I drew Gwenpool for an anonymous request on /co/.

Go look:

New projects:

I've been working on open art requests in the drawthreads for /a/ and /e/ recently. I've posted a pinup of Tifa Lockhart from the FFVII remake in a Chocobo-themed bikini, which you can see here, and another pinup of Dana from Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana in a bellydancer-style version of her costume, which you can see here.

Digital Paint Progress Check:

For these two pieces, I've been trying to take the lessons I learned from entirely digitally-painted pieces and applying them back to the way I normally draw (exaggerated proportions and the use of lineart). I think the results pretty much speak for themselves, though. You can see a comparison between a piece I completed in December of 2020 and my most recent piece from yesterday here (external link).

Lessons learned:

• Color choices are crucial. You can't just sample the colors on a reference image and use those straight away, the colors need to be balanced against the overall palette. I still struggle with this in some regards, but I'm improving.
• Dark colors for backgrounds where a void would otherwise not work aren't great unless that color has a direct impact against the overall palette.
• Same as above with light sources - the light should impart color to any pigmented surface it hits.
• If you can replace some of the hard lines with shading and highlights without ruining the appearance of the lineart, it should be done.

Other notes:

A lot of this is just common sense, but sometimes it isn't so common when you're 10 hours deep on something you just want to be done with. In any case, I'm not exactly where I'd like to be (I'm working ever more toward a simplified painterly style, which I'm sill far off from I feel), but I'm close enough where I'm pretty confident with my ability to color now.

Current struggle:

At this point, my biggest current struggles are keeping point of focus and lens distortion effects in mind and adequately conveying the volume of the subject, both of which play into the overall struggle with dynamic poses. I'm working on it!

Took a break from illustration for a while to learn the basics of digital sculpting. I just posted my first "high effort" drawing in a while - a pinup of female Corrin from Fire Emblem Fates in an athletic outfit, which you can see here!

I frequent the /a/ and /e/ drawthreads for ideas and sometimes even actually draw some of them. Kinda wish /e/ wasn't so slow since it's more oriented toward pinups (which I prefer to draw), but oh well.

I did a new digital painting practice piece, which you can see here! Constructive criticism is appreciated!

Building upon the positive changes from the last practice piece, I put extra emphasis on likeness. I tend to lose likeness in the jaw profile, eyes, and nose, so that's where I focused.

Things incorporated:

• I added hard lines along certain shadows to increase their perceived edge sharpness - especially on the chin and eyes. I feel this helped create a better illusion of subsurface scattering and added a positive stylistic touch.
• I put extra focus on the eye and nose shape, as these are key to achieving proper likeness. I've come to find that this part of the face is referred to as "the T-zone" and is how facial recognition software recognizes faces, which is a concept based on the most recognizable features that people see when they look at a face - so that's obviously where the developmental focus needs to go for now.

Things to improve:

• I've noticed that the drawing display I use (a Huion with an IPS panel) has significantly better color depth/range than my TN panel primary monitor and VG panel side monitor. The color depth looks very nice on my IPS, but is desaturated on my TN and VG. I need to figure out a way to make my color selection look good on an IPS panel as well as lower-cost panels.
• I need to find a better way to execute "smooth" lighting. The look I'm trying to emulate is very common in anime-style full color illustrations, but it seems the tools I use for highlights don't give a very smooth outline, and this causes some choppiness. I can eliminate it with use of a soft eraser and smudge tool with a very soft edge, but this is inefficient. I need to find or make a better tool specifically for highlighting skin.

Other notes:

This didn't feel like nearly as much of a challenge or experiment as the last two (and another two I didn't post). It feels like the improvements I'm pushing in now are changing from sweeping fundamental learning to granular technical improvement, which is nice. I was also able to finish this far faster than the other two, though that could just be because it's focused on the face rather than a bust.

Conclusion:

I like the piece. Still needs work in some technical aspects that will probably fill themselves out with time and experience. My process is getting more efficient. Need to figure out a way to make the colors pop on less saturated displays without ruining the look on higher-fidelity displays and look into finding/making a better brush specifically for skin (and maybe making specific tool groups for skin, hair, and material types).

I did a new digital painting practice piece, which you can see here!

Things incorporated:

• I put more effort into the anatomy, basing major decisions and proportions off of multiple still photography references.
• Used a patchy charcoal brush around the external perimeter of the color groups to add a sense of texture.
• Used the same brush for areas where lighting and different color groups come into soft contact.
• Used a sharper looking image for the specular reflection of the eye (if you zoom way in, it looks like an open window (cold light) next to a ringlight (warm light) on a tripod).

Things to improve:

• I was more tame with the color palette than the previous image and I think that lead to the palette not being very unified.
• I may have also gone too mild on subsurface scattering, especially visible on the hips.
• Face shading is maybe more aggressive than the body shading?
• Composition is a bit drab, though that may just be a side effect of it being a simple portrait at a flat angle with standard lens.

Other notes:

The style of face and body is more what I try to do when I'm putting in an effort to make something look nice. The face and body style from #1 were more "anime" style because I was trying to push the lineart done and get into colors. I don't know if I need to change that up, because I feel like my current art style looks like a failed/very amateur attempt at photorealism, while photorealism has never been my goal. It might miscommunicate what I'm going for and end up making the impression of the drawing/painting worse than it should be.

Conclusion:

I like the painting, but as always, improvement is needed. I think the anatomy and overall painting method is better, but I think the composition is still a bit boring, and the palette is too drab. I'd like to hear your thoughts about it if you have any!

I have returned after my hiatus. I'm trying to improve my digital painting methods, so if you have any feedback, please feel free to give it!

The way I draw is fairly stylized, so if you can't specifically say what needs improvement, that's fine. A simple "something looks off about the face" or something like that will at least point me in the right direction!