Doing this piece and a few others made me realize that I never really knew how to finish or polish anything for the longest time. He's definitely not 100% finished but it's a lot less messy than a lot of past digital stuff. I did 20 illustrations for a young adult fantasy novel this past month and a half, and I think soldiering through all that painting has helped me learn to render a little better.
Anyhow, for anyone who wants a little glimpse into the process for this guy, here's a breakdown of my four major increments:
Also, here's some stuff I was working on for a personal project, just developing the look of it a bit. I feel like my rendering has already gotten a bit less crappy since painting this guy 2-3 months ago, I was super terrified to break from completely lineart-based stuff. I'm so used to separating shapes with lineart and not value relationships.
Oh and also? Critiques from friends are the best! They will only make your art better. The best thing I learned at AAU was to always accept critique freely. You don't always have to follow it, but you never know when they'll suggest an improvement that you wish you'd thought of. :3
[edit] Whoops! I hope I don't sound like I'm fishing for critique/comment on that last part, hahah. I mean that the critiques I get voluntarily/arbitrarily from friends/peers/my boyfriend are always valuable, even if sometimes you're like, grumble grumble more work grumble grumble. I thought I'd give them a shout out. :)
