Anatomy of a Spanking Illustration

Awhile back, I received a request to do a step-by-step demo on producing a color piece. I thought I would just email it to them, but they said, 'No, no. Post it on the blog!'. I didn't think very many people would be interested - but they argued that, for those who aren't interested in the process, they can just scroll down to the finished piece.
Fair enough. If you aren't a fellow art geek, then scroll away. For those of you who are, I hope this little demo inspires you in your own efforts.

First, let me state emphatically that I do not consider myself an accomplished digital artist worthy of teaching others. If you really want to learn digital painting, there are plenty of online resources. I am too impatient to wade through them, so I just wing it. So consider this a demo of what even an amateur can do with the right software tools - I use Photoshop, almost exclusively.

I prefer to do the initial sketch in pencil on paper. However, I find cleaning up my scans and fixing the grain in the linework once they've been transferred to the digital realm such a pain in the ass that - well, let's just say not every pain in the ass is to be savored. 

Most of the time I draw from an image in my head, but for this demo, I was inspired by an old photo of dancer/actress Barrie Chase I found on Tumblr. I liked the silhouette of her pose, and infused a little imagination to make it more spankocentric:

Because I like the women and the illustrators out of the 50's and 60's, I am inspired by the look of the illustrations from that era. Illustrators back then were not afraid of linework showing in their final piece, but they were selective about it, so I decide at this point that something of the line drawing will survive to the end.

So let's start with some basic washes of color to get the tonal values established. Not too worried at this point about edges. That can all be cleaned up later. I use the skin and hair tones to guide all the other values and colors, so blocking them in is the first task.

Now some other colors can be blocked in, careful to avoid ones that will overwhelm the flesh tones. The shoes are a little intense, but that's ok - I know that they will eventually be balanced by the redness I will be adding to her hubbie's backside.

At this point, I decided to add a 'halo' around the edges, both to add a little visual energy, and allow her shorts and his shirt to read even though they are the same as the background (another trick of the old illustrators, letting some part of the foreground unpainted so the background shows through). 

On second thought, I abandoned that idea in favor of making her shorts 'pop'. Tight white shorty shorts are just too delicious to be allowed to melt into insignificance! So I added a muted color to the background, and reduced the saturation of her shoes.  I also started refining the muscle shapes and highlights. The finished piece is starting to reveal itself now. 

And we're done. A wife displaying her own artistic brushwork. You'll notice the linework is still there, but has been removed in areas where two surfaces are in contact (her thigh on the bench, or her elbow resting on her knee). I usually leave the face and hair til the last, simply because they are the most expressive element, and if I do them first, then my natural laziness might lead me to hurrying the rest. I try to get some type of expression on the face in every drawing, even if its just a subtle one like here. Even nuances of expression can say so much. I see a lot of spanking photos on the net where spanker and/or spankee  just look bored to death. I suppose the spanker often thinks she is looking stern, but it often does not come across that way. 

Hope you enjoyed my little art class.