Jon’s Art Blog

I've been lurking on the forums for a short while now and I never expected to see such a wealth of information shared so openly. The individuals who provide feedback and resources really inspired me to dive deeper into digital painting and art in general. It's also impossible not to be inspired by the amazing artwork on here. I figured starting an art blog would maintain a sense of accountability on the long journey of improvement. I'll be treating this space as a personal outlet but any comments/critique/suggestions are welcome. The main goal is improvement towards realism.

Here's a quick doodle of my dog. It was actually impossible for him to stay still for a decent photo reference. So I went to the hive mind we call google instead. So I guess this is not really my dog. I think he'll understand. I think it looks like a dog at any rate...I just have to squint my eyes hard enough and it looks vaguely canine. Thanks for checking it out.

Hmm. I think i learned a lot of what not to do with this one. Honestly, not particularly proud of myself for departing from the reference and not really analyzing the actual values. But i'll post it here so maybe i'll be more mindful for the next one.

Decided to do another value study earlier.

Thank you for pointing it out. I think I went overboard with the smudge tool. I think i ended up using it like an eraser unintentionally. It also caused me to muddy all the values up.

Another study trying to grasp value and its impact on form. Looking at the clock on this one and I lost focus and spent too much time on areas with little payout. So I decided to call it quits on this study for now and revisit later when I have a new set of eyes.

I noticed when i start getting to smaller brush size is when i start to lose mental focus and spend a lot of time accomplishing very little. the jawline is tough for me especially when trying to read the form connecting with the neck with the chin casting shadow (I don't think I explained that as well as I could...)I think it's related to my issue with choosing soft, lost, hard edges. I did choose to leave jaw/cheek unblended for now since I went overboard with smudge tool previously. I'll attempt this study again soon and try to work it more. I Maybe i'll trying to work on blending without relying on smudge brush only...

A study in progress...rotation is a challenge. Trying to take into account consideration of sharp and soft edges. The nose rotation and proportion is off but I wanted to correct it after I took a break from looking at it. I started to go down the rabbit hole of trying to use smaller brush size. So to break the habit I figured I'd come back to it with a fresh set of eyes...

I think i'll push this study further than the others. WIP so its rough. Still working on rotation (esp. since plane of the teeth is visible) and trying to learn from the earlier study where the values were super contrasted yet the image still felt flat.

Started drifting into the small brush territory so I decided to pause this one for a short while. Just noticed how odd the overly smudged studies i've done look weird.

wanted to keep up with other studies while I spend some more time on the previous one. I wanted to try something with more facial expression/wrinkles. I think this one really exposed some areas that I don't have much of an idea on such as mouth/teeth, etc. During the study I decided not to spend much time on it since I'll have to do more detailed individual studies with the features isolated from rest of the face. Learned a lot of where I need to break down the face and also where I need to build up my visual library. Finding where soft and hard edges should go is also an area i'm trying to sort out...

Decided to stop here as I felt I was devoting too much time to this one with diminishing returns. Rotation of the mouth looks to still be a problem area, i'll probably begin a dedicated study on mouths/lips. Left the brushes rough to remind myself of that problem area. Still trying to find the balance of soft/hard edges. Conveying different material and their reflective properties is also something that caught me off guard. So it was an experiment of sorts. Definitely have much to study up on and I'll switch from full portrait to more specialized studies. When I do revisit this one I really want to incorporate some story telling potential such as in the reflection of the visor, etc. But I wanted to let this one rest for a little while and get back to more structure studies...