Fantasy worlds create beautiful,
sometimes scary stories.

But there is more to it,
because as you find comfort in creation of realistic portraits.

You will surely ponder a new direction,
search for things that can enhance your art.

Adventures into the worlds of fantasy,
are one such thing.

Fantasy built on top of realism,
creates extremely valuable works of art.

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And please don't worry, as with portraits,
the road towards fantasy is paved with reference images.

But here you move beyond head-shots, and even full body photos,
into speaking with color, style, pose, and composition.

Despite what schools try to teach us,
it is always more responsible to prepare a library of all the reference photos you will need.

For example, I! need butterflies to see if perhaps,
my elf painting could use a crown simiular to an 1869 work by Sophie Gengembre Anderson.

A work she entitles with a snippet of a poem by Charles Ede:
"Take the Fair Face of Woman, and Gently Suspending, With Butterflies, Flowers, and Jewels Attending, Thus Your Fairy is Made of Most Beautiful Things".

And that is exactly what you need to upgrade your realistic portrait,
to a fairy version.

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Art is a beautiful adventure,
it has a song that will intertwine with yours.

If fantasy worlds call to you,
than this is your next step.

You will learn fast,
I barely begun and I already outgrew my first three works.

My portfolio is down to just six pieces,
as if to make room for more fantastic realism.

My Hoistu! cat does not belong in my art portfolio as it is too silly,
still it will make its way to my Art Book, so that nothing is lost.

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The adventure into the words of fantasy,
is a thing meant for art.

And here we can directly speak of color, style, posture and composition,
as enhancing those to their maximums brings fantasy to life.

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We must ask if the original color palette of our reference image,
can be made better.

I am currently working on an Elf,
and it is worth exploring more skin tones, more glow and fantasy.

Beyond that, the atmosphere of the world of elves,
can lean towards the green like the Matrix, or yellow like Breaking Bread Mexico.

We should call it Color Palette Enhancement,
it does not apply to everything, but color adjustments can make your best work even better.

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The original photo of the elf I am working on,
has very simple ears, they can certainly benefit from a bit of extra flourish.

This is called stylization,
where you may enlarge the eyes, make the moth smaller, add or remove shine from hair, or even make the eyes glow.

Elves, vampires, robots, and werewolves can all benefit,
from glowing eyes.

It does not have to be an evil glow,
just a magical one.

Stylization of realistic portraits,
is best to be kept down to minimum, a glint in the eye, a glow to the hair.

But once you cross into he world of fantasy,
developing your stylization techniques becomes a superpower.

The best way to get at stylization ideas,
is to look at other people's art in search of the ideas they borrowed and developed.

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As you cross beyond realism,
and begin to speak with color and added flourish of stylization.

You will discover the language of the pose,
here you can express defiance, attack, power, by bending the shape of the body.

You still use photos for reference,
you want things to feel right.

But now take a loooooong time,
to pose your models, and to take just the perfect photo that goes well with the face and will agree with hands.

Yeah, some people will draw a simplified skeleton,
but just like with portraits this is not something you start with.

And despite the nonsense art teachers may throw at your feet,
using simplified skeletons, may be something, that you might want to consider avoiding.

Just like you don't want to paint a portrait from memory,
you probably don't want your pose to start with a skeleton doodle.

Some artists may not wish to use a wooden or plastic model,
and pose themselves, or ask friends for help with their reference photos.

In fact those reference photos,
may dictate where the painting is going next.

And here you can easily imagine how a person would be willing to pay upwards of hundreds of dollars,
just to own a battling werewolf or armor clad Elf, or battle angel version of themselves.

The more you build out the scene in a way that your subject loves,
the more valuable that work of art will become for them.

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I grew up hearing of a painting so large,
that it was said, I could get lost in it.

When I got a bit older I finally went to visit it,
the painting was the room.

You couldn't walk up to it,
as the painting merged with he floor that had real sand and battle artifacts scattered over it.

Apparently, you couldn't just jump over the railing,
and play with he guns, even though they were already on the ground.

This is the nature of composition,
world building, world speaking, world enticing.

Just like you can't put a relaxed person into a battle painting,
you can't just draw any simple background.

The scene behind your character,
must be carefully built.

If the vampire feels passion,
the forest must burn.

If the werewolves,
begin their march, then the night moon must be brighter than the sun.

If beautiful elves,
are dancing, then the world must dance along with-them.

And if the warriors are preparing for battle,
the war hammers and the katanas must weigh upon all the souls.

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Even if all you have is one realistic portrait,
the gateway to the other universes, is already within your reach.

Install Krita, get a pen and tablet, grab a reference photo from reddit gets drawn, stretch it over the entire Krita canvas,
set opacity to 50%, and let it serve you as the shape guide, and the source of perfect color.

May your art begin with Hyperrealism,
for there are great universes waiting for you, to open the door.