final dirge
(this is a repost, the older one got lost lol) okay i tried painting this at least 3 times and none of them look good, what's the best way to learn to paint, specifically understanding light, color, and techniques for blending etc? and if you could provide some examples possibly on how someone would go about painting something like this face? the reference is a little hard for me to tell light and color 😕
chrome kraken
This is a good stepping stone for painting digitally
From here once u get it down u can explore other avenues of digital painting and techniques
untold trail
When it comes to painting (whatever medium) you don’t want to focus on the edges aka the lines that make up the face because in reality the lines don’t exist apart from plane breaks.
Understanding value helps a lot and when you paint you want to move away from the details and focus on the values. So simply squint your eyes and look at your model. You’ll be able to make out light and dark zones. You can use these to build form
When it comes to color. You can color pick from the reference photo and I would probably just select the darkest tone, mid tone, and then the light tone. And of course the colors that transition between the tones.
It also helps to know the color zones of the face, e.g warm color for blood flow spots like cheeks, nose, chin, etc
final dirge
ya ive learned a lot about those, but put it into practice is hard for me
technique is a major issue,
like blending and my strokes seem amateur
final dirge
okay ill try to paint this and ill send a pic after to let you know where im at lol
ill use the video u sent as a guide
untold trail
Technique isn’t the main factor in painting, although it helps to have it— it isn’t a make or break.
final dirge
no you're right, i guess what i mean is similar to how sometimes people will use chicken scratch lines because they don't have the understanding to knwo where their lines are supposed to go
thats what it feels like when i paint lol
untold trail
understandable. I got better at painting— portraits specifically— because I’ve drawn the head in a variety of angles that I don’t need a lot of guidelines. And tbh in real life traditional painting— not a whole lot of artists used guidelines apart from leyendecker (whom my professor says I paint like due to my subtle usage of linework within my paintings).
Like what you have here I would probably adjust because it’s not matching your model.
But you can change all of this depending on how you approach to the render
Btw do you paint over your sketch lines or do you paint under the sketch layer?
final dirge
yeah i asked that in my old post too, do you notice a lot of differences in sketch vs the reference
i paint under
but i know artist like kan liu don't
untold trail
you should prob work into painting on top just for adjustments but up to you
final dirge
and he paints really really good
true, but whenever i turn off the sketch layer it looks so bad so i tend to paint under and fix things using liquify or just redraw the sketch
which it probably looks bad because im missing details in paint
untold trail
you got any completed paintings? Would like to see some that you’ve finalized
final dirge
@untold trail
So ya I don’t paint often as I’ve only started art recently so I’ve had more of a focus on lines
The one on top is from a while back
Like way back
The bottom one more recent
I haven’t gotten to paint the one I had in the post yet but these are previous ones 😭 I know they suck hence the post
untold trail
have you ever done value studies?
final dirge
I know what values are
Not sure what a value study entails specifically, can only guess
untold trail
well a value study is simply an exercise of breaking images into light and dark. And typically they’re either done from a still life or just desaturating a photo.
final dirge
How many values do I use?
untold trail
Honestly less is more but I would stick with 4
4 keys
What I would do is find a portrait photo with cool lighting on Pinterest and just desaturate it if it isn’t already
final dirge
Are u familiar with procreate
untold trail
Lol I use it
final dirge
Is there an easy way to desaturate on procreate , I’d like to do that with future art as well
Like desaturate the entire canvas
untold trail
You have a tool in the tabs section for layers that can desaturate
Yeah
Select the layer you want to desaturate and click the wand top left
And select hue, saturations
And just desaturate it from there
untold trail
yeah that’s a good start. I really nice tip I found is through blending. I like using the gauche as a brush to blend because it gives a really nice realistic tone to the area that I’m blending
Blending is also essential for nice paintings
untold trail
Yeah blending is also a game changer. I like to use it almost like a brush itself when I blend a particular color or value onto a different surface
final dirge
How does this look? Any thing I’m doing wrong u notice right away? @untold trail
I think something’s wrong with the hole of the avocado
Ah I think I need to blend the middle of the cast shadow? Since cast shadows are weaker as they get further
umbral compass
don’t be afraid to add darker colors!! and also what brush are you using?
if your not already i suggest using the brush on low opacity, which is what I do when i paint digitally
it helps blending values together when you need to
untold trail
Looking good, like what’s already said use some darker tones. Specifically edge from where the cast shadow is being— casted lol.
Looks good nonetheless
final dirge
don’t be afraid to add darker colors!! and also what brush are you using?
I’m just using the default hard edge brush but I made it square instead of a circle
I’m just gonna do this until I feel good enough to use color
final dirge
Also I did trace the outline for this one so I could get to painting a little quicker
final dirge
Lemme resend