So when I started painting digitally, one of the main reasons I was excited was because of how easy it was to experiment and undo mistakes. Due to resource constraints, I had never gotten around to learn painting. I would botch up my work due to one bad decision to slather one color and then lament about papers and colors being wasted (am I stingy?). So I developed an aversion to it. But I guess I envied the beauty of colorful artworks that I was missing.
Studying colors requires a lot of patience and careful observation. Often when I stare too hard at the reference picture to try and pick the correct color, my eyes will start playing tricks on me. I'm still using a color picker to pick the correct shade rather than trust my own judgment, but baby steps, right? In my past work you would have noticed that I was struggling with my choice of brushes in Krita. And I think I have found the match - the scalpel! Really that brush style combined with dry brushes is a perfect fit for me. I have better control over the flow (unlike watercolor style which I had attempted previously) and it still retains a bit of imperfection.
This latest painting was a fun one. My friend - whose picture was the reference - vehemently denies that it's her but it is her. Or maybe not. But anyway, as long as it looks human I'm okay. Usually my sketching is good if I say so myself. But if I aim for perfect portraits I do a lot of preparation likes dividing my workspace into grids and assign each cell a small part of the reference. This latest piece was not intended to be an exact replica however so I winged it and did a rough sketch under 10 minutes. Painting was my main focus. And I'm happy with the result. How do you like it? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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