Toph Crawling

Once again, I make an attempt at drawing and painting a sexy adult Toph. Once again, I feel really creepy doing so. Just so you guys know, she is covered up down there by a material similar to what makes up her "boulder holders." I didn't render it because everytime I did it looked either like a piece of poo... literally, or a penis. I'd rather some people think that she's totally exposed down there, than think she's shitting herself or that she has a penis.

Unfortunately, I can't claim that this was a speed painting. I worked most of the night on it and it still feels like it is below par. However, the reason why I took so long, and why it didn't turn out great was because I practicing things I'm weak in.

First, the pose. I've come to realize that alot of my skill in regards to poses always involves the figure standing upright in some basic way and I never deal with perspective in any way. There are two reasons for this. Most of the books I study, in terms of anatomy, have just plain standing poses. The other reason is that most of the poses that I get in life drawing are either standing or sitting, and I rarely put myself in a position and the model rarely poses in a way that allows me to practice foreshortening in a really detailed way. I mean, it's understandable, the model needs to find a pose that's comfortable to hold for 30 minutes at a time. But still, I need to practice it. So I challenged myself with the perspective and the pose.

Second, the painting style. Once again I'm trying really really hard to be clean. I mean, I loved the Ken - Shoryuken piece because the general style of that game, well the opening, is very messy and sketchy. That's right up my ally. But clean is what people respond to

Third, color practice. I made it a point to only use colors I could use while painting in real life. I avoided using levels, brightness/contrast, and adjustments. This was so I could remain as honest as possible. I often get the feeling that I use those adjustment abilities of photoshop as a crutch and I need to get out of the habit of doing that.

Finally, I was trying to create a connection between Older Toph's Boulder Holders


I posted this earlier. I went back and redid some things and that's now at the top. If I make any more significant changes that will end up at the bottom as well.