http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/ isissousa's gallery of images en-us 120 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1046861

Personal work. It is inspired by my father’s passion for wolves and his strong and good heart.

This piece will be in my art book (coming soon), which will also feature some older and new, unseen artwork just as good as this one.

I also recorded videos of half of the process (painting the cape/hood, hair and snow –vortex-thing). These videos and other exclusive video tutorials you will see in my (interactive) book as well.

Painted with Painter 12 and my old Wacom Intuos 3. I had reference for the posing/angle, a model from the book The Fantasy Figure Artist’s Reference File.]]> Wed, 18 Apr 2012 05:49:22 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1048872

Spring is coming, and it’s bringing me some inspiration. Here is a portrait of a character inspired on the black cornflower.

This painting will be featured in my art book, coming soon.
I chose to make a renaissance style portrait, with plain-almost-black background, to give emphasis to the character’s costume and facial features.

Painted with painter 12 and my old Wacom Intuos 3. All the textures are painted with airbrush and oil brush.
]]> Wed, 02 May 2012 11:58:58 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1050527

Guess who this is?

This painting will be also featured in my art book, coming soon! Part of the process was recorded in an exclusive video fot this book. More info coming soon as well!

It was painted with Painter 12 and my old Wacom Intuos 3.]]> Sat, 12 May 2012 05:56:24 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1049519

This is both a crop of a “larger than life” panel artwork I am doing in collaboration with my amazing artist friend Nathie, and a stand-alone piece.

We are depicting the god Tor and a Valkyrie from the Norse mythology in a very stylized way.

I am painting the Valkyrie and the environment/background while Nathie is painting the mighty Tor.

In a few months we will reveal the complete work to the world!
Painted with Painter 12 an my oooold dear Wacom Intuos 3.

(OBS: This concept has nothing to do with the movie THOR.)]]> Sun, 06 May 2012 08:25:54 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1047331

This is my second entry for the Wizards of the Coast Art Test. The costume and color scheme is based on references provided by the test briefing.

I tried a portrait approach instead of an action pose. I wanted to convey a multicultural character (as the culture on the briefing suggests), by working his facial features with and Asian twist.

Painted with Painter 12, all textures made with airbrush and oil brush. ]]> Sun, 22 Apr 2012 04:09:58 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1044652

This piece was created with two purposes: to be submitted to the D&D Art Test and to be part of my art book, which will be published in a few months.

The character is based on a pre-established culture from the test briefing. He is a town guard and I added to this work a more realistic approach during its development.

The idea here is that the guard is from noble origin, he is on duty, doing an investigation. He carries a small axe and a knife, which you don’t see there. He is using rider gloves, in case you think his gloves look strange ;P

I had reference for the posing. Done with Painter 12 and my old Wacom Intuos 3.
]]> Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:40:29 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1048038

This is a very personal piece. My dear character Ragnhild (from the painting Torbjørn og Ragnhild) dreams about being free during her journey through winter land (Norway).

She is very different from anyone and any other elf you may know…

Painted with Painter 12.

This painting will be also featured in my art book, with great guest artists, coming soon!
]]> Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:16:21 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1041347

Personal work, inspired on a dream I had couple of years ago. This piece will be featured on my art book, which will be published in a few months.

Painted with Painter 12. I used Photoshop to adjust the final colors and last details. I used reference for the perspective.

Hope you like it!]]> Fri, 16 Mar 2012 07:37:24 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1034826

This piece was developed for the ArtOrder Challenge "Evolution". It was given a short description for a character and we artists had to come up with an original concept for that one line description.

As I got to know about the Challenge very late, I hurried with my piece to meet the deadline, it was done in Low res, with Painter 12, my fav program and my old Wacom Intuos 3. I used 3 brushes: Fine soft air, oil blender and a sponge for texturing.

I had reference for the posing from a book called "Comic Artist's photo reference - Women and girls" by Scalera.

It was fun and an enriching experience!]]> Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:17:31 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1033413

2012 - Personal work. He is an elf, character of mine, from a story I’ve been dreaming of. Hope I can write and publish it someday.

I had several references to build up his “facial map”.
He is mainly based on a man in mid-forties, a girl in her mid-twenties, me, my husband, my mother-in-law and a friend!

I had NO reference for the hair, eyebrows or beard. The background is built from 3 photos. The sky is painted.

Painted with Painter 12: soft airbrush and a bit of sponge to texture his bluse.
]]> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:29:52 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1027808

Here is a Fantasy Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton, based specially on Godfrey Kneller paintings. He was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and beginning of 18th century.

You can search more about him on Wikipedia. I think he made the best “Newtonian” portraits.

In this one I mixed the features he had painted with my own vision of this great personality, Sir Isaac. I tried to convey him in a slightly melancholic mood; you know, this melancholy that is pertinent to the geniuses/brilliant minds.

It was painted in Painter 12, with soft airbrush. The texturing on his jacket was given with a sponge… yeah, as simple as this! ]]> Thu, 05 Jan 2012 03:48:20 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1016170

This is my latest (and best) painting so far!

Painted with Painter XI, it took me about 3 days to be finished with it; one for the concept, two for the painting process.

These are two fantasy characters of mine, from the end of the Viking Age. The guy is called Torbjorn and the elf-girl is Ragnhild.

Torbjorn is dressed in” saueskinn” (sheep skin); while Ragnhild is using a woolen cape, decorated with traditional bunad* stiches.

Her pullover is made in a technique called nalbinding, popular among the Vikings at that time.

You can research more about “bunad” and “nalbinding or nalebinding” on the Wikipedia and other sites.

Hope you enjoy this one as much as I do!
]]> Fri, 28 Oct 2011 03:48:09 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1011351

Halloween is coming and I’ve got inspired to produce something spooky and beautiful…

As I have a fascination for vampires, it was easy to pick up the theme.

My dear vampire is called Elisa and I let myself influence by Bram Stocker’s character Lucy, such a sweet, gorgeous woman…

- I had a slightly reference for the pose, been browsing a lot of coffins to have some ideas for my coffin interior.

- Made with Painter XI

- Painted mostly (95%) with soft round airbrush and textured (on the dress) with sponge, oils, sumi-e brush and airbrush.

- More about the painting (process, details, etc) coming soon on my Blog!

OBS: You may ask why she doesn’t have any jewelry or the classical crossed hands… Well, I tried to add both elements, but didn’t like the result. So I got rid of what I thought didn’t add to this painting…
]]> Tue, 04 Oct 2011 08:05:34 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1006725

I’m starting a “fan art” gallery as part of my portfolio.

The first collection is going to be of some of mine and my husband’s favorite bands/music artists.

The first painting is this one you see here: Young Deris.
It’s my attempt to make a much younger Andi Deris (Helloween, ex-Pink Cream 69) like an elf!

I think that together with the charisma and the great voice he has fantastic facial features and they fitted perfectly for my portrait!

To come up with this result I looked at several pics of him, (past and present) from different sources on the web.

Painted with Painter XI, Wacom Intuos 3.
]]> Sun, 11 Sep 2011 09:05:16 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/1006703

Personal work, inspired by a “salad of things”: Masterplan’s Soulburn, Tristania’s World of Glass (the whole album) and the cover artwork of Wishmaster, from Nightwish!

Done with: Painter/Photoshop/PhotoPaint and in mixed technique: mate painting/digital painting.
I had reference for her posing.

The background is composed by photos of the Trollstigen here in Norway, taken by me and my husband a few years ago!]]> Sun, 11 Sep 2011 05:38:22 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/999297

I had pre-ordered the “D’artiste – Character Design” by Ballistic Publishing a few months ago. When I finally got it, not only I was delighted to see the art of my friend Nathie featured there, but also some interesting tutorials by Anne Pogoda.

One called “Designing female character variations” and the other “Rescuing a character design: combining two paintings”.

I’ve been chewing these articles back and forth in my mind, when I remembered I had a character which was very interesting and full of potential, but poorly rendered, as it was painted a couple of years ago. At that time I was shifting from graphic design to digital painting, so my skills were not so good.

Then I got the idea to revamp my “Venus Illegitima”, inspired by the original Venus of Boticcelli + the Therion’s song, “The birth of Venus Illegitima”.

For this one, I decided to go very intuitive, I used photo of a model to have a perspective reference and that was all.

I got very happy with the result and the resulting character is way more interesting than my original idea years ago…

The painting was all done with airbrush (Fine tip soft air) and a blender (diffuse) for smoothing and mixing better the colors.

It took me more or less a couple of days to get it done. Made with Painter XI & Wacom Intuos 3

You can check more about the process on my Blog later on
]]> Sun, 07 Aug 2011 07:56:08 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/992591

Here is the complete cover (with tittle and author name) of the book Son of Life.

Macbeth (the man you see here) is based on a real person, a friend and co-worker of the book author, who gently provided us with photos for reference.

I had reference for his costume, too. I used a lot of texturing on it and on the characters faces to convey more realism.

Groa (as part of the background) is also based on a real model, from the book ”The Fantasy Figure Artist’s Reference File” by Peter Evans. Recommended!

TECH INFO:

Software: Painter, Photo-Paint

Brushes: airbrush (Fine tip soft air) for painting everything, and the blenders (diffuse blur & blender pallete knife) for smoothing the painting and mixing better the colors.

Texturing: diverse, of my own stocks

HAIR/BEARD: no texture! All of it is painting with the airbrush, varying the colors, transparency and thickness.

STAY TUNED: A making of is coming soon on my BLOG
]]> Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:38:35 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/992377

I present you thy Majesty, King Macbeth. As part of the background you see Groa, his lady.

This piece was commissioned by Grace Draven (author of Master of Crows) to be the cover of her incoming book: “Son of Life”.

I made the book cover design and tittle as well. (Check out the full version on the cover on my blog: http//isissousa2d.blogspot.com )

Macbeth is based on a real person, a friend and co-worker of the book author, who gently provided us with photos for reference.

I had reference for his costume, too. I used texturing on it and on the characters faces to convey more realism.

Groa is also based on a real model, from the book ”The Fantasy Figure Artist’s Reference File” by Peter Evans. Recommended!

TECH INFO:

Software: Painter, Photo-Paint

Brushes: airbrush (Fine tip soft air) for painting everything, and the blenders (diffuse blur & blender pallete knife) for smoothing the painting and mixing better the colors.

Texturing: diverse, of my own stocks

HAIR/BEARD: no texture! All of it is painting with the airbrush, varying the colors, transparency and thickness.

STAY TUNED: A making of is coming soon on my BLOG
]]> Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:32:57 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/979674

This is a very special painting for me, which shows a big improvement in my skills. It was a particularly difficult theme, where I challenged myself but got rewarded by the beautiful results.

Briksdalsbreen is an arm of the mighty Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier in continental Europe, located here in Norway at the beautiful fylke of Sogn g Fjordane.

I have been at that arm in 2006, a year in which Briksdalsbreen retreated 146 m and can be in danger of disconnecting from the main ice field.

In my conception there is a creature that lives inside the bedrock. She is colossal, can stretch out and blend with the rocks. She is also able to travel underneath and around the whole Jostedalsbreen. Very few human beings have been able to see and talk to her in her thousands of years of existence.

Technical info:

Software: Painter, PhotoPaint and Photoshop.
Time: + - 50 hours
Wacom Intuos 3

More about the process is coming! Stay tuned!
]]> Sun, 15 May 2011 00:22:58 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/945734

This painting is plain simple and has very few elements.

It’s just a lonely statue in in some type of chamber. As you can see, it’s nothing with life in there…

Apart from the statue itself that is waiting, waiting and waiting for something to happen.

Does it wait for answers?
Does it wait for someone?
Does it wait for a promise to be fulfilled?
Is it under a spell?
And… For how long?

Well, you can try to figure it out.

* * *

Made with Painter 11

Brushes:

- Blender: diffuse blur, smear
- Airbrush: fine tip soft air
- Sponge: fine sponge (just to texture the wall and the floor)

Color adjusted with PhotoPaint X5

+ - 3 days

Reference: a real statue in a cemetery from the city I lived previously. ]]> Fri, 31 Dec 2010 08:09:54 +0000 http://isissousa.cgsociety.org/gallery/960934

Here is a character I just finished. There is a long time since I've started to think about her. Finally, Mirella comes to life!

Now, I'm going to work her friend and protector, Calixtus.

I think I will work her in 3D, too, later on...

OBS: Check the image with her BIO on my BLOG!

]]> Sun, 27 Feb 2011 13:44:59 +0000