Videl "Fanart" Study

[williamavellar]

Hi guys , I'm new to digital painting and drawing I started 01/03/2016, so feel free to critique my things. Tell what you want ,no mercy!!!!

So I did this study with a photo of a Videl cosplay.
Cosplayer name : Enji Night ( For credits )

Thank you , so much : )

[malcom]

Well even though you were using a reference this is still cool. The colors you picked are great as well. Now I can only guess what your process was but one thing I notice is that it doesn't seem as if you changed your brush size much during the painting process. Guessing you painted right over a sketch as well. Correct me if I'm wrong. I would say finish the line art first. Have a kick ass drawing before moving onto painting. You really want to capture everything you can before moving on. Another thing I would say is that you don't need to use custom brushes at this stage. Photoshop defaults will do just fine. Since your starting I can recommend a lot of different videos to get you started.
Marc Brunet Getting started video is good. you have to pay but worth it in my opinion.
CRTLpaint is another great place to look at when getting started.
There's a lot others as well...
If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask.
This is a good start. keep up the good work.

[williamavellar]

Hello Malcom , Thanks!
So, yes I only changed the brush size some times, thanks for the advice. Yes , I painted over a sketch , okay I would do that : D !
About custom brushes , actually I don't use them , that is my first time. ( also for paint over a sketch )
Normally I only use hard and soft brush , but I wanted to use only one brush and see the result. Since my drawing is bad I always start without lines , but I think that avoid that its not the right thing to do.

For the process :
My usual process : Silhouette with grey > Softbrush ( for darks ) > Softbrush ( for lights ) > Hardbrush until finish

Them come like this :

( Feel free to critique this as well ) ^

For this Videl process : Sketch > Refined sketch ( no so much ) > Sketch in multiply >Fill with grey > Flat colors with a solid brush > Texture brush until end.

I have some questions :
1 - Do you have any tip to using lines in photoshop ?
2 - Do you think that my process is ok? or do you recommend to change something ? ( both )
3 - I always use reference , do you think that is good to do some studys without them ?
4 - Its okay to use only one brush ?

Thanks for the critique! I really appreciate.
About the links : I alredy bought some Marcs tutorial and I will buy this : D for sure
CRTLpaint : I already use this site and helped me alot : D

Thank you!

[malcom]

The portrait is awesome.
The answer questions in order
1. For line arts, you can use a brush with hardness at 100% or you can use the softbrush
Example here of an old drawing I did only using the softbrush only
2. As far as process goes, keep playing with more. Different ones have there benefits and work in different situations. I recommend finishing the drawing step only so you see the whole picture before painting. Takes time but it can be worth it. If anything, keep exploring. Your way isn't wrong. Just keep gaining experiences to make other ways less stressful
3. Well if your not using reference your just practicing your imagination which isn't a bad thing. You'll figure out pretty quickly what your still not good at and whats not defined in your visual library yet. So I totally recommend doing things from imagination from time to time. A good way I found that can help you improve fast is to try and attack the piece first without reference and when you have a question to a problem or your unsure about something then use reference. Or you can still use reference from the beginning all the way to the end. There's so many ways to study and learn but it's up to you.
4. Yes, it is totally fine to use just one brush. A lot can be done with just the soft brush. For hard edges, just make the brush size smaller. If that's to hard you can always use lasso tool.
This character I did was done only using one brush Aris I just used the softround brush the entire time.

Hope this helps. Your on the right track. Look forward to more work in the future.

[williamavellar]

Thank you! I will put all the tips in a paper.