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Ninja Blur

© Joe Jeskiewicz

This article is an example of letting the art dictate the article. I was in search of a good clean source of poses to do study drawings off of and I came across photographytips.com, which I can recommend for this purpose. And while looking though their Hip Hop Dancer pose section I saw a pose that caught my eye. I knew instantly that I could use that to make something interesting. So I pulled it from the website, dropped it into my Paint Program, and started re-creating.

For many months now, I've been in game mode. I've been thinking of images and characters for RPGs, Adventure games, and the illustrations to go with them. So when I was glancing through the images on the website, I have warrior poses in mind. Artexercise was in the back of my mind and I wondered what I was going to do this week. I've been too busy to start an art project at home and I've been in class for the past week learning software and coding that would make any brain ache.

I considered briefly just skipping the week with a lame excuse, but then I thought, no I can supply an idea and a quick example no matter what. I had my image, I had my tools, I had a little time. I knew in my mind already that I was thinking of a ninja type pose, one familiar with any gamer and with most anyone who's seen a promo of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. There were a few things I needed to do to the image however.

The first tool I used, apart from the paintbrush to get a little specific color on the canvas was the blur tool. In many paint programs the blur tool is located in a group with the paint tool, or is a part of the paint tools functionality. With the blur tool you can smudge, drag paint, and a few other fun things. And with the digital realm you always have the option of saving your work at various points to prevent disasters. So I worked on fleshing out the sword and modifying the hand a little to make it appear to be holding an object.

With deliberate brush strokes of practiced mouse movement, I then blurred out the wrist and along the bottom of the arm. I was aiming for a sort of disappearing act to add to the mystery of the ninja. So along the arm and into the chest, I faded the blue background and then I employed the second helpful tool, which I have spoken of before, the mask. Not only is the mask good for blocking out areas for pattern fills but just like in the studio a mask is there to protect a piece of canvas from an errant brush or a bit of thinner. To avoid the figures left hand from being blurred into oblivion and distorting the reality I was setting up, I protected it with a mask.

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