RedDLai Art Journey - Taking back at life!

[RedDLai]

Hey guys! I finally gathered the courage to make one of these!

A bit about myself. I am a Software Engineer located in Reno. I've always wanted to make art. When I was very young it was my dream to 'be a painter' but I was quickly discouraged by phrases like "You won't make money" or "You will starve to death if you paint". Long story short it was only 3 years ago that I decided to start this Art Journey and take back at life all the art I didn't make as a kid.

One driving force of inspiration during the past 3 years have been role-playing games ( Like D&D and online games). If i create a character to play with my friends I want to draw and pain them to show everyone what's on my head. If something amazing happens during a fight I want to make a speedpaint of the scene to commemorate the ocasion. But i digress!

Here are some pieces I have done on the past year!

These were made on Procreate on my IPad:

There is a lot of studies and practice I need to do.

[RedDLai]

Tiny tokens I made to play D&D online with some friends:

[RedDLai]

Tried to start a portrait for a character last night.

[flotos]

Nice ones Keep drawing like this. I don't really know what tips i could tell you, i'll wait for you to post few more pictures. Maybe you could just increase the contrast on your last portrait, as we can't distinguish easily each part of the face.
I came up with something like this to explain :

[RedDLai]

A quick 20 minute study on arms. My aim was to see the shapes and proportions and to be mindful of how it connects to the torso.
Good things of having a tiny sketchbook at work is that even if I've been busy all week I can still practice something when i have a quick break.

[achronic]

Hey! It is good to see that you are posting again. It is always awesome to hear about people who come back to art after having already graduated doing something else!

I'm seeing a lot of stylized work, I really recommend you to do some form studies! These can help you get a better understanding of 3D space, and can result in stronger shapes and more well defined characters. Also, lots of anatomical studies will only help! Keep up!

[RedDLai]

Took the morning to do a rendering tutorial I purchased a few months back. Looking back at it I can already notice I could had used darker values for the shadows.

[RedDLai]

Thanks for the advice! I have noticed most of the improvements come from doing a lot of studies.

[RedDLai]

Reviving my thread because I need to keep the art train moving. Tried to practice a lot this past year so I plan to take some pictures of my sketchbook to post here.

Here is the digital work ive done. Geometric shapes are so much easier then organics

[RedDLai]

this one was hastily made to get the idea out of my head but is also more recent. A warrior leaving behind his sword at the end of a war.