'Woodblock-printy' girl

I really enjoyed working on this piece. As mentioned in a previous post I had really gone off photoshop and doing things digitally - mainly because the results always looked so digital! But I've come back to it with a different mindset. I now see my laptop as my own mini printing press, and I'm really excited about using it to get various traditional print results.



The inspiration for the above came from this photo - there was something about her perfect hair and the neat, stilted tilt of her 1950's bow (so incongruous with her japanese robes) that made me want to draw her.



So I did a very quick sketch. I didn't want to replicate her so was not worried about getting an exact likeness:



I then blocked in key areas of shade and gave her a pair of hands (bless!)



But the fun really began in photoshop. I tried to replicate Japanese woodblock printing effects, using large, loose brushstrokes, and erasing them back to get a crisp clean edge. I was pleasantly surprised by how convincing some of the photoshop brushes can be. I then scanned in some brown paper for the background. I'm not sure how 'wood-block-printy' it looks, but there's something about it that I like.