It had been a while since I tried the digital painting style that I used to do when I began my drawing journey. In part it was because I felt that I wasn't ready to venture into it so much yet — that's why I spent a long time alone in traditional art before returning to digital. At the time I was even doing some cool digital art, but I wasn't very happy with the results (you can check out these older digital painting works in the edition #11 and #12).
Today, I already feel more confident and prepared. I spent a long time testing my “messy” digital style, and I'm very happy with the results. This week, as I said above, I decided to return a bit to the old style - which is also used by many, another reason why I stopped venturing so much into it, but I confess that it's a lot of fun and I'm able to make better use of it now that I have more skills :)
I even made one in the “messy” style, which you can check below and the other two based on that old painting style that I mentioned. Enjoy!
Fan art of Lucien Lachance, Dark Brotherhood (Speaker) character in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. As I said in previous post, I'm playing Oblivion now and because of that I'm getting several inspirations based on the game, hahaha.
I still did this one in the same style as always. I really liked the result... and I'm thinking of taking advantage and making one in the “new” and colorful style. We'll see;) check out the final version and time-lapse video below. Oh, remember that I'm still using the Procreate app on the iPad to make these paintings, see?
Here, Sheogorath fan art — yes, another character from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, haha. In fact, he also appears in other games in the franchise because he is a Daedric Prince, but I always really liked the version of him in Oblivion and I always wanted to draw him in that version, even before playing the game. In that case, I wanted to try another brush (Procreate pattern, by the way). I'm only using native texture brushes (for now). I love texture brushes and I thought it would be a good idea to use it to do all the painting. In some very specific details, I also used the 6B pencil brush (such as the beard, hair and eyebrows), which is one of my favorites too and the one that I have been using as the main one in the other arts as well.
For the details of the face, I did everything in shades of gray and then painted over the top using layer effects. In this part, I always test each effect, seeing which one is better. I'm not 100% happy with the color result on my skin, though. I still think I create better tones when I work directly on the color, but it was great for testing. The advantage of working in shades of gray first is that you can create much more contrast of values in art than working directly with color - however, you can use tools such as color balance (Procreate) to adjust those levels later. It's pretty cool.
I used some layer effects in the colors of his clothes as well, especially the gold details. For purple, however, I went straight to the color itself and explored some deep color contrasts, such as green and red. I really liked that green tone in contrast to the purple, hehe. It gave a different touch.
Finished painting. Notice what a cool effect a texture brush creates, giving the impression of even traditional painting. What also helped me to achieve this result was to train a lot of painting with colored pencils and pastel pencils — which is also why I think I work better directly on the color than painting over gray tones... but it's a matter of taste. The important thing is to explore and learn with each art you do. Below, time-lapse:
Here's another doodle I started, an idea of a character that wouldn't leave my head, haha.
It's not 100% finished yet, because I want to work on the details better and more calmly. I'll call her Blue Dancer — for now, haha:)
Well, that's it guys. Which style of the ones I have been creating do you like the most, by the way? It would be interesting to have an idea.
I like to explore a little bit of everything, learn a little bit of everything and then focus on the styles that I like the most. Every detail and learning I obtain in one style, I end up moving on to another and developing new ways of drawing and painting, which I think is extremely important and useful to do, you know. In fact, that's how I started developing my style today... and, oddly enough, every time I imagine that I've achieved something I always want to do, I end up developing other techniques and learning more, haha.
It's very worth exploring a little bit of everything. Each new technique learned can take you to a new and totally unexpected level. Always take advantage of those moments because they are where you will find your trademark :)
