Hello, Hivers!
Today, I am on my 6th digital portrait painting of a random woman. That is why I call it "Woman 006". I am constantly doing this for study and practice. I am trying also new techniques and brushes on procreate so that I will be able to make my own procreate workflow in creating digital portraits. For now, I am still focusing on making portraits but I am also interested to creating my own characters, drawing animals and many others.
By the way this is my second attempt to post this because, everything was erased in the drafts when I stopped writing to open a notification on youtube. I know that doesn't happen really because PeakD automatically saves our drafts but I guess I did something. Basta, that's all taken as a useful lesson here!
Anyway, let me show you the process of creating this piece. I will also try to explain what I did on each step or just talk about how I felt or just mess around with my words and thoughts and everything in between.
The Process
The beginning point is really the most intimidating stage of making an artwork. It is just a minute of the many hours of creating the piece. I usually apply grids to my references to get that precise proportions and measurements, but it really eats so much time. So, I just gambled my little experience and luck on this piece.
After creating the major shapes like the face, hair, and body of the subject, I worked on developing the face. I used guidelines to help me where to put the eyes, nose and mouth. There are actually rules and tips on doing this from artists, but I think I have developed my own style and technique.
Then, I used a smudge tool on a soft-airbrush to smoothen the texture of the face. I was really amazed how it turned out. I think I got the best skin tone here for my digital portraits so far. After the perfect skin tone is my worst struggle in making traditional portraits. Maybe it's because of the quality of materials I use or maybe it is just me.
At this point, I already noticed my mistake on placing the mouth. It looks really weird and distorted. But, I can still fix this because this is digital. If this one is done on a real paperbor canvas, I would have already stopped and wasted all the time, effort, and money! So, that is one reason why I do digital pieces now than the traditional one.
So, to fix this. I flipped the canvas horizontally to check its symmetry on the other side. I closely worked on it, and when satisfied, I flipped it back to its original position to continue.
Then, like a hair professional, I trimmed the hair of the subject just by using the eraser. On procreate you can actually set the type of eraser that you will use by selecting a brush after clicking the icon for an eraser.
I also added light colored strands to emphasize the part of the hair that is kissed by the light source. By doing this, you can create depth on your pieces which will make your paintings and drawings more realistic.
After that, I worked on the shoulders and the body of the subject. This took a lot of time. Maybe because I did not get the correct pose of the subject so it looks awkward and it requires a lot of fixing. If you watch the timelapse on my youtube, you will understand what I meant on this.
Suddenly, I just thought of making a nature background on this portrait. I never had tried that before, so maybe it will be a good additional because it will give another flavor. Usually, I just pick a solid color for a background. And it's kind of boring sometimes.
I added more details and did some final touches in general. Voila, I finished my digital portrait painting of "Woman 006"!
I really hope you enjoyed the process and this blog in general. I also would like to invite you to click the video to see the whole timelapse video of creating this piece. You can also subscribe to my youtube channel to see my previous and future works!
Christian Yocte is a public school teacher in the Philippines who also loves other interesting things like making digital and traditional art, exploring new places and destinations, writing journals and musings, and a lot more. He currently resides in Cebu, Philippines. Join him as he ventures different places, shares his masterpieces, and makes his life meaningful.
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