Chernobyl
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(Click to enlarge)
I was looking around for subjects to draw and I found a picture of this 13 year old boy in an issue of National Geographic. The boy, Dima Bogdanovich, was born in the region surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear powerplant which exploded in 1986. He developed thyroid cancer, although it was unlikely because of the radiation, as the radioactivity that causes thyroid cancer decayed soon after the accident.
You can view the the process of how I painted this picture in photoshop by clicking the images below. Altogether I took about 2 whole nights painting this. I first started out with a very crude sketch of his head, then i added some shading to give myself a better idea of how the light is reflected off his face. Then slowly i fine tuned each area of the face, touching up, adding more colours and details.
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They say what you draw reflects your state of mind. Couldn't agree more.