Athlete Portrait: St. Louis Cardinals’ Shortstop Paul DeJong
What a year of Cardinals’ baseball so far! First the Cards destroy April, then May destroys the Cards. Let’s see if June finds some stability somewhere between the two. Fortunately one thing that has been consistent is a lot of the players themselves: Dexter Fowler is finally playing like we knew he could, as is Marcell Ozuna, José Martinez continues to be José Martinez, Kolten Wong continues to prove that he deserves the Gold Glove, and last but not least, Paul DeJong is having a field day both offensively and defensively. Which is why I’ve decided that he’ll be the first I add out of the bunch to my collection of Cardinal digital drawings.
Original Photo: I took these photo from my seat back at the April 21st, 2018 home game against the Cincinnati Reds. Thank goodness my sister has an amazing high quality camera with a much better zoom than my own digital camera. Mine is at least better than an iPhone, but it’s still laughable in comparison to hers!
Materials Used:
Original Sketch:
Strathmore Recycled Sketch Paper – Fine Tooth Surface
Lead Holders w/ 2H lead and HB lead
Final Drawing:
Wacom intuos 5 Touch Professional Pen Tablet
Corel Painter 2016
Pens – Flat Color 2 (for initial black outline and base colors)
Airbrushes – Digital Airbrush and Detail Airbrush (for highlights and shadows, details, final outline, etc.)
Digital Water Color – Flat Water Blender (for background)
Progress Pics:
Time-Lapse Video:
Time Spent: 32 hours and 21 minutes. The last time I did one of these digital portraits I commented that I was rusty because of how long it took me. Well, that was a year ago, and that portrait of Tommy Pham took me 8 hours less than this one. [Face palm]
Up Next: I’m currently waiting on the photo references for a commissioned portrait of a Havanese (that’ll make the third one I’ve drawn now!), so in the meantime I’m thinking of doing one of the three other Cardinal players I mentioned above (I’ve already drawn Kolten Wong, which you can see here). OR I’ve also been wanting to do another portrait of my dog Reagan to celebrate the 10th birthday she had earlier this year. A then and now portrait of sorts. Decisions decisions…
Until next time! Lauren H.
Follow @BewareOfTrees