-Dan dos Santos
Once a year, for the past seven years or so, my friend Irene Gallo and I have asked 12 artists to create a miniature painting to be donated to the MicroVisions auction. The proceeds of this auction support the Society of Illustrators Student Scholarship Fund.
The artists are allowed to paint (or sometimes sculpt) anything they want. The only restriction is that the final image be 5 x 7 inches. Over the years, we have seen some pretty amazing pieces come out of it, and this year is no exception. In fact, this year may be one of the best yet. But more on that in the upcoming days!
This year, I got to do more painting than organizing, as I contributed a piece to the auction as well.
Painting at that size can be quite challenging, as I’ve come to learn, and doesn’t go quite as fast as one would think. On the upside, it’s a great chance to paint whatever you want, and not feel so guilty about blowing off work since it’s for a really good cause.
So for my MicroVisions piece, I decided to paint a comic book character that I have been wanting to paint for a long time now. For copyright reasons, it’s probably safest if we just call her “The Warrior Princess”.
The final image, seen above, is all oils on board, and of course, measures just 5 x 7 inches. Attached below are a few progress shots I took for you guys along the way.
Awesome! She is beautiful yet still looks like a warrior.
Beautiful! Awesome as always. She looks like a character I know… I can't quite remember her name… I WONDER if this WOMAN you painted is inspired by her. =P
This is really nice work!
I'm always confused and curious on the rules of copyright in situations like this.
Regardless this piece is about 5 x 7 inches on my screen and detail and quality blows my mind!
I love this related cartoon by Nathan Bulmer, highlighted in Drawn.
Small is not appreciated enough. You know they say it's not the size of the piece but the glow of the rope that matters.
Was the oil applied directly onto the graphite rough? That's daring, and makes it doubly amazing!
Very nicely done. 🙂
I used an acrylic spray fixative first. That way, if I need to wipe off the oil paint at some point (which I did), the drawing wouldn't come off with it. I recommend 'Krylon Workable Fixative' for this.
Wow Dan, that's terrific! Love the way you re-imagined her costume.