10-31-2018, 11:18 AM
I know, I haven't posted anything lately. But I will soon.
I have just one image to post now. This is not a completed piece. Let me explain what this is all about and what I hope to get out of it.
A few of you have commented on my soft edges and lack of hard edges, as well as advising me to paint without opacity and flow. I heeded that advice and decided that I need to get past spending so much time watching tutorials and trying to learn about digital painting with just theory under my belt. I need to get my feet wet. I need to just do it. Painting an entire portrait, figure, or even a scene could be a little overwhelming for a newcomer like myself, so I decided that I want to spend some time doing quick sketches/paintings (1-2 hours max). If I don't get that far in that time, that is fine. I will get farther along in the process as I gain more practice. So what I am posting here is nothing special. Just a study of an ear (took about 20-25 mins), and a chimpanzee (perhaps an hour and 10 minutes or so). I want to try to do a few of these a week if possible. If I paint something I like and want to take it to completion, that is fine, but at another time. The idea of these exercises is to practice painting and to learn something from it.
For both of these quick sketches, I used only one brush, opacity and flow at 100%, and I used no smudge tool for blending. I just blended with the brush (which has some opacity built into it). I did not think much about color. I just did the best I could and stayed determined to just paint and not think too much. Because if I allow my inner critic to start speaking, it will never shut up and I'll eventually feel like I'm just not ready for this because I don't know what I am doing. That's not productive thinking and it will get me nowhere.
So here it is, two quick studies, and I hope the beginning of a regular practice for me. Just remember, this is the best I could do in the short amount of time I devoted to the studies. My intention is to get in, and within a limited time, achieve the best result I can. They both need a lot of work to be considered completed studies, but that's not the point of the exercise. I would expect the quality of these studies to improve over time, in the same amount of allotted time (as long as I am diligent in my practice and I analyze my results).
I have just one image to post now. This is not a completed piece. Let me explain what this is all about and what I hope to get out of it.
A few of you have commented on my soft edges and lack of hard edges, as well as advising me to paint without opacity and flow. I heeded that advice and decided that I need to get past spending so much time watching tutorials and trying to learn about digital painting with just theory under my belt. I need to get my feet wet. I need to just do it. Painting an entire portrait, figure, or even a scene could be a little overwhelming for a newcomer like myself, so I decided that I want to spend some time doing quick sketches/paintings (1-2 hours max). If I don't get that far in that time, that is fine. I will get farther along in the process as I gain more practice. So what I am posting here is nothing special. Just a study of an ear (took about 20-25 mins), and a chimpanzee (perhaps an hour and 10 minutes or so). I want to try to do a few of these a week if possible. If I paint something I like and want to take it to completion, that is fine, but at another time. The idea of these exercises is to practice painting and to learn something from it.
For both of these quick sketches, I used only one brush, opacity and flow at 100%, and I used no smudge tool for blending. I just blended with the brush (which has some opacity built into it). I did not think much about color. I just did the best I could and stayed determined to just paint and not think too much. Because if I allow my inner critic to start speaking, it will never shut up and I'll eventually feel like I'm just not ready for this because I don't know what I am doing. That's not productive thinking and it will get me nowhere.
So here it is, two quick studies, and I hope the beginning of a regular practice for me. Just remember, this is the best I could do in the short amount of time I devoted to the studies. My intention is to get in, and within a limited time, achieve the best result I can. They both need a lot of work to be considered completed studies, but that's not the point of the exercise. I would expect the quality of these studies to improve over time, in the same amount of allotted time (as long as I am diligent in my practice and I analyze my results).