Master Copy Monday | Lauren Tsai

Hello friends!

As promised I’m delivering the master copy I promised you last Friday. It’s a week late, but it’s here and quite different than what you might have expected.

Unlike my previous MCM post, I decided to shift my focus from painting techniques to value rendering. The purpose of this was two-fold. First, I was recently commissioned to draw someone’s dead dog. The specifications requested a certain level of realism, so I figured this would be a decent warmup to get started on that project. You guys can see that progress on Wednesday. Second, I wanted to expand on the idea of what a “master copy” could be. So, I figured “why limit myself to just paintings? Photographs are just as artistic and informative-especially when the lighting is as good as the example I chose.” And that’s how we ended up with Lauren Tsai’s photo for TODS.

There isn’t much to explain here. I used a black ballpoint pen, the type you might find in a typical office, and went to work hatching out the planes. The idea was to simply get used to gradiations with a pen and inform how I approach plane changes in anatomy.

What do you think? I definitely exaggerated some features and boosted the character aspect a bit. It started with the glasses and more expressive features, but eventually moved to more frazzled hair, a lighter coat, ID badge, etc. I suppose I was imagining a doctor or a scientist, but I didn’t quite commit to anything; I think it’s still an ok render though.

Anyway, that’s all for this post.
If you are an artist, do you like rendering? I know many hate it, others love it. Who are some models I should be following on Instagram? Share your thoughts below, and always like and share this post!

See you next time,
Peace