The Magpie

My entry for ^ChewedKandis Vector Art Contest: Self

That is me

Well, at least basically

I took a crappy self portrait, which I hell won't show, and started turning me into a magpie. Since that is my last name, it was pretty a pretty obvious choice
But I did not want to do a realistic self portrait, since I have already done that and that would have been boring

I had wanted to start it like a Body Paint, so the base shapes were all solid dark grey blue colored. Since magpie feathers shine in different colors i tried some ways to apply that effect and ended up with multiple colorful blends

The feathers are brushes i created based on some sketches I made [link]
they started out being with an outline, but I later moved away from that concept and used transparencies instead

For the eyes I wanted to add something around them… you know how animals almost have a sort of leather like texture around their eyes (or noses as a matter of fact). I wanted to use that and I think it looks quite awesome

There are some flaws, like the "leather" not being really connected to the "skin" but they way it looks is the way I want it to look
I used a very limited amount of layershading, thus making it harder to "connect" parts
The wings are probably done all wrong, too

Applied some SVG Gaussian Blur filter for the feathers in the front.

Oh yes, before I forget: After I had started doing my concept and vectored, I realized it reminded me a lot of "Black Swan". So I watched the movie again and probably some of the movies "feel" flew into the illustration. Awesome movie, really!
Instead I am turning into a magpie and not a swan

There is no stock involved really… The feather shapes were sketched after looking at google search results, same as the magpie colors. The body and face is mine

Okay, I think that is all and enough said… Just some close up for you to enjoy now



Hope you like it