.

http://members.cox.net/liquidwerx/blackjackbetty-3.jpg

I fixed the lighting/shape/definition on her hip. I also lighted things up a bit, adjusted the levels a little bit and added a lighter bg. That's pretty much as far as I want to go with this concept. It's time to do some more pieces with this character in an actual environment.

Thanks again for the help. :)


Malachi

Ps. Just got a new monitor yesterday, didn't notice just how dark that original jpeg I put up was till then. That old monitor was really screwing with my ability to see decent contrast. This new one's a dream though, so I don't think I'll be having that problem anymore. ;)

[farmer]

your rendering is awesome!
nice design on the gun.. :chug:

[liquidwerx]

Much thanks farmer. :)

Just noticed that the address was incorrect on the edited piece I posted. Fixed that.

~Malachi

[nardfrog]

your character pops so much more on a lighter BG.

[liquidwerx]

Thanks nardfrog, that's what I was hopin' for. :)

Ok, on to the next...


~Malachi