• A digital painting of four skirts, with an emphasis on the light and shadow of the folds. Two are long pleated skirts, one an a-line skirt, and one a mini skirt
    Digital Painting

    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!

  • Digital paintings of cloth folds in purple and orange. Text ontop says cloth folds.
    Digital Painting

    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.

  • A digital collage with two traditional drawings and two digital paintings with the text Finishing WIPs!
    Digital Painting,  Drawing,  Sketchbooks

    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!

  • Two digital paintings of clouds and the words cloud studies
    Digital Painting

    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.

  • A digital painting of two candles alight in darkness
    Digital Painting

    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.

  • Digital painting of a pair of scissors with a red plastic handle
    Digital Painting

    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…

  • Digital painting studies of: a green cat eye, a candle flame, a potion bottle, and an ivy leaf
    Digital Painting

    Cat eyes and Candles

    I’m not even trying with a clever title tonight – there’s simply no time. I have to run and go wash dishes. Some more photo studies tonight, with sources from Pexels and Unsplash.* It’s almost like waiting until 9pm to make art and crunching my time into an hour of painting makes me let go of perfect and just paint! I’m quite pleased with how these studies turned out.