Another gorgeous undead girl

I had big plans for the Macabre Monday challenge at HDH this week.

I painted a pretty cool painting (for a newbie), but she was not my first

idea for the Drop Dead Gorgeous theme.

I am on the Rick St. Dennis EDT, and he is very well versed in the 

drawing of gorgeous ladies. His etsy shop is filled with beautiful 

women of all ages, sizes, and time periods. He really knows how 

to draw scary chicks too, but I had the idea to take one of his 

pretty gals and make them dark with my coloring. 

I have done this in the past with other, "non intentionally dark" 

images, and they turned out pretty good. Well, not this time. 

In fact, it turned out so freaking bad that I actually 

threw the image away.

I NEVER throw out images that I mess up on. 

I always try to salvage them, or at least let them serve as 

a cautionary tale for others. 

So,

I had to redeem myself with the intention of using a RSD image in the 

way that it was originally intended.

I used the image of Meena  from RSD's etsy shop 

(I'm not sure that she is still available, though).

I followed the "choose a sketch" challenge over at 

Simon Says Stamp challenge blog, and this is what I came up with.

I used a sentiment from Stamp Insanity's True Blood set. 

Those are some great sentiments (thank you, Catherine), and I get 

quite a bit of use out of them. Unfortunately, it appears that 

Stamp Insanity is no longer in business. 

Stop by HDH to check out the latest Macabre Monday challenge.

Then, check out Rick's Etsy shop full of killer art digis.

If you are still in search of inspiration, stop by the

Simon Says Stamp challenge blog.   

Drop Dead Gorgeous painting completed

So, about halfway through my painting for the 

Drop Dead Gorgeous

challenge at Haunted Design House, 

I realized I don't really have a clue what I am doing!

I'm no painter! How do I blend colors? What's gel medium used for? 

Which brush should I use? Ack!

She's turned out pretty good considering, I guess.

So this was the original idea, using chipboard letters to spell out

Drop Dead.

My son put the nix on it, and said it detracted from the painting too much,

making it look "scrapbooky". I rely on his opinions quite a bit. He's got a

good eye for color and design. 

I want to also state that this is not my original concept.

I found a really cool sketch on Deviant Art a few years (long before I 

became so diligent about saving artist's names with their art), 

and sketched it into my ideas book.

I scoured about 80 pages on DA for this sketch yesterday, but couldn't 

find it. I just wanted to be clear that this is not my concept, but rather my version of the original sketch.

This version was before the final (for now), fine tuning. 

    

The more she sat on my table, the more I kept messing with her.

Is that how most paintings are? The more you look, the more you want to 

fix and add to it?

I had to stop. I still want to fix her nose and lips, but I have to stop.   

Feel free to stop by HDH and get your hands dirty with our latest challenge.

Drop Dead Gorgeous WIP

The second week of the Haunted Design House

Drop Dead Gorgeous challenge begins today.

As usual, I am running behind.

My nickname in high school was the "Lag Master".

My license plate frame read: The Lag Master has arrived.

Yeah, it was that bad.

Still kinda is apparently.

I am bit intimidated by the challenge of painting my project. 

But I want to try. That may have something to do with my slow going. 

Here is a peek at my current progress.

Sketched and background blocked out

Skin and hair roughly added, and my feeble attempt at blending

the skin tones. 

Smoothed out some of the skin tones, added some dimension to 

her wounds, and painted her top (what's left of it). 

Added some color highlights to the hair and lips.

So far so good.

I'll pop in with the finished painting sometime later today or tomorrow.

Keep it CREEPY!!