Selfridge's XIII (Lady Mae, yet again)

Lady Mae again.

This is the thirteenth (of fifteen) in a series of practice pieces painted in Manga Studio 5, based on screen caps from season two of 'Mr Selfridge'.

I had a really hard time with the sketch on this one. The angle and size of the head proved extremely difficult for me to exaggerate in the way that I had envisioned it. What eventually saved me was my SmudgeGuard. I hadn't really been using it before but now I'll probably always use it. Basically it let me draw more freely, sliding my hand on the screen (my Cintiq) and using my whole arm to get the gesture right. Turns out that being able to rest my hand on the screen and still freely use my arm also helps with fatigue, letting me paint longer. Without the SmudgeGuard there's more friction, and sometimes my hand sticks to the screen.

As for the painting, it went pretty smoothly. I utilized the same underpainting technique that I used on the last painting, trying to be a bit bolder with my brushstrokes. I ended up toning/glazing with Payne's Grey again toward the end to deepen the shadows by cooling them down a bit. I've been struggling with how much to exaggerate the color and contrast. I always want to pump up the contrast a bit, especially since my paintings tend to turn out dark, but I also want to stay true to the reference. And it doesn't help that I'm trying to avoid Photoshop; Manga Studio is a bit more limited when it comes to image adjustments. For the next painting I use Payne's Grey ahead of time in the underpainting.

(Finished April 3, 2015)