I've been studying up on painting lately, currently reading through Alla Prima II and James Gurney's books. Here are a few studies I've done recently:
Getting familiar with a few brushes I hadn't used.
I actually prefer the hard-edged version of this one, guess I got too carried away with smoothing.
Here I wanted to shift the focus purely to shapes and values, and disregard edges. Was an interesting challenge because the ref is very diffusely lit, and mostly in shadow (light source up and behind)
These 3-color studies continued my focus on drawing and values, but on the previous studies without a set value limit, I felt I resorted to banding like a bad gradient. Here, I limited it to 3, so good shapes are vital. Got the idea from Sinix's instagram 
. I also felt keenly aware of the fact that every pleasing color combination I came up with has been used extensively elsewhere. Ah well, graphic design has been around a lot longer than I have so it can't be helped I suppose lol. I'll be getting back to edges like in my first couple studies soon, just wanted to solidify shapes and values a bit more first.
I hope this isn't too monstrous of a first post ;w; (I have to say in the preview it's looking like it is) xD
