Back To Basics - Digital Master Studies (Sargent)

[thirdeyeh]

hey everyone-

This year I've really set up a goal to become a better digital painter and get back to painting in general. One of my biggest struggles has been fighting with the programs I use when I'm so used to a canvas. And really teaching myself to pull back and be minimal in my approach to thing. So I decided to try my hand first on a portrait by John Singer Sargent. I used two brushes, one set at opacity 50% and one at full and manually chose every color instead of selecting or anything like that. Set a time limit of two hours and went at it. This is the first result. Pretty happy with it:



I hope to do at least two a month as I work to improve overall. What do you guys think?

[Anteater]

One thing I find really helpful for digital painting is to thoroughly get to know the brush engine. I did that when I starting using tablet. I looked at it section by section, slid all the sliders to the bottom, the middle and the top, one at a time, and see what happens. Tried all them little checkboxes and options. It's important to not only see how it looks, but understand what it's actually doing to your brush stroke. If you are friends with the brush engine, then you will know how to combine the settings for every occasion and task Makes the painting process more enjoyable, and your artwork more personal.

By the looks of your picture, you have already got some knowledge of the brush engine, but you can't be too familiar with your software

[thirdeyeh]

No, you make some points that are really good. One of the things I wanted to figure out was how to get the texture of the impasto paint that Sargent would get on a painting and I think if I spend some time in the brush creator I could figure it out. But I am trying to limit myself a lot on these basic studies right now. I think it's more important to me at the moment to learn how to mix colors and select them well. I tend to use too many tools as a crutch. I know they're tools for a reaosn, but there's a value is seeing and matching colors accurately without having any cheats I think