Watch me paint a Skeleton into a Human figure tutorial

This painting is my first attempt at a "transforming" painting. The idea I had was to paint a figure with the same steps I use when I draw the human figure.

You can see in the video that I start with a rough outline for the skeleton figure. If you have ever taken a figure drawing course you know that in order to properly capture the human form you start with the skeleton and muscles underneath. It's like building a house. You need the frames then the drywall before you add the house paint.

Anyways, after I paint the rough outline I fill in the skeleton, while keeping the light source in mind. Giving depth and highlights. Keep in mind the skeleton is rough because this is not a skeleton painting. So I don't care about the tight details and realism. This is just a phase.

I then move on to the muscles. When I was in college my drawing professor had us learn all the muscles by name, and I knew them all....but then I got lazy and forgot most of the names of the muscles. Haha, I'm trying to re-learn them.






The muscles are where I start to develop the facial features and decide on the characters face. I develop the muscles the same with the skeleton, with highlights and shading.

After the muscles I add on the ears and nose. This is just a transition towards the skin level. And before we get to it, I am very rough when it comes to skin and the multiple colors it reflects.




The nose and ears helps her looks less like Skeletor.

If you've seen most of my artwork you know that painting skeletons and any anatomy is "easy" for me because I've had more practice. Skin, however, I don't have as much practice in. But that is the point of creating art all the time. You get to constantly practice!



I did use many references for the skin tones while I was painting. Off screen, in the video, I have a tablet with a google search of faces. This way I can study skin tone and learn from my mistakes quicker.

 Last step is just to add fun stuff. I gave the girl eyebrows, eyelashes, freckles, and hair that grows out in the video. Considering I didn't have to concentrate very hard on this part I kept my focus on showing the hair grow out from short tight waves (very 80's) to long waves.





Please check out my other "transformation" cotton painting.
And I hope this was fun and informative.