davidcmatthews

Satin Steele - between sets

Added 2022-08-08 00:25:54 +0000 UTC

Often, I will see a particularly striking photograph of a woman bodybuilder that will inspire me to draw one of my characters in that pose, with that lighting scheme.

And sometimes it'll be a pic that's been languishing in my archives for weeks, months, or even years, that I'll suddenly see with fresh eyes.

That's what happened here. Because it was a woman posing with dumbbells, Satin Steele seemed the obvious choice for subject.

I am pleased with my rendition of the lighting... but that much detail is very time-consuming! So in most of my current work, I'm looking to simplify details like lighting and vascularity, looking for that "sweet spot" that balances the level of detail with ease and speed of completion.

(It was that "speed of completion" desire that led to the decision to keep the setting simple. My original thought was to place a rack of dumbbells against the wall to her right; but as you can see I decided to forego it. My rationale is that a "busy" background would draw attention away from the deeply-detailed figure. (But the reason was that what you see took the better part of three days to accomplish, and the thought of spending a fourth day on a dumbbell rack... well, I wanted to get this thing done already!)

...and I just noticed after I'd uploaded the silly thing that I forgot to label the 'bells with their weight! *grmbl grmbl* They're 30 pounds each.

This will be a Patreon exclusive until December, at which time I'll release it into the wild! (Well, to DeviantArt, Twitter and Instagram, anyway.)