Digital Art Practice Week 2

 

This week I focused on adapting the techniqes I learned last week into my workflow, and in refining them. I tried shading different kinds of objects using my knowledge.

My technique needs refining, and I need more practice, specifically from references and observation in general. In order to achieve my goals with digital painting, practising values is also an integral part of the process, therefore by doing these kinds of studies, I am improving in multiple areas at the same time.

Above are some of the thumbnails I made during the practical session. I mainly used a combination of the lasso tool and the default soft air brush to create simple gradients to suggest turning surfaces or distance change in one plane. I received feedback on these. The biggest issue seemed to be my lack of layer usage, as well my values not being diverse enough. I concentrated on these points when doing work later in the week.

I first created separate layers and named them appropriately. I also used layer masks to keep everything in order. This had the additional effect of me not having to worry about damaging other parts of the painting with my lasso selections, which was a very welcome change for my workflow.

I used the same techniqes from before, paired with my new knowledge of layer masks and layers in general to create the thumbnails above. Looking at it now, I can definitely see an improvement compared to last week's work. As I continue with making thumbnails such as these, I would like to branch out into other subjects such as interiors or close up compositions as well.