Pinup Walkthrough

A very basic walkthrough of how I did my recent pinup girl painting, inspired by Gil Elvgren. NOTE: The image is © Katherine Dinger. I post the walkthroughs for general reference to give other people a glimpse into how I work, they are NOT here for you to copy! Thank you.

Step 1 - Using a series of textured brushes I painted a basic background. Here I'm using a sort of golden, greenish color which is darker at the corners and lighter in the center. I did this so the subject would be kind of framed in the middle.

Step 2 - I painted an outline of the figure, with basic features in place. Then on a layer underneath my lines I blocked in some basic colors. I also desaturated the background a little bit.

Step 3 - With a medium sized, textured brush I begin to throw in some muscle definition in the torso. I also go in with a finer brush to roughly paint in the facial features.

Step 4 - Here I'm smoothing out the skin so its not so lumpy and dirty looking. I've also tweaked the face a little bit more. Continuing to bump the highlights as I work.

Step 5 - I've started to use richer colors at this point so that I get a nice, oil painty look. I'm trying to keep the palette very warm. Working on forming the thighs and generally tightening up the body.

Step 6 - A big jump from the last step I know. ;] I decided that I wanted to have her looking at her bikini, she seems a little more surprised that way. I also finished the legs and put a soft shadow beneath her that kind of goes against the "wall". Her hair I left very simple so as not to be too distracting. Also went for a trendy leopard print bikini. Its not quite appropriate for the time period but I thought it would be cute anyway gosh darn it! I adjusted the color of the background one more time aaaaand... I'm done!