Caracal Head Studies

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by TomNCatz

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This is not Tom, but it is referenced from a handful of the images his basic design is based on, so it's damn close.  Decided I needed to study some kitties before I was going to be able to put together a ref for Tom.  Hopefully I'll be starting into the ref tomorrow, though I still don't know how I'll be approaching it...

2 heads 4 hours 1 layer and 3 refs.  The head on the left was a single ref studied to copy as exactly as I could.  The right was from 3 refs(one of those being the ref from the left image) purpose being to combine features from all three and create details in between from my mind without loosing the level of detail and realism.  I'd count both as marginal successes.

Incidentally this is the first time I've done full color on an image without ever having linework.  I started by painting basic silhouettes and then continued to paint details in deeper and deeper till it looked how I liked.  The two most recent pictures of Phaine were done this way as well, but they were monochromatic, thus do not count.  This approach takes a lot out of me, but it feels better and still ends up taking a lot less time then doing the linework then painting over it.  Unfortunately, until i get a better grasp of it I think I'll need a reference image for pretty much every thing I do.  limiting, but hopefully liberating in the end.

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