Keeper of Dreams
Digital Painting and Photo Manipulation of a Vampiric Queen 2015
by Justin Gedak
A thousand secrets locked behind a sorrowful gaze;
She rules the night.
Enchanted eyes bewitching lost worlds;
She haunts the unseen.
The seducer of the mad.
The messenger of the dark.
The keeper of dreams.
I based this vampiric Gothic fantasy portrait off of a photo of a friend of mine. To describe her gaze as that of an old soul would be an understatement. She has the kind of eyes which seem beyond time. Eyes bewitched by ancient ghosts, and haunted by some other world. I think the expression in those eyes really came across well in this portrait, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out.
The artwork was created with a combination of digital painting and photo manipulation using Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop, and a Wacom Intuos Pro Tablet. I digitally painted on literally hundreds of layers to get that "scratchy effect using a self taught technique.
Model: Toni Becker
Open Edition prints and merchandise are available at Society6
Here's a slideshow of my creation process for the portrait:
For anyone wanting to sign up to my mailing list, I'm giving away a free full resolution digital download of "Born for Battle". It's a very large image, 9000 x 6750 300dpi, and I figured it would be interesting for people to be able to zoom right in to see the details and brushwork. Also, anyone with access to a good printer can print off their own print of it without having to order anything online.
Click on the image below to sign up and get your free download
