Color studies

A few quick digipaintings to test out some of the colour theory stuff I've been learning recently. Very interesting.

I can see already how a better understanding of colour and lighting will help my work... some of it is technical knowledge/science of why, and some of it is artsy "this is how you can manipulate colour even if it's not technically what you see". Both of which are very valid.

Not concerned about proportions or accuracy here, it was all about the color.

I'm particularly pleased with the nose on the first one... that rosy glowing look that comes from saturated color next to quite neutral midtones. Something I've appreciated a lot in other people's work but never really understood.

Quick painting

Was messing around with a quick idea, and ended up with this. Some proportion issues but i like the overall graphic-ish feel and the color palette.

Value study

Today I did some reading about colors, skintones, color temperature and all that sort of stuff. A lot to think about, and I realised a few things I was doing wrong, which is good.

Didn't have time to play around with it but I did a quick values study, since getting the values right is just as important (or even more, I guess).

On the left is my attempt (in 5 tones), on the right is the reference image, and a posterised version of it in the corner. As you can see, I didn't do TOO badly, but I didn't use my highlight color enough, and the shadow-covered eye I kept too bright (which I knew I was doing but even after adjusting I guess I didn't do enough).

Painting

At the moment I'm pretty impressed by some painters who use color in really interesting ways - either unrealistically, or in a realistic palette but with dashes of contrast colors throughout. I wanted to give a shot at using a non-realistic palette and also thought i might try something from my head (no references) to see if my recent work has been paying off.

Overall I was pretty pleased - I felt like I had a better sense of the form and contours of the face, but there are still plenty of problem areas. But that's good to know, so I can work on it. And I also realised that even in some areas I knew how it should look but my rendering skills let me down, particularly around the mouth.

The color was fun to play around with, I think i will study some examples to get an understanding of how to use color effectively and creatively.

Sketchbook scans

Back into sketching again... trying to work on anatomy (where I seem to have forgotten the little I learnt, but hopefully it will refresh quickly) and also faces in particular so I can start doing portraiture.
I'll be picking up some acrylics soon too, would love to get into some proper painting.

I want to experiment a lot and go a bit wild, but also be very disciplined in developing some skills. And illustrate. And do sculpting. And everything.

Focus!