Paul Lehr

Paul Lehr (1930-1998) was an American illustrator, well known for his Science Fiction and Fantasy covers during the 1960s. Along with illustrators like Richard Powers and John Schoenherr, Lehr's surrealistic works help define that era's distinctly abstract style.

Hair Tutorial

-By Ron Lemen

I have been asked by several people to do a post on hair, more specifically cropped hair or short fur that stands up, how to paint that so it looks correct. Unless the hairs lay flat on the surface showing off the form they are on through logical changes in value, the hair that sticks up will take on its own lighting characteristics that can sometimes play havoc on how to correctly solve this pictorial dilemma. We should look at how hair is constructed before beginning our paintings. Hair is translucent. That means it is not totally opaque, light passes through it and illuminates it as well as light reflects off of it when the hair is perpendicular to the light source. Like velvet, this flips the lightest surfaces in reverse of what we would normally understand the surface to be lit like. This image perfectly portrays this visual problem we are encountering. Notice how the body is front lit but the clothing is absorbing that light where it should be lit and reflecting it where it should be getting darker.

The outer edges of the form are reflecting light while the fur facing upright towards your eyes, through the middle of the form is darker, absorbing light. Why? Because hair is translucent, it is semi transparent like a fiber optic only milky in its transparency. When that glass tube faces your eye on end, it will appear dark if not facing a light source or it is embedded in a surface like skin. It will absorb light rather than reflect it. Our red pillow here is a pretty good example of the reverse lighting over its surface.

The majority of the hairs on the pillow are light at the edges of the pillow, the middle is darker in value.

This is the reason why short fur or cropped hair is so tricky to paint. It looks like the reverse of what everything else is lit like. Here are a few facts on how hair is constructed that I borrowed from a site called naturallycurly.com:

Each hair has a cuticle, which acts as a mirror that reflects a certain ratio of light—the higher the number of layers, the higher the ratio of the reflected light and the more intense the shine. 

Shine is perceived in two parts: the Chroma-Band, which reveals the color within the hair shaft, and the Shine-Band, which is a pure reflection of the light off of the hair's protective coating. 

'The physics of hair shine really is the reflection of light not just off the cuticle but through your cuticle,' explains Dianna Kenneally, a principal scientist at P&G Beauty (a division of Procter & Gamble). 'The light actually goes through the cuticle, absorbs the color of your hair and comes back.'

Fur grows upward on a curved surface. if it is cropped hair on a character, the hair will begin at the hairline as tiny hairs and as we go back row by row the hairs get denser and longer. On this head looking downward we will begin with the darker values in the middle of the skull and work outward towards the edges of the head and change the range of value from darker to lighter helping delineate the form and objectively stage the lighting over the form.

While painting at this stage, think mass not strand, form and not texture. Texture is a disruption of edge, like a deckle edge all broken up. The very edge of the form and any major value change within the form are the places to delineate texture. Cutting through highlights is another place to delineate texture. Minimize how much you use the texture, and avoid repeating brushstrokes to avoid pattern or a stamped look, especially when it is uniformly spaced.

With traditional media I have found that the best brush type to use for the texture part of the fur or hair is a round brush broken up by hand. Flats and filberts can make for some fine textures but are too inconsistent with the way the brush hairs separate and there are too many rows of hairs that are side by side that force them back into a uniform edge. Rounds are so forgiving, especially sable rounds. They can make any type of jagged edge and you can shape them in many different variations that never repeat.

Before The Mash Up

Mashed Up

This sequence is done with traditional media, gouache, and this is how I developed the edges of this type of short or cropped fur. It all begins by simplifying the shapes down to just a few easy to delineate plane breaks with the appropriate assigned values that best represent the local surface under specific lighting conditions. Then the edges are softened down as gradients to help connect the planes and turn the form as well as start giving the hat the soft feeling it will need with the texture pass added. This is then followed up by breaking up the round brush like the above and below images show, and apply the various values that are connected together using short choppy strokes followed by either your fingers smashing out the sharpness of the edges or using a damp second brush to pull a damp stroke over the dry strokes of the texture applied. The paint is first applied very dry then softened with water to give it dimension and additional softness as needed.

Here is a step by step of a demonstration I did for my Anatomy of Drapery Class for CGMA where I cover the topic of different types of materials and I analyze the short furs as a problem to solve, more difficult than longer hair that lays upon the surface it grows from. By breaking the problem down into stages it is easy to identify where any troubles occur in procedure or whatever else might be plaguing your work. Notice how it is all painted in with large blocks of tone, not by textures. The texture is left out of the painting until all the surface forms have been worked out that will come in contact with the edges of the fur. Form first, texture is at the very end of the process. Now go paint some vikings or Game of Thrones fan art and put this fur technique to practice. This technique can be used with any medium, it's not so much about the application of paint to the surface as it is more about a way of thinking and executing, and organizing your thoughts then building with organized steps so you can add texture to your painting without it being a hassle, ugly, too intense to try, or any other reason/excuse we can use to prevent ourselves from going there.

Posters and Stuff

by Greg Ruth

Almost none of you have seen me dance, (and those six or seven who have? Shut up about it). When I was a kid I accidentally ran over a Texas-sized toad just trying to hop across the street, all too slowly as it turns out. I was rocking my indigo black Schwinn Roving Roller with the banana set and I only found about the toad as I was actively rolling across it, and it was terrible. I must have hit some weird part of its nervous system so after I skidded to a halt and looked back at the sin I had visited upon this toad, it flopped across the pavement arms flailing, and bouncing like it was being hit by lightening every half second. That is me, dancing. For those of us of the Undanciful Clans, we have learned to truly experiment only in opportunities of great privacy. This way no one gets hurt when it goes bad- which it can more often than not.

So when I was approached by Andreas from Cross Cult in Germany about a cover gig, it felt like a place to do some private dancing. They had just acquired the rights to translate Nnedi Okorafor's LAGOON into their native language, and needed something special and unusual for the cover. There had been a previously illustrated version and some stock photo AD built one as well... but they wanted something more suited to the book they had in mind. I was unfamiliar with her work and devoured the novel like a maniac when it arrived. I owed my best effort to Andreas- (which is true of any job no matter where it is people. Seriously), but he was also hiring me to be let loose upon it. This my fellow Muddy Coloraisians, is a dream opportunity that if you're supremely lucky, only comes around once every few years. It's a weird book with inky aliens in water possessing sharks. It's deeply unnerving and marvelous to read, and this rich source, the lack of leash, and frankly to be honest, knowing it was going to be all the way over in Germany so if I face-planted this dance it could be kept relatively quiet... all of these factors led me to chase the wildest idea I could and run for it. 

The first trick was to think about how to make aliens visible on the cover without showing "aliens", and then meant teaching myself how or if I could draw flowing ink as if dropped in water on paper with a pencil and convince the eye it was liquid captured in a single image. I brought a few clear glasses to the studio, filled them with water, and dropped small portions of heavy cream in, and watched what happened. I did it a few times to get a sense of how the physics of that moment worked and then started sketching. It took days. This drawing above was the most time eating drawing I have ever done before... until I did the next one. 

Having felt like I got it right enough to hit the full one, I did, and screwed it up by drawing in eyes and a face within the inky cloud... and it came off looking like a bad 1980's promo to a prime time David Copperfiled magic showcase. The problem was letting the technique get in front of the character- and the woman in this novel was the entire axis of the story- so I decided to lean on one of my more recent tropes of "ghosting" the alien murk into the face of this strong woman and see where that went. It went pretty well actually. Sharyn November managed to get it in front of Nnedi at this stage and based only upon one of my obscured instagram WIP pics, she expressed a level of enthusiasm rare to this world. We began communicating and coordinating in a way also rare and fantastic. You have to understand, it is the common practice in our thing to keep the writer and the artist away from each other. There are a number of reasons for this and most of them are good, and really you only need one or two of em to justify it. This was the exception to prove that rule. I finished the piece adding some color and some spaceu-starlike dots to further the sci-fi angle a good bit, scrapped the necklace, designed the type and Andreas crafted the final layout and we were done and ecstatic about how it turned out. Nnedi and I shared this images as they came all over the usual social media thunderdomes, and the reception was wildly fun and enthusiastic. And experiment in private from a safe distance suddenly became an international confab spanning three continents. I had run across the toad int he street with my Rover and it hopped up and started break-dancing like Michael Jackson and Fed Astair had a baby, and it was a total surprise. 

Then I got to do it again, and then again again. This time it was a two punch assignment both books, WHO FEARS DEATH and THE BOOK OF THE PHOENIX together. Given this and the few weeks duration since LAGUNE, (the German word for LAGOON), carrying through a theme seemed in order to us both. Nnedi had already teed up one by resting her novels almost unilaterally upon the shoulders of mighty women protagonists, and so repeating the magic of Lagune in a series seemed  a likewise delicious thing to chase down. Nnedi was a little hesitant about the idea of corralling all these very different women under a team banner of sorts- and for good reason. We worked through ways in which we could individualize each, but still make them of a piece, even if these two novels were so vastly separate from Lagoon. Luckily of the many tools you have when doing a cover and especially a series, design can do a lot for your team. The real need was to make each different, but related and these latest two even more so. Twins with a much younger sister. While I worked on these two simultaneously, the first one I finished was THE BOOK OF THE PHOENIX. The flames took on a quality like the inky water, but needed to be sharper and more vivid at their ends. Some wiggling was done to make this a certainty and it came together fairly quickly.

Feeling overconfident I raced into the second piece thinking I could nail it down in the same day as its sister, which of course is always a recipe to get exactly its opposite just to teach you a lesson about humility. But also sometimes you get it right the first time and you don't see it. This is why I like to get up early and work in the earliest part of the day, and leave the less vigorously mindful activities like, emails, paperwork, contract stuff, website maintenance and hugging/scaring the kids. Not the time to think you have become God's sweet index finger of infinite power. So that night I went to bed in a panic thinking I had lost my way. I'd like to irresponsibly misquote Alan Moore in expressing the selfsame pit for families of creatives: we are obnoxiously excited and over joyous when things are going well at work, and contemptible weeping angry snapping turtles when not. We are entitled children whose ice cream keeps getting taken away and then returned, and then stolen again. I was on the dark end of this sad narcissistic cycle, and so fretting all night shot up in bed like a whip with a NEW idea that was even BETTER than the other one. See? I was still awesome at my job, and thus, awesome amidst this undeserving universe.

But not really. It started off fine and as I focused on the drawing... and forgot to illustrate the story in just about every way. It was a fine piece as far as it went, I suppose, but lacking the narrative that sharpened and focused the other pieces, it seemed feckless and honestly style without even being in the same school district as substance. This wasn't her, this wasn't the right symbolic language to use for the story... other than it being another african woman staring you down, there was no place for this sideline tour. Lucky for me just as I was about to fall into the insaniac spiral of panicked self doubt, Nnedi got back with her read on the two pieces and loved the first one after all. This is the time when you stop listening to the voices in your head hollering ten different contradictory things at your weakest parts and you grab the life raft tossed by the lifeguard. The rescue worked. The original got back on track and I took this portrait of Onyesonwu to its final end place. Sometimes you gotta get lost to find yourself, but I think it'd be better for everyone to avoid getting lost in the first place.

And all of it for a thing that was never meant to be more than the one thing that no one ever saw. Sometimes you think you're out there dancing alone, but more often than not- especially these days, you're dancing on Wonder Woman's invisible jet instead. Even better... Irene Gallo over at Tor got in touch to do a short reveal of these altogether for the website and the excellent Natalie Zutter wrote it up, leaving me speechless again. You can see it right HERE:

The second part of this post? I can't say just yet, but it is likewise a tale of discovery despite a secret dance... so that will have to wait for the next time. See you then!

Patreon Monthly Event

This coming Sunday, from 3-5PM (EST) will be our first Patreon Monthly Live Event, a 2 hour Head-Painting Demonstration with Muddy Colors member, Dan dos Santos. All subscribers Rank 2 and above will have access to this event. Subscribers should check our Patreon Page the day of the event to receive their access links. Thank you all for your support! We hope this is the start of something great. -The Muddy Colors Team

ROGUE

-By Dan dos Santos

It's definitely been slow going, as I haven't had much spare time, but I've still been picking away at my personal series of X-Men portraits whenever I can. I managed to give myself a weekend off from regular commissions for once, and instead decided to spend some of that time finishing another portrait, this one depicting Rogue. Like most of the others in the series, this is a fairly small painting, just 8 inches by 8 inches square. I chose the smaller size mostly for speed, and to prevent myself from getting too caught up in details, but I still manage to fail in both of those regards more times than not.

As usual, I did my preliminary drawing directly onto my primed illustration board. I then did a few washes of fluid acrylics to help establish some basic colors and values. Once dry, I gave it a quick coat of workable fixative and then went over it in oils to bring it up to finish.

For those of you keeping track, this makes #6 in the series. So far, I've depicted Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Shadowcat, Rogue, Gambit and Storm. I think I'll be doing Colossus next, and then finally move on to the original five team members.

I will have these X-Men painting on display at this upcoming Dragon Con. Be sure to stop into the art show where you can see these works, and those of other Muddy Colors contributors, including Justin Gerard & Todd Lockwood.

adcasd

-By Dan dos Santos

It's definitely been slow going, as I haven't had much spare time, but I've still been picking away at my personal series of X-Men portraits whenever I can. I managed to give myself a weekend off from regular commissions for once, and instead decided to spend some of that time finishing another portrait, this one depicting Rogue. Like most of the others in the series, this is a fairly small painting, just 8 inches by 8 inches square. I chose the smaller size mostly for speed, and to prevent myself from getting too caught up in details, but I still manage to fail in both of those regards more times than not.

As usual, I did my preliminary drawing directly onto my primed illustration board. I then did a few washes of fluid acrylics to help establish some basic colors and values. Once dry, I gave it a quick coat of workable fixative and then went over it in oils to bring it up to finish.

For those of you keeping track, this makes #6 in the series. So far, I've depicted Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Shadowcat, Rogue, Gambit and Storm. I think I'll be doing Colossus next, and then finally move on to the original five team members.

I will have these X-Men painting on display at this upcoming Dragon Con. Be sure to stop into the art show where you can see these works, and those of other Muddy Colors contributors, including Justin Gerard & Todd Lockwood.

adwd

-By Dan dos Santos

It's definitely been slow going, as I haven't had much spare time, but I've still been picking away at my personal series of X-Men portraits whenever I can. I managed to give myself a weekend off from regular commissions for once, and instead decided to spend some of that time finishing another portrait, this one depicting Rogue. Like most of the others in the series, this is a fairly small painting, just 8 inches by 8 inches square. I chose the smaller size mostly for speed, and to prevent myself from getting too caught up in details, but I still manage to fail in both of those regards more times than not.

As usual, I did my preliminary drawing directly onto my primed illustration board. I then did a few washes of fluid acrylics to help establish some basic colors and values. Once dry, I gave it a quick coat of workable fixative and then went over it in oils to bring it up to finish.

For those of you keeping track, this makes #6 in the series. So far, I've depicted Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Shadowcat, Rogue, Gambit and Storm. I think I'll be doing Colossus next, and then finally move on to the original five team members.

I will have these X-Men painting on display at this upcoming Dragon Con. Be sure to stop into the art show where you can see these works, and those of other Muddy Colors contributors, including Justin Gerard & Todd Lockwood.

adawdaw

-By Dan dos Santos

It's definitely been slow going, as I haven't had much spare time, but I've still been picking away at my personal series of X-Men portraits whenever I can. I managed to give myself a weekend off from regular commissions for once, and instead decided to spend some of that time finishing another portrait, this one depicting Rogue. Like most of the others in the series, this is a fairly small painting, just 8 inches by 8 inches square. I chose the smaller size mostly for speed, and to prevent myself from getting too caught up in details, but I still manage to fail in both of those regards more times than not.

As usual, I did my preliminary drawing directly onto my primed illustration board. I then did a few washes of fluid acrylics to help establish some basic colors and values. Once dry, I gave it a quick coat of workable fixative and then went over it in oils to bring it up to finish.

For those of you keeping track, this makes #6 in the series. So far, I've depicted Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Shadowcat, Rogue, Gambit and Storm. I think I'll be doing Colossus next, and then finally move on to the original five team members.

I will have these X-Men painting on display at this upcoming Dragon Con. Be sure to stop into the art show where you can see these works, and those of other Muddy Colors contributors, including Justin Gerard & Todd Lockwood.