Featured Member

Latest Vexel

Links

Lisa Mitchell
Spoono
Passionated
Text Link Ads
Stars Portraits
More & Exchange

Paradiso(8042 Views)

<< prev next >>

217 Favourites

Paradiso

For my 10th... a tribute to my long lost Ayumi vexel -- a new Ayumi vexel! :D The lovely background photograph (c) felina at sxc.hu.
Her eyes were sooooo much fun! Although I'll forever be jealous of most other people's eye skills.

// Edit: I worked on the *transparent* hair some. Hopefully it looks less awkward now.... Thank you, Echoia!

// Jan 12. Major edit: Redid the hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows with a new technique that I'm hoping will become a bit more second nature to me soon... :)

Full size: http://www.deviantart.com/view/27618219/
Original image: http://akirichan.net/portfolio/original/paradiso.jpg

by Natalie > http://akirichan.net // November 24, 2005 // Photoshop CS2 - 294 layers, 17 hours

Submitted by Natalie on 25th November 2005.

Comment

You must be registered and logged in to comment.

Comments (106)

yensy 17 Sep 06 - 04.19am	Is Really as amazing ...........Greetings
Dawn 28 Jul 06 - 01.18pm	i love the lips, the eyes, the hair, the background, everything!! this is amazing!!!
Ksenya 27 Jul 06 - 11.20am	Amazing vexel of amazing girl! That one of my all time fav... :)
liakitty 31 May 06 - 06.57pm	Amazing!! _
<3 7 Apr 06 - 07.58am	Yikes! ^^ This vexel just looks so real. I love the detail. I usually prefer more simplistic vexels, but you can do realism really well. ^^
cateyes488 6 Apr 06 - 11.27pm	The hair is Awsome
Elliot 6 Apr 06 - 02.09pm	I'm flabbergasted! Aiyah! you are soo talented! Whats your secret?!? =)
aisyah 4 Apr 06 - 06.38am	This is amazing!! I don't know what to say -wordless
Within Princess 24 Mar 06 - 11.38pm	Sunshine in my head!
michelleion 24 Mar 06 - 04.38pm	Hey Natalie, I have just been drooling through your gallery, it is all so brilliant, but I think this has to be my favourite. I just love the colours - they're so bright and summery, and go together so well. You must have sooo much patience, but it really pays off, and I bet it feels so good to get something this fabulous finished after all that hard work :D You have the honour of being my first favourite :)
Sayuri 17 Mar 06 - 03.12am	i'm at loss for words.<3
Angelik 15 Mar 06 - 02.08am	I don't like Ayumi... But this vexel... Is... AMAZING! Woah, woah o_o I'm surprised. The hair... The skin... omg! NICE work!
sklobovskaya 13 Feb 06 - 07.59am	is this supposed to make people feel self-conscious?? X)..for its working haha darn asian blonde!!!!! nice vexeling though! :) ttyl in a few secs
maja90 10 Feb 06 - 06.00am	I think this is a little bit to perfect.. :P It lookes just like a picture!
oneteaspoon 17 Jan 06 - 02.46am	I love the hair, and the fiery eyes! Beautiful!
cuckoo 12 Jan 06 - 01.55pm	Holy shi- goodness! That's awesome! Like posters around the world awesome!
agrayrainbow 11 Jan 06 - 11.59pm	Well I guess I'll critique since no one is really (they're all just saying "yes! how great!") Just a few nitpicky things: - The chin curves up at an odd angle when it gets close to being covered by the hair, I could understand if there was an earlobe there but there's not so it looks a little awkward - The bangs are pulled back a bit too much so it makes them look weird Even considering I stare at Ayu 24/7 (I have a picture right by my computer in fact) I think this is really really good!
_ruckus 6 Jan 06 - 11.38pm	-AMAZING!. <3.
CSmacke 6 Jan 06 - 03.59pm	oh my god!! So gorgeus, there's no words for this peice of work, soo GOOD!!
icyFRESH 6 Jan 06 - 05.10am	its so beautiful words cant explain it... wow
howtragic 5 Jan 06 - 05.33pm	I love the hair and the eyes! The eyes are beautiful! Its really summery :)
Vanilla Angel 5 Jan 06 - 09.40am	what a summer feeling! really beautiful!
nitrojerk2 4 Jan 06 - 05.53am	It's so beautiful! Even up close, I can't see any flaws. You are so friggin talented.
Krissj 2 Jan 06 - 12.11pm	Oh, it looks so real :D! Good job <3
Tone 28 Dec 05 - 08.52pm	Holy cow!
Lilian 27 Dec 05 - 03.16pm	Awesome! I'll be jealous of this work!
Eliss 27 Dec 05 - 01.06pm	This is just to good to be true. It looks like a real picture, and it's mutch better then the orginal!
kayotee1 23 Dec 05 - 01.30pm	She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. stunning. the winter here tho mild at its worst is brightened by the image here. All the affronts of man and fate are thus made to seem so much less severe. thank you once more for sharing. until you officially choose art as your preffered vocation the heads of all professions will waken in night sweats. Ultimately i would have to say that art has already chosen you. vitae brevis ars longa. now...about the eyes... I see from the original that she has some intense reflected light on her orbis occuli which may have thrown you off a lil. it's understandable. your pupils are thus pushed up making the circle centered within a circle that is our eye seem assymetrical. (i do have an acquaintance who has inverted pyramids for pupils however...gotta get a pic of her to share ;-p...so i guess its a matter of interpretation. what the artist sees IS reality lol. one thing to keep in mind about pupils is that they expand when we see something attractive to us (usefull information by anyones standards...wink wink). to recant, her pupils sans reflected light seem misaligned. the size of her pupils however isof course subject to your own exceptional artistic liscense. i will say without reservation that mine expand dramatically while perusing your profile. o.k. maybe a bit more dramatically for your pic than brads...nothing personal brad. its just a man thing. ;-p keep to the grand adventure it fits you well. in the words of one of those dead greek guys, (plato, i think) forgive the length of this (post) as i lack the time to make it shorter. Reply from Oh wow. O_O :)
strawberrywoods 17 Dec 05 - 02.19am	This is awesome
Sharmayne 16 Dec 05 - 11.08am	Woooooooow <3
Danseuse 15 Dec 05 - 03.14am	This is only your tenth? You are amazing... <3333333
aznlurkerz 14 Dec 05 - 12.58am	I really like how you did the shading on her face and the eyes, could you give me some pointers or even point me towards some tut that focuse on that. I'm using photoshop, but i'd like to move into illustrator to take advantage of how to use the mesh tool. You have very beautiful work!
seizuresonfloors 10 Dec 05 - 08.20pm	ok, this might sound stupid, but the vexel looks more like a picture than the original picture
Chloe 10 Dec 05 - 06.07pm	ahh... the hair on all of your vexels are amazing =) i also love the eyes in this one, although the top lashes look a little weird in the left eye, like they're all bunched up.. i dunno... maybe it's just me xP great work! favorites
xJOJO 10 Dec 05 - 03.43pm	OH MY GOSH! The hair is outstanding! This whole vexel is and so are you! LOl
mz_kriz 8 Dec 05 - 05.11am	gorgeous!! it looks better than the original picture!!
XVlovely 5 Dec 05 - 01.43pm	wow this is amazing xD the eyes are like WOW O_O ahh. the hair too.. and everything else O_O I'm surrounded by amazingness xDD great job =]
Ashlee 5 Dec 05 - 12.29pm	Adorable!! The onlyest thing that I dont like about it, is that there is a skin layer wich is pink.. ;( <33 edit: I've painted the pink layer black :P http://home.no.net/swirlsl/pink_black_copy.jpg Reply from oooh where? O.O Must fix.. (Thank you, btw :)
cait 2 Dec 05 - 08.26pm	wow! this must've been hell to do! the orginal pic looks really grainy, so great job!! that's so awesome!
Bebe 2 Dec 05 - 05.18pm	wow :O that's AMAZINGGGGGG
kiwiAddicted 1 Dec 05 - 12.45pm	OMG..o.O it's just like a photo...gorgeous!
Robbay~!* 1 Dec 05 - 12.25am	My jaw dropped when I saw this. Completely amazing.
maggy 29 Nov 05 - 04.05pm	wow it looks so real! great
Seven 28 Nov 05 - 08.57pm	Natalie, you are the best vexel artist on this site. I bow down to your skills.
freedom_fighter_one 27 Nov 05 - 10.51pm	JEALOUS of other's eye skills? You're mad, woman, mad! Others should be jealous of YOUR skills.
Stella 27 Nov 05 - 04.09pm	Everyone has such high expectations for you, and you have yet to disappoint us! I don't think I have ever seen anyone rise up that "vexel ladder" as quickly as you. Superb!
longhairedlv 26 Nov 05 - 10.22pm	I love this, especially the fiery eyes
Liz 26 Nov 05 - 07.45pm	I hate you.
misery 26 Nov 05 - 06.25am	WHen I saw it, I knew it was yours =P. Love the eyes _.
Rick 26 Nov 05 - 04.34am	Natalie this is pure eye candy, I luv it. How did you know I like asian vexels silly girl. The hair is.. well the same as always beautiful. The eyes are a knock-out, her lips well you are a master at them. I see you used a gazillion layers for her skin (lots of work there). I don't know how you do it girl, she looks way better than the real photo. I guess ...emm ...oh ...well I'm going to have to give you a great big squeeze ya! for this master piece. I opened up PhotoShop and the pen tool fell off the tool bar, whats up with that, all i heard was a faint scream as it jump to it's death to the bottom of the screen.
carolinabarajas 26 Nov 05 - 01.03am	OMG !!!!!!!! it's perfect!
abstractarte 25 Nov 05 - 09.18pm	this is a vexel? but it looks so oh freakin real.... man YOUR GOOD. madd kudos.. keep up the good work miss lady!
chickadork 25 Nov 05 - 09.01pm	Wow. It nearly looks like those CGI animations! This is so detailed!
Ilaria 25 Nov 05 - 08.38pm	edited I REALLY like it. There's nothing I can point out that I don't like. I really adore the eyes, lips and hair.
Myra 25 Nov 05 - 08.37pm	Whoa, that's amazing! I love everything about it :)
Manda 25 Nov 05 - 08.31pm	wow i love this, your vexels are always so detailed and perfect hugs vexels you never cease to amaze me dun worry :D I'm not the type of person who favorites but fails to comment!
janet 25 Nov 05 - 07.47pm	amazing... as usual
crystalmoon 25 Nov 05 - 07.14pm	Oh my gosh, this is so amazing... I have never thought you airbrush. I can see the paths of the pen tools and airbrushed pieces are almost always blurry, and your vexels are always very clear and sharp. Anyway just thought I'd let you know. I love your vexels <3
Trinidadhunni 25 Nov 05 - 06.36pm	dies
MonaLysaSmile 25 Nov 05 - 06.26pm	WOW!
Sarah 25 Nov 05 - 06.17pm	removed comments because she didnt want to cause drama Natalie, if you want to discuss it further, feel free to message me. I didn't want to upset you (I hope i didnt) Because your work is fantastic. My opinion should mean shit to you, because you know how wonderful it is. <3 Reply from removed responses No worries. :)
avalon 25 Nov 05 - 06.11pm	THE HAIR. <3
bernee 25 Nov 05 - 05.55pm	hella pretty(:
mimi 25 Nov 05 - 05.29pm	this is beautiful!!!
CHRISTINARRR 25 Nov 05 - 04.43pm	absolutely gorgeous.
Zenith 25 Nov 05 - 03.53pm	That is amazing, it's beautiful!
Leleco 25 Nov 05 - 03.50pm	Maravilhoso, lindo trabalho.
CAREohLYNN 25 Nov 05 - 02.59pm	i'm speechless ..
MOFO 25 Nov 05 - 02.46pm	WYFAFSAGSG. THAT LOOKS REAL. ew i hate people with such talents.
Quyen 25 Nov 05 - 02.18pm	Woahh.. amazing hair and gorgeous eyes!
Annette07 25 Nov 05 - 02.14pm	[envy]Can you STOP being so good?! Seriously, like.. stop for a year so I can catch up and maybe TRY to get to your level. Then again, a year may not help. BUT WOW. Gorgeous. Quite simply put, it's gorgeous. [/envy]
Karin 25 Nov 05 - 02.06pm	When I think your vexels can't get any better, they do. I loooove it.
Joe Law 25 Nov 05 - 02.02pm	You're so talented! I love the bright yellow color of the hair and the eyes are so real =O
Andrea 25 Nov 05 - 01.53pm	Well you did it again! You should be satisfied, the style is so you. The skintones are jus tperfect and I think you captured her eyes very well. It looks very soft, softer than your other vexels. Keep going. :D
Laura 25 Nov 05 - 01.46pm	The eyes are gorgeous. It looks very realistic.
Kellie 25 Nov 05 - 01.40pm	I love it, it's beautiful. Perfection.
hengie 25 Nov 05 - 12.56pm	I think i just crapped my pants lol this is just stunning work, amazing talent!
Ava 25 Nov 05 - 12.51pm	Perfect. Is there really any other word?
Nijntje 25 Nov 05 - 11.33am	wouw... It's just perfect!
4evagurl 25 Nov 05 - 11.32am	This is amazing!! I love your style of vexeling! Its soo realistic and yet so simple. Great Job on this! =D
radioslutx 25 Nov 05 - 11.26am	Hooooollly shit and that's actually a vexel. (if you look @ differet angles you can see the colouur changes) but that thats so realistic. I LOVE the hair and the eyes are like.. woah!
Soopke 25 Nov 05 - 11.16am	Natalie, this is so darn beautiful!!! Just perfect! :D
Echoia 25 Nov 05 - 09.40am	I was wowed by this, especially the big one. I read the comments below about the airbrushed look and started tilting my laptop monitor around and then, BAM all the layers popped out when I got to the right angle : P It doesn't look brushed from the angles I found, so I can attest to that at least. Hmm. The only thing I can point out as a possible error? In the lower right side there's a part of the hair that's not at 100% opacity so it looks odd that you can see the background through this 'chunk' of hair and also the body of the hair through it where they cross.
Carina 25 Nov 05 - 08.57am	The hair and eyes are gorgeous :).
emotionalangel 25 Nov 05 - 08.44am	Oh my god that is amazing!!!! a lot better than any of my ayumi vexels!
IAmTheWalrus 25 Nov 05 - 08.38am	This is so perfect. If you don't mind, could I please use it as my desktop wallpaper? I mean, if you think it's weird/creepy heh. If it bothers you I won't, but I just love this =) -- lol don't worry I won't use it for my financial gain or whatever. Just to drool at it when I'm using my computer =D Reply from Sure, go for it! xD it's not creepy, don't worry. As long as you don't sell it or make weblayouts of it or something, I'd only be honored. :D
Photojunkie86 25 Nov 05 - 07.59am	wow, this is gorgeous! very, very beautiful. great job! :D
starla 25 Nov 05 - 07.00am	Damn you and your flipping amazing talent, Natalie! Her hair is gorgeous. Meh.. Honestly, I don't think it looks like an airbrush at all. At first glance, maybe.. But I can definately see the layers in it. I know some people don't like it when your layers seem to blend in smoothly, but it's alright. I guess it just depends on your vexelling style, and yours is truly breath taking.
marta 25 Nov 05 - 06.16am	OH my goodness, that's ... perfect :o My face looked like that when I saw it > :o You're the best
Matt 25 Nov 05 - 05.54am	i love it:D faves
9th_life 25 Nov 05 - 05.50am	wow your creative progession is one to be admired! this is amazing! :)
Kristy 25 Nov 05 - 05.08am	Holy moly, this is amazing! Her skin is flawless, her lips are awesomely glossy, and her eyes are just so detailed. <3
angel421355 25 Nov 05 - 05.05am	Wow Natalie! Thats so gorgeous
**AngelStars*** 25 Nov 05 - 03.44am	OMG! the eyes! and Hair! is <3
aGAVINA 25 Nov 05 - 03.25am	oh wow.. so pretty!!
silent_moon 25 Nov 05 - 02.59am	Oh...My...God. This.. is AMAZING O_O The colors are so bright vibrant, they really work nicely together. And the eyes... WOW. I LOVE the bg btw. If you don't mind me asking... How many levels did you posterize this image? Also do you have this original image? Or could you maybe post a url to this picture? Thanks. Reply from Awwww, thank you! The eyes are a little creepy, but thank you. xD I think I posterized it to 25, somewhere around there. And yes, the link to the original image is posted. =)
Anna 25 Nov 05 - 02.57am	WHOA........<33 The hair is... -
Caitlin 25 Nov 05 - 02.40am	woww this is pretty freakin sweet...you almost had me fooled...i thought it was a photograph for a second =P
vt 25 Nov 05 - 02.39am	this is so unbelievable. envious
Linda 25 Nov 05 - 02.35am	OHH LA LA! You never disappoint!
yayfuzzyslippers 25 Nov 05 - 02.34am	Wow... that is sooo beautiful!
b0o 25 Nov 05 - 02.28am	so so so JEALOUS
btmui 25 Nov 05 - 02.27am	this is SO beautiful. I am so SO amazed. I love the lips, the eyes and the hair <333 so talented
scorpio 25 Nov 05 - 02.25am	This is kcufing insane. I love the eyes, mouth, and the hair is really great. It has a great dreamy feel. Very nice piece to your already stunning gallery :)
secrecy 25 Nov 05 - 02.20am	HOLY!! wow, OMAGAD. i'm just amused by your talentness!!! her lips are amazing.
dimepiece 25 Nov 05 - 02.20am	beautiful