Small acrylic painting for icon, Chad with WIP pics :)
Happy New Year, everybody!
Last year, my art resolution was to try new things, and ehhhh, I kind of did? I was mildly successful, lol.
This year, my art resolution is to create at least one piece of traditional art per month. \o/ I've set up a little art corner and everything.
I started with something small--I wanted to paint a new icon. I picked Chad to do, because he's the most fun to draw right now.
I finished it today! :D Now I can't decide on which version to use. Now that I see them on this computer, I like the fourth one the best.
I took pictures along the way, so I'm posting the process WIP shots, plus the final version before I cropped it down.
Rough sketch. I didn't take a picture of it on the paper I painted on, oh well.
I decided about now that I'd do in-progress shots. So, Skin, then hair flat color.
I realized about now that someone else might have been a better choice for my first try at painting in over a decade. I love ya Chad, but your hair is so hard! He does have a nice skin tone, though.
I used a tiny tiny brush to do the tips of the hair detailing.
Hawaiian shirt! I was going to make the flowers pink, but I chickened out. Painting around them was hard enough XD
I don't remember why I decided to do that yellow thing.
Oops, I did something weird to the paper. Too much water, or something. The tape tore the paper, too--I need to find a tape that doesn't do that. Or paper. I am using acrylics, but I decided to water them down a lot and use them like watercolors this time... next time I think I'll use full-strength colors.
I've only used a few colors, but it is kinda messy! I stood back and looked at the table here though, and decided that I liked the mess. I feel like I've accomplished something, when I have things scattered around XD
What the hell, scanner??? I like the picture I took with my camera much better, though the colors look too dark. I used a flash in a lit room... guess I need to do the "natural light" thing in the future.
Then I start lining it, and again I'm not really sure why. It just felt right, lol.
And, done! I need to mess with the levels in photoshop, I think, because it's a lot brighter and less yellow all over in person.
All in all though, it was good practice, and I'm not too unhappy with my first painted thing in over a decade XD I did keep trying to hit undo, and I miss my layers, but when I did paint back in high school, I really *liked* it. It's messy and tactile and fluid, and I think there's a disconnect with digital art that isn't there with traditional.
Traditional can be EXPENSIVE though :o I've been keeping an eye out at thrift stores for things I can use, and I've found some good stuff already. Once I get a lot of practice in and feel like I've leveled up once or twice, I'll probably need to save some money and get higher quality supplies. But right now, I'm just messing around, so the cheap paper and brushes I have are totally fine :3 I'll eventually get watercolors too, and from what I hear Liquitex is a good brand that's actually pretty inexpensive. It's oils that I dread. Maybe I'll save oils for next year XD
Last year, my art resolution was to try new things, and ehhhh, I kind of did? I was mildly successful, lol.
This year, my art resolution is to create at least one piece of traditional art per month. \o/ I've set up a little art corner and everything.
I started with something small--I wanted to paint a new icon. I picked Chad to do, because he's the most fun to draw right now.
I finished it today! :D Now I can't decide on which version to use. Now that I see them on this computer, I like the fourth one the best.
I took pictures along the way, so I'm posting the process WIP shots, plus the final version before I cropped it down.
Rough sketch. I didn't take a picture of it on the paper I painted on, oh well.
I decided about now that I'd do in-progress shots. So, Skin, then hair flat color.
I realized about now that someone else might have been a better choice for my first try at painting in over a decade. I love ya Chad, but your hair is so hard! He does have a nice skin tone, though.
I used a tiny tiny brush to do the tips of the hair detailing.
Hawaiian shirt! I was going to make the flowers pink, but I chickened out. Painting around them was hard enough XD
I don't remember why I decided to do that yellow thing.
Oops, I did something weird to the paper. Too much water, or something. The tape tore the paper, too--I need to find a tape that doesn't do that. Or paper. I am using acrylics, but I decided to water them down a lot and use them like watercolors this time... next time I think I'll use full-strength colors.
I've only used a few colors, but it is kinda messy! I stood back and looked at the table here though, and decided that I liked the mess. I feel like I've accomplished something, when I have things scattered around XD
What the hell, scanner??? I like the picture I took with my camera much better, though the colors look too dark. I used a flash in a lit room... guess I need to do the "natural light" thing in the future.
Then I start lining it, and again I'm not really sure why. It just felt right, lol.
And, done! I need to mess with the levels in photoshop, I think, because it's a lot brighter and less yellow all over in person.
All in all though, it was good practice, and I'm not too unhappy with my first painted thing in over a decade XD I did keep trying to hit undo, and I miss my layers, but when I did paint back in high school, I really *liked* it. It's messy and tactile and fluid, and I think there's a disconnect with digital art that isn't there with traditional.
Traditional can be EXPENSIVE though :o I've been keeping an eye out at thrift stores for things I can use, and I've found some good stuff already. Once I get a lot of practice in and feel like I've leveled up once or twice, I'll probably need to save some money and get higher quality supplies. But right now, I'm just messing around, so the cheap paper and brushes I have are totally fine :3 I'll eventually get watercolors too, and from what I hear Liquitex is a good brand that's actually pretty inexpensive. It's oils that I dread. Maybe I'll save oils for next year XD