"Matter of Time" -- My Process and Rambles

"Matter of Time"

The lovely lady to the left is one of my favorite portraits of my, as I like to call them "weirdly pretty" women. I did her original sketch before I had the capability to do digital art at home. She was actually supposed to be an 8X10 oil painting, until I couldn't find my tracing paper, and couldn't transfer her onto the canvas.

I like to put things where they don't belong on the human form, and make them fit. Make you think, whoa, that's weird... I like it.

... It's a hobby.

When I was making the sketch for this, it was a test of restraint. I tried to put clocks on the cheeks, the neck, forehead--all over the damn place. The hour glass choker charm is all that's left of my failed attempt to embed an hourglass into the poor woman's skin.

Rough idea VS full sketch

How would you even operate an hourglass that couldn't be flipped? Stand on your head whenever it ran out? That was a stretch, even for me, so I ditched the idea and gave her a choker.

I'm a fan of steampunk aesthetic, with the gears and clockwork elements. I'll be the first to admit that I have no clue about the finer points of the style, though. In my mind, Steampunk always has this brown, coppery tinge to it. Almost as if the world existed in sepia tones, that would be steampunk.

Color Palette

For the first time in a little while, I gave myself a limited color palette to work with, so that everything looked nice and cohesive. It was originally only supposed to be the skin's color palette, but it ended up being the colors I used for the skin, hair, eyes, gears, and the clothing. The only time I deviated was when I made the oxidized copper for the background, and freckles. That's one of my favorite things about this image, the oxidized freckles? It was a last minute thing--originally, they were normal, boring freckles.

Eye and Freckle Details

My favorite thing, above all, about her though? Pocket watch eye. I mean... pocket watch eye! Why? Don't know, it fit the theme, it fit the face, so why not? I might not have been able to shove an hourglass into her neck, but I sure as hell could make a pocket watch fit in her eye. That was one of my favorite things about the sketch, and most of the reason why I fleshed her out and did the digital painting, not gonna lie.

Sometimes you have to have fun with a concept, let it breath, let it tell you what it wants to be. I fiddled around with the background a lot, knowing the general idea of the gears, but not knowing exactly how I wanted them. Sometimes you've gotta putz around, and be happily surprised with what you end up making. You can't be afraid to change things, or backtrack, or deviate from the plan. I did the hair twice, threw out perfectly good freckles because I wanted oxidized ones instead, and saved the same picture three times with slightly different backgrounds, because I wasn't happy.

Have fun with it! The art will tell you what it wants to be, and it'll keep telling you until it's there. You can only think it through so much, other things you just to feel out, until it feels right.

So! Fumble, fiddle, putz around--but always make art.