“Whisper” by Aleriia_V

Coming on the heels of my training arc focused on light, composition and multimedia, an analysis of Aleriia_V’s work, who has an excellent handle on these ideas, seemed right on point. Aleriia_V (formerly LeraPi) one of my recent favorite artists, was kind enough to give me permission to deconstruct this beauty and provide some insight into more behind the scenes stuff, such as her background and process. Aleriia is an amazing artist in many regards, but what really stands out about her style is her mastery of natural sexiness and brilliant lighting work. For this analysis I want to dig into not only what makes this piece great, but also what I currently believe to be the essentials of mood setting light and how one may apply the fundamentals of art to a seductive end.

Let’s not understate how fucking good this piece is. The mood, the composition, the lighting and sheer brushwork are all quite stunning. Since there are lots of places one could start I will begin with primary areas of interest and work from there. First, let’s talk about shaping the beauty. I spent a bit of time studying Aleriia’s process to get a feel for how the sauce is made. She has a number of speedpaints on YouTube at [Aleriia_V] for those interested. Making something and particularly a character seductive, starts with laying out plump and alluring shapes(line, light and shadow) adapted to a dynamic gesture. The next step is then adding detail or emphasis to direct the attention and grab the viewer by the throat.

Jumping in, let’s breakdown some of the shapes and gestural components of this piece. First, her head is postured firmly to the right. The shoulders are relaxed and the torso is leaning back slightly creating an alluring posture. Then we move down to the hips, plumped not only by gentle curves but also carefully detailed light and shadow. The weight comes down to her left leg, and then on the opposite side there is an important gesture with the hand on her calf that aids in storytelling. Aleriia juxtaposes these other elements with the rather serious and dangerous expression of the character, as if she’s sort of taunting some unseen enemy. I get a high tech, Lara Croft-esque vibe that I think works really well here. As a side-note, I’m envisioning a line of action going from the head down in the way I describe here.

I’ll resist the temptation (eh eh?) to nerd out on all the details of why certain gestures are sexy, maybe save that for another article, but I do want to talk about the knowledge and instinct that Aleriia is tapping into in her work. I used this opportunity to ask Aleriia about how she got into pinup art and how she makes decisions that bore some interesting fruit. Firstly, I discovered that Aleriia has been drawn to Pinup art since childhood, even before having a real understanding of sex or seduction. I didn’t find this particularly surprising because while her work has a kind of sex appeal, it comes to it very naturally. What I really enjoy about her work is that the gesture and expressions of her characters feel very organic and elegant, capturing beauty first, with sexiness as more of a happy side effect. This is quite distinct I find from art meant to arouse, which is why I find her natural orientation to pinup as a style and artform makes a lot of sense. Another key thing of interest, is that she didn’t identify, at least at the time I asked the question, with some specific artist or piece. I think this explains why her style feels fairly original and also why she has such sharp intuition. Since Aleriia has engaged with a wide array of work and styles she’s developed a reliable sense of how something “should look” and where she can break the rules and apply stylistic improvisation.

As a nice segue, I want to talk about story-telling through art and about what is conveyed through the inclusion, simplification or removal of detail. One example of simplification here is the background. Though the textures shown in the background are inline with the greater theme, there isn’t too much noise, because the focus of this piece is mostly the character. Additionally, the lower body doesn’t really have adornments, I suspect because the character is more of the stealthy sort, but it’s also a great way to bring focus not only to the curvature and weight distribution in the bum and legs, but up to the face and torso where there is more complexity. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, the idea of conserving detail encourages us to place more complexity in areas where we want a lot of attention, and hint at detail in non-focal points. For instance of a busier area, there is a fixture right at the center of her lower back which brings the curvature of the spine and posture more to the front of the mind, which just so happens to be right next to intense highlights and the myriad shadow shapes in the creases of the clothing. Another focal point is the light fixture and effect around the character’s head that draws the eye. Sort of like lighting in a Souls game, the encouraged route is often placed right near something hard to miss. Similar to a line of action, I like to mentally map how the viewer’s gaze may travel like a path, to really understand where people are looking and why.

One really important concept to consider, is that areas of interest are in direct relation to things like character pose, clothing material/skin, point of view or otherwise basic compositional elements of a given piece. Put another way, composition can make or break your attempts to emphasize something. Aleriia carefully lays the groundwork in order to create the dynamic and eye-catching details seen around the painting. Aligning allocated detail and intrinsic emphasis is a huge part of making something really pop. We want to squeeze in as much interesting detail as we can where people will naturally be looking, and encourage the onlooker to go deeper. I talk a lot about zoom in my articles for exactly this reason. There is often so much detail hidden when looking at the piece from a distance that adds a lot of flavor and helps one understand the process behind the work.

I’ve talked about gesture, shapes, and the relationship between composition and emphasis, but let me not gloss over the lighting and color choice that brings everything together. This piece has a glow to it, ostensibly created from light bouncing off the reflective material of the clothing and background. The light source seems to be primarily a harder, directional light coming from somewhere off to the upper left from the perspective of the painting. The location of a few eye drawing highlights makes this pretty easy to tell. I want to pause on the effect of directional light for a moment. The impression of darkness in one part of the painting and a strong light in another, besides the contrast, encourages the viewer to ask questions and imagine the world around the painting. This scene gives me a kind of “slinking through a dark area with some spotlights” vibe and what we’re really seeing is one moment or flash of the character in the light. This world-building is a great way of making the storytelling more badass and the viewer more invested in the painting. Next we have a well commanded use of ambient occlusion, where the effect is not overpowering or too soft, but right at Goldilocks. Another thing, is that the arm closer to the viewer is more bold than the elements further away. This is a kind of AO and also an example of applying the conservation of detail. Next, a touch of rim light in a few areas for realism. You can see some more emphasized rim lighting, around the hair and front abdomen, which becomes the icing in creating this very futuristic, silvery glimmer that goes well with the theme of the piece. For the color selection, the use of blues and silvery colors gives this piece a kind of cool mint palette, which as implied by the name, builds up the cool and collected vibe. As I discussed briefly in another article, colors tend to invoke specific responses from the viewer and we can utilize color to add more layers of storytelling. There is truly a lot that went into creating this beautiful and dangerous scene. If it isn’t already, this really should be the cover of a sci-fi comic.

As per usual there is a lot more that could be said about this piece, but I hope this was valuable and I encourage anyone to go check out Aleriia_V’s works. Her portfolio definitely deserves more than an up-down.