Here I am pictured with the prize of my 1886 expedition into the heart of darkest Africa in search of the elusive pygmy elephant, hitherto only a creature of whispered conjecture. This particularly wonderful specimen I named Sweetums because of her mild temperament. However I would urge caution should you ever, in the unlikely event, find yourself face to face with the bull of this species, though no larger than a medium sized dog, they are particularly aggressive. One of our guides had to have his leg amputated after his shin was badly gored. Sadly history seems to have forgotten my greatest discovery and since no further reports of this unique species have surfaced I am forced to believe they have gone extinct.
Wait? What? You don't believe me? Fine. I made it all up. I'm not a time traveler, not at all. Nope.
Hi, I'm @jcayne. I painted this self-portrait specifically for this introduction, as of right now it hasn't been posted anywhere else. If you're interested I will explain the process below, but for now I suppose a slightly more factual introduction is in order.
Pardon the expression, trying not to drop my phone.
These days I live in a little city in South Korea where I teach English at a local elementary school. I've been here about eight years. I spend too much time in coffee shops and on the weekends you can often find me enjoying a craft beer or two at my friend's brewery. I love geeky things, particularly comics and manga, animation of all sorts, novels with any kind of supernatural element, fighting games, and tabletop rpgs. Since I've been in Korea I've written two thirds of two different novels of my own, and suspect I might even finish them someday. A long time ago I had aspirations of being an professional illustrator, but life doesn't always take you in the direction you expect. Nowadays art has receded back to a sometimes hobby. In fact, it's been almost two years since I've done anything but doodle in the margin of a lesson plan.
So how did I wind up on Steemit? It's a bit of a long and convoluted story. I had typed it all out, but I ended up deleting it because it was long and convoluted. Let me try the short version. Something, something cryptocurrency, stumbled on Steemit, poked at it for a while trying to figure out what I could do it with it and if it was worth my time, discovered @steemitadventure, kept coming back to look at steemitadventure's work because it spoke to my geeky soul, and then I realized what I wanted to do with Steemit, make art again.
The plan is to post my work, some new, some old, and resteem artwork I like. So follow me if you want to see more of my work or work I think is cool.
Alright, so let's talk process.
I began with a very vague concept of what I wanted to do, i.e. a self portrait with me wearing a Victorian suit and something involving a tiny elephant (this was kind of a call out to Heinrich Kley, an old school pen and ink artist I like, look him up). This first thing I did was go and collect a little bit of reference.
I used the picture of the Victorian gentleman with the amazing hair to get the basic shape of a the suit, but I stole idea a few ideas from other period images and made my own design. This reference picture was the linchpin of my painting when it came to lighting.
With just that to go on I fired up Krita, a very nifty free digital painting software and got to work. I drew directly into the program using a medium sized Intuos Creative tablet I bought a few years ago because I was getting tired of dealing with my old as dirt Intuos 2.
I like to draw on colored backgrounds on the computer, so I don't have all that white glaring back at me. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this, so I went with brown because it looks good for sketches and makes a nice base color for paintings. You can see I'm a pretty sloppy sketcher, even more so on the computer because I can draw just as much with the eraser as the brush, so I just end up pushing the lines around, almost like working clay.
At this point I had a decent likeness, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the elephant as I hadn't really planned out my image ahead of time. So I opened google and searched for pictures of people holding cats and dogs, trying to find some inspiration. I had originally thought I might draw myself holding the miniature elephant up by the scruff of its neck, but that didn't really match the attitude of what I had already drawn. Eventually I stumbled onto a picture of Ben Affleck holding his dog and I thought the hand positions were interesting. It didn't take me long to realize I only had a sort of vague notion of what an elephant looked like so I had to google that as well. It's surprising difficult to find a picture of an an elephant on its back, so I had to improvise a bit.
I snuck a peek at couple African elephant heads, too, because I wanted to get a bit of that look and ended up with something of a hybrid, but that's fine, it's a made up species anyway. This image of an elephant served as the primary reference and was the genesis for most of the pachyderm related decisions made in the painting process.
Originally I wasn't intending to go much beyond this, I thought I might clean it up a little and make a nice sepia tone sketch with some white highlights, but on a whim I decided to paint it instead. So I started to lay down some low opacity color over my sketch.
I still wasn't sure what I was going to do with the image, so you can tell this is pretty tentative. After I was able to fix a basic idea of what it might look like in color into mind I decided to go ahead and commit to a full painting.
Starting with the areas I had the best idea of how the lighting to should be, i.e. the jacket, I started laying down more opaque layers of color. I work pretty much exclusively with a hard round brush with the opacity set to pressure sensitivity, or the size set the pressure sensitivity. The first helps me blend and find the colors I want and the second is good for detail, I predominantly use the former. Using these two bushes I just keep laying down more and more color the painting starts to feel solid and the drawing starts to disappear.
At this point I really need to start thinking about the lighting, the problem is none of the lighting in any of my reference images matches. You can see in my previous step I had blocked in a new lighting scheme for the elephant. And in this one you can see where I'm starting to test out how light might fall on the face. By the time I saved this capture of my progress I've already detailed the hands and the elephant, but light is what defines all that detail so I spend a fair amount of time trying to get everything to more or less match up
The face is the most important part of a portrait, if you nail it everything else can be kind of fuzzy and vague and the viewer's mind will fill it in. You all will have to tell me if I managed to do it. The tricky part here was to essentially reverse the lighting on the reference picture of myself. At one point I was reduced to feeling my own face to make sure I was getting the right shapes, and trying the make best guesses how the light would wrap around them. I was sitting in a coffee shop at the time, so I probably looked like an idiot.
You can see I made a little value scale for myself to make sure I hit everything, if you're going to be changing values back and forth a lot this is really helpful to do, rather than trying to find them again somewhere in your painting. Also, I used this layer of the painting to drop in a few remaining details, such as the buttons, vest, and bow tie.
When I started working on this picture I never intended to take it this far, but maybe I have a narcissistic streak or something. However, I had never really thought about a background. I briefly considered trying to paint in a jungle setting, but ended up deciding it would take away from the image (and my time), so I glanced through some old vintage photos and went with something in the style of several Victorian photos I saw.
This was one of the few areas I really took advantage of working digitally. I made a new layer, took a textured brush and painted over the whole image. Then I dropped the opacity of the layer down so I could see through it and erased the out the area of the figure. Since it's a pretty simple silhouette this wasn't much work. And that's that. Honestly I'm pretty happy with how it came out.
For better or worse, here is a close up of the face. While not perfectly realistic, I like how all the colors come together in the hair.
Here is a closer look at the elephant. On the head in particular I let a lot of the underpainting show through and sort of define things as little happy accidents. I combined elements of the Asian elephant and the African elephant to get something I liked.
Despite taking all that time to paint it in color, in the end I really struggled with whether I should convert it to black and white or not. It definitely looks more like an old photo.
I don't know which I like better, tell me what you think
Anyway, that's me. I'm really appreciative toward all of you for helping me get started on Steemit. If you liked this, then using any or all of the nice little buttons below would be amazing.
Cheers.
[Edit: There seems to be an issue with some of the images displaying red shifted, is there anyone that might know why this is?]
Great intro man, really one of the best in a long time ;) Even though you already got some nice upvotes, I still resteemed you for some attention! Greets
That's kind of you to say, and thanks.
Way to go! Bright future on STEEM for yoU! Upvoted!!
Welcome to Steemit @jcayne!
I wish you much success and hope you find Steemit to be as rewarding and informative as I have.
Here are some links you might find useful.
Your stats on SteemNow
Your stats on SteemWorld
Your stats on SteemD
How to use Minnow Booster
How does Steemit actually work?
Let me know if I can help.
Many blessings! @bycoleman
Welcome to steemit, jcayne!
Awesone..... Am surely following you. You seem so interesting and adventurous plus being a super genius. I was sold on first paragraph. Welcome to steemit. Am flames
LOL, you are definitely the first person to call me a super genius. Thanks.
You're welcome
@Mountainwashere's Guide for New Users:
Welcome to Steemit! It's got a steep learning curve, but it's worth it in the long run if you keep putting in the time! Just know that it will take quite a while before you start getting attention and followers. The biggest secret to success? Keep posting high quality content regularly, and make sure to search out other people's posts, read them, and give relevant comments.
Tagging is extremely important. Always make sure to use all five possible tags, and to keep them relevant. You can always just tag something "blog" or "photography" or something else really general (so long as it's still relevant) to fill the quota if you need to- most of your tags should be established ones, though one or two less used ones are fine.
Posting more than four times a day can reduce your potential rewards, as well as turning off potential users. (I aim for one post per day most of the time.) Consistency is important, though, so try to have a regular posting schedule. You should also be sparing with resteems- only do it for really important posts. (I resteem a post once a month or less, generally.)
Always make sure to attach a photo to your posts! You should also have a finished profile: Write a description, add a profile picture and a banner- neither needs to be a photo of you, necessarily, but you should have something- and set a website.
There are a lot of really good resources out there for plankton and minnows (new users). You should check out the following groups and services, they offer a lot of valuable resources:
@thesteemengine (Check this one out first- they're an extremely supportive group that can help out in a lot of ways.)
@qurator (These guys offer an excellent liftime upvote to accounts that post consistent quality content.)
@steembasicincome (Another lifetime upvote option.)
@steemstem (The biggest and best STEM curation group in the game. If you're interested in writing or reading about science, check these guys out!)
@geopolis (A fairly new science curation group, this one's dedicated to the study of the Earth.)
@ocd (A curation group that seeks out undervalued new writers.)
@photocontests (Runs contests and provides other support for photographers.)
Much of the activity on steemit actually takes place off Steemit, on places like steemit.chat and discord. Learning to use them is a great idea.
And, again, the biggest thing is just patience. Breakout successes are incredibly rare on Steemit- you've got to find your way to success through perseverance and hard work. It takes time, but you'll eventually succeed if you put in the work.
Please feel free to repost this guide on the posts of other plankton & minnows you run into (though I'd appreciate it if you credit me.) If it was useful to you, feel free to check out my posts and give me a follow!
Thanks for the info. Steemit is a lot to take in all at once.
It definitely is! I also sponsored you for an @steembasicincome membership, since you're producing high quality content from the start, so they'll be giving you a lifetime upvote on all your posts starting here in a few days. It's not a very big upvote, but every little bit counts, and there are ways to increase the size of your upvote from them- including paying to sponsor someone else for a membership.
Wow, that's very cool of you.
This is one of the best introductory posts I’ve seen since joining steemit. You really came prepared and art is one of the appreciative stuff on steemit.
I salute and welcome you to the best platform in the world. I’ll be following you to see more of your work. Gracias! #SteemOn
Thanks for the warm welcome.
Welcome to Steem @jcayne.
Do read A thumb rule for steemit minnows - 50:100:200:25 for starter tips.
Spend time reading Steem Blue Paper to know how Steem blockchian works and if you still have any queries ask them on our Ask me anything about Steemit post and we will try to answer that.
All the Best!!!
Wow nice work welcome to the community I look forward to more great work from you
Thanks a lot, really appreciate it.
Welcome to Steemit!
Wonderful having you here :)
Good luck & have fun!
Thank you for the warm welcome.
Brilliant intro! Welcome to the gang : )
Thanks, and glad to be here.
welcome join steemit, give your imagination here
It's all I have to give.
It's very nice to meet you :) welcome to Steemit! Looking forward to see more of your artwork but would be also very interesting to read about South Korea
Maybe I'll see if I can find some way to integrate to the two.
Amazing work! Followed upvoted and resteemed!
Thanks. You have some pretty incredible photos on your blog. Followed.
Thank you. You are being investigated by @curie a curation guild. They helped me with this post This is a good thing. But unfortunately introduce yourself posts can't qualify. Someone has to post your post in @curie 's discord. It's quite lucrative to find someone as talented as you because if curie decides to help you the curator that found you gets 10 Steem. So I'll be watching your blog. In return you will get 160+ votes. Use this video of @jerrybanfield if my explanation was bad.
Looks like Curie did take your post! Congrats
Welcome aboard! :)
Creative introduction, I think it's going to be interesting following you if you keep up with that kind of imagination. Well done, you have my attention
Fantastic work there! I did chuckle after reading the intro :)
Glad to hear it. I like to think I can judge the quality of my own artwork to some extent, but I can never tell if my writing is any good.
hello welcome to steemit. I invite you to visit my blog
Firstly, welcome to Steemit!! You came in with a great introductory post there, and it got duly rewarded. I'm a synthetic being, but my master, who is a human (of sorts), @markangeltrueman thought that this was possibly the best introduceyourself post he has seen on here. That wonderful integration of the slightly overweight Ben Affleck carrying a puppy and an elephant was truly majestic.
I've re-steemed this on the @steemsearch blog.
Hope you enjoy your time on the platform. WIth quality like this, you are gonna be fine im sure :)
The Curator
Clever and humorous, @jcayne.
Hello ❤ Great post, I hope you enjoy every second within the community and give your best at every moment.
I must say that I loved your #Introduceyourself is great for me to read the post of the other steemians on this platform ... Thank you for taking the time to write about yourself, about your life and let me know a part of what you are. I hope to read more about you soon, as well as I hope you can succeed in this social network.
By the way, I want to take this opportunity to tell you that, like you, I'm starting in this platform and I made my first post, I would greatly appreciate it if you read it and if you like it, give me a vote, comment something, give me resteem or follow me, I'll do the same if you want.
Without further ado, I say goodbye. I remain attentive to your next publications. 💋
@Mjzo here to support you in what you need. Regards!
Welcome to steemit....
DMC
You nailed it. The face is perfect, it lets me fill in the rest with my imagination and I am imagining your triumphant return from your expedition to the heart of Africa in 1886. In future posting I hope you fill us in on how you are still here with us today in 2018? Were you perhaps the discoverer of the (thought to be fabled) fountain of youth? Did you find the holy grail? Did you in fact perfect time travel in 1888 as one non-existent link in Wikipedia used to say before a temporal anomaly wiped it out when you joined up with our continuum? I am dying to know man!
And I love your painting.
This post was nominated by a @curie curator to be featured in an upcoming Author Showcase post on the @curie blog. If you agree to be featured in this way, please reply and:
You can check out the previous week's Author Showcase to get an idea of what we are doing with these posts.
Cheers - Carl (@curie curator)
Nothing like a good mystery. And thanks.
I hope you'll forgive my delay in replying, I wanted to do a little research to make sure I understood what Curie is and what I might be agreeing to. It seems like you're doing good work, so by all means, you can use the text and/or images from this post in the Author Showcase if you so desire. I don't really have anything more to add since this is already an introduction post, but if you feel that you need any additional information, feel free to ask.
Cheers.
Oh I should be able to whip something up :) Yeah, the second half of my invite comment is a form and typically is not being left on an introduction post. It isn't every day that @curie upvotes an #introduceyourself post (and in fact one of the @curie guidelines is, no introduction posts). This one was just too damn awesome to abide by that guideline. This is the first introduction post to be featured in the author showcase so you are breaking new ground! I will let you know when the showcase is posted. Cheers
I'm honored. Can't wait to see it.
Author showcase post is up :)
https://steemit.com/curation/@curie/curie-author-showcase-march-1st-2018
It's a really great picture.
Thanks also for the friendly explanation ;D
That means a lot coming from another artist. Wish my Korean wasn't so rubbish, the kr-art community seems really vibrant on Steemit.
Wow, you truly are an artist. I love the details and the light. And the beginning story. Welcome.
Seeing things like this makes me feel all inspired to create stuff myself!
Go with that feeling, create something!
And thanks for the welcome.
Can you reply @carlgnash
Done and done.
What a better way to introduce yourself with the awesome painting right! I really love it! Looking forward for your future works i bet its gonna be amazing! :)
This is incredibly clever! The story at the beginning, the post, the intro, the step by step art. I'm totally stoked to have come across this. Part of my major was Illustration, so I was hooked with your story from the beginning.
I am super glad that I stumbled up this. I'll be following for sure. Looking forward to seeing more of what you are up to!
That is a really good introduction! And thanks for the "how to" too! I just rediscovered drawing myself with my little daughter and I need all advice i can get.
So I resteemed and upvoted you! Good look and have fun here!
Cheers @peterpanter
What an amazing and unique way you adopt for your introductory post @jcayne
Welcome on board dear....with this your creativity the sky is but a starting point for your exploit....
You're welcome to steemit @jcayne. This is a very friendly community and you'd love it here. You got a resteem from me.
@jcayne Wow! This was a great intro, you have so much talent! I'm sure you'll have lots of success on here. Best of luck!
Amazing introductory post...I'm soooo gonna following you
Good job! Ben Affleck....that made me laugh. Looking forward to more.
loved your sense of humor @jcayne :)
i'm sure you'll add spice in this platform. i'll be looking forward to your future posts and welcome to Steemit community! Have a great day ahead! 😊
Wow amazing! So cute and awesome! Good job! <3
You have a new follower!
hello :D i like drawings too , kindly see my drawings and i hope you'll like it https://steemit.com/drawing/@sheiloiys/1-sketch-blooming-inside
Cool concept.
You re welcome@jcayne
Welcome aboard and congrats for your stunning self portrait!
Congratulations @jcayne!
Your post was mentioned in the Steemit Hit Parade for newcomers in the following categories:
I also upvoted your post to increase its reward
If you like my work to promote newcomers and give them more visibility on Steemit, feel free to vote for my witness! You can do it here or use SteemConnect
Original and fresh introduction. Welcome aboard! Have a nice day:)
Great post and realy great work
Wow, that's a great work
I'm a Korean
I'm posting a Painting on Steam It.
I want to communicate with someone who is posting the same picture.
I looked through some of your posts, I like you're SD characters, very cute.
Thank you~~
I'm posting various Drawing ~
I just posted the Webtoons.~
well done mate, that was a great intro post, as people have already noted.
I hope you find a spot here, and it looks like I like your style, what I have seen so far.
I have been away for a while, but still lurking in the background. I think the process stuff works well on here.
You have inspired me to finish off the post I have been working on and post her up.
Cheers, and welcome aboard.
Great Post and welcome to STEEMIT. I'm a newbe as well and already love the community ;) Have a great STEEMIT day.
Hi how are you? Really nice and interesting intro, amazing artwork, i love it ! I would like to connect with other cool steemians, artists and musicians. I’m posting music tutorials and other things related to music (and bitcoins:p). I’m the founder of the free music school communicasound. I'm really pleased to meet you. So i give you my vote, follow you and i will be happy to read your next posts in the futur. If you want, you can do the same and follow me. It’s important to have a family in Steemit :) Greetings from Paris. Peace.
Way to come in with a splash. Obviously a creative genius, I'm sure you'll fit right in. Great work!
@Lahvista
This is such a thorough and awesome post, your storytelling and showing your process and reference images really help a person get to know you, a great example of what an #introduceyourself should be!
You won me over, followed and upvoted!- happy to have another talented creator in our ranks here on steemit! Welcome to steemit @jcayne!
Nice intro and great of your to show the process of the self portrait!
Welcome to Steemit!
Hey man! Awesome post. That's super-cool you work teaching English abroad.. I tried to do that, and, even with an MA I didn't get hired lol. Oh well... amazing art, too, btw. I'm sure you prob already know this, but, there are a lot of cool, various "contests" and such on steem--one being put on by a buddy of mine, related to "steem basic income": https://steemit.com/earthnation/@cryptkeeper17/win-steemit-upvotes-for-life-with-a-free-membership-to-steembasicincome and for art, like here: https://steemit.com/contest/@isaria/msp-music-and-art-curation-contest-20-usd-prize.. Stuff like that! Good way to earn some steem and Steem Dollars!! Anyway, Welcome to steemit!