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Cloth Fold Studies: Skirts
It’s been 9 days since I last opened Photoshop to practice digital art. In the days of yore (i.e. before this January) that wouldn’t have felt very long at all, but with my *fingers cross* increased drawing habit, I longed to get back into digital after over a week of traditional mediums. Listening to my instincts about what I should focus on each day as been a big part of keeping up this practice, so here we go: more digital painting practice!
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Gesture Drawings
Nothing felt like it was working with drawing today. I started two other drawings before deciding to do some gesture drawings in Photoshop. Even then it was a bit of a struggle – my shoulder is bothering me again and I’ve been tense all day. I dislike the feeling of being impatient with myself while drawing.
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Cloth Fold Studies
Well, tonight was a reverse of yesterday: I spent most of the time after dinner watching the last three episodes of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell with Ricky and left a pitifully small amount of time to make art, create a featured image, and post to here. Still, it was worth it – I love that show so much! Now I just need a show that’s like that but with sorceresses – kind of The Witcher but just the Aretuza parts. Ahem – anyway – for tonight, the quickest thing I felt like painting was a few studies of folds in fabric.
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Finishing WIPs!
I had two works in progress hanging out there from this week – the sunset clouds digital painting (from Thursday’s post) and then the current sketchbook page (from yesterday). Even if I’m not practicing new ideas, I’m glad I used some time today to finish both of these up. It’s satisfying to consider drawings or paintings finished before moving on to a different study. No nagging lose threads!
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Cloud Studies in Photoshop
Okay, so I thought cloud photo studies would be fast and easy – but it still took 45 minutes to paint these. And then cropping and writing in here. The purple sky is still a WIP, as I didn’t get to add the extra light peach colors and I want to see how it will turn out. Maybe I’ll do some more cloud and candle studies Saturday night? Tomorrow will probably be just drawing drills, as I’m tuning into a virtual performance my dance teacher is holding. And gaming night with friends, which I need to confirm. So not much time for digital painting, alas.
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Candles alight in the dark
I’m finding painting a light source helps quite a bit in reasoning about light and shadow. I also made a point to switch between a soft brush and a hard brush this time (both brushes with opacity set to change with pen pressure). I’m especially happy with how the candle on the right turned out, perhaps because I painted the whole candle, rather then letting it fade out.
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Digital painting study from life
AKA – what object on my desk could I paint quickly? I wanted to paint something from life tonight, rather than a photo study. There is such a richness of detail when looking at an object in front of you – the way the light bounces off the object, seeing the form better. Being able to reach out and touch for the form. I want to study more from life while digital painting, but having a corner desk set up… I’m not sure how that would work with setting up a still life. A future iPad would make it easier, but I’ll be patient and put in practice time with…
Keep your muse happy
