First digital watercolour piece

seelliott

This brush looks really good. I just bought an Intuos too and am still getting used to it.

I really like the limited colour pallet and the eyes. Its great you can see some of the issues as its really hard to spot when you have been working on something. I usually find it takes me around 3 or 4 pieces to get used to how a new brush works.

Camomilla

@Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen Thank you, I like how the eyes turned out too

@sarahelliott489 This is actually not a brush, but a pack of brush presets. I think I used about 5 or 6 different presets in this piece - and since it's so many I had a hard time keeping track of what I used for the different effects. I remember the Wamazing round 80 for the watery shadows in the face, and the Variagated Voom for the shadows in the hair. I approached it like a traditional piece, so there's not much erasing. But I did use layers, so I wasn't quite that confident

I got the brushes (or brush presets) here: https://www.kylebrush.com/. Considering how nice they are they were really affordable. He also included a "cheat sheet" showing previews of the look of the different brushes, which was very useful to have open while working

Chip Valecek

I love how simple it looks, I can still tell its digital in parts. Maybe using a texture paper overlay with the opacity dropped down may help. This is a great website to find textures http://www.textures.com/

Camomilla

@Chip-Valecek Thank you, I'll check it out

Christine Garner

That does look very like watercolour. I tried the kyle brushes as well last year when I was using Photoshop CC (I'm using version CS3 currently because it was too laggy for me). The brushes were very nice though- only reason I would use photoshop CC to be honest would be to use those brushes because they don't work in earlier versions of Photoshop. I use Corel Painter 2016 as well which has really nice watercolour brushes, and Rebelle- which is really fun.

Camomilla

@Christine-Garner I think the CC-pack is way too expensive! Especially if you don't use it professionally. I really think there should be options where you could buy a traditional lisence. But it's a smart business-move on Adobes part Have you tried CS5 or 6? I think the preset-pack works down to CS5, and it might be less laggy for you I've been contemplating getting some desktop-versions of my favourite drawing apps. Both Sketchbook Pro and Artrage have amazing drawing and painting tools. The reason I'm using Photoshop is mainly because I'm so familiar with the interface and shortcuts - but I can see where the other programs might be superior when it comes to doing digital art. I've never heard of Rebelle, I'll have to check that out, thanks

Christine Garner

I haven't tried CS5 or 6 but its great the brushes work in those versions because I agree with you the subscription is too expensive.

Christine Garner

I made a quick video about Rebelle and Corel painter for you. First time I've spoken in a video as well, so sorry if I sound weird, I'm British.
https://youtu.be/Jwey481CVTg

Camomilla

@Christine-Garner Awesome! No, British English does not sound weird - it's what I was taught in school (I'm Norwegian) I'm especially impressed by the running water effects in Rebelle, but the Corel ones looked great as well! Are you planning more videos? Hope so, I just subscribed

Christine Garner

Cool Norway is a beautiful place (I haven't been but I've seen pictures).
Yes I plan to make some more videos, I want to do some painting progress videos and get better at talking in them so I break a comfort zone or two.

Leontine

@Christine-Garner (English is normal English and not American slang right?) love your demo, I really want to give this a try!

Kevin Longueil

@Leontine

Christine Garner

@Leontine Cool
(I don't understand the slang question though sorry).

Leontine

@Christine-Garner It was just a joke, to make you feel comfortable.

Leontine

@Kevin-Longueil It was just a joke. Please don't feel offended. XD

Camomilla

Aaaand the second one

I'm sorry I'm not more active in the community here, I really wish there was a more hours in a day But I'm committed to drawing daily, even for just a few minutes, so this takes a chunk out of other activities.

Soooo ... this is my second attempt. I found this image of a stunning goth girl on Pinterest, and tried to capture her awesome expression. Not sure how well I did with that, but I still like how the image turned out

Things I like about this piece:
The aesthetics. Goths are supercool
The cool purple (violet?) shadow colours
Her eye colour

Things that could be improved:
Textures - especially the hair, but also the beads in her nose jewellery
The expression, I don't think I nailed it - mine is too pretty

I thought of adding some paper textures like @Chip-Valecek suggested, but I'll try printing this on textured paper first. I'm just not sure how my printer handles thicker paper. It would be awesome to have these printed on some sort of canvas. Maybe - if I get a series, perhaps I'll try

My portrait:
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Reference photo:
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Kevin Longueil

@Camomilla This looks good Camomilla - not sure if you are looking for critique on this so i apologize if you are not - i thought i would give feedback on the small differences between the reference and the painting - the reference is very striking - to me it looks as though she is looking directly at the light source - the story it evokes for me is that she has a quarrel with the light source (the Sun) and she intends to win. She has a strong and defiant expression. I think the very dilated pupils are very important to the image and that she is looking up (perhaps at the Sun). In your painting she is looking up a bit and of to the side which seems to take the power away from her. If you raise her irises and move them slightly to our right so they are more hidden by her eyelids and dilate her pupils like in the photo i think it will give her that same character - other two things that are equally as subtle would be to straighten the slight dip in the lower lid on her right (our left) eye - it is a straight line in the photo and this adds to the effect of her looking upwards - and lastly just a bit more shadow under the chin - i see it is there but i think if you darken it it will add to her pose - these are the sublet differences i see that might bring it closer to the attitude you are trying to hit - i could be wrong though of course - thanks for sharing your paintings - looking forward to you next piece!

Camomilla

@Kevin-Longueil No, please - critiques are very welcome, especially since I felt I didn't achieve what I wanted with this piece. Yes, the eyes were giving me a huge headache! I did't capture it in my sketches either, often I find the sketches to be more expressive than the finished piece - but this was not the case with this one. Thank you for observing and pinpointing what I could have done differently! Much appreciated

Camomilla

And I've done another. This one is actually a self-portrait, meant to go on my portfolio-site. I work as a graphic designer, and I'm currently re-designing my portfolio. I've included the two other digital watercolour-sketches, to show that I'm able to do simple illustrations as well. I had a kind of generic image next to the "about me"-text, but thought a self portrait would make it more personal. This is the most difficult one I've done to date - I thought I knew what I looked like, but I really didn't lol Still not sure if I pulled off the eyes being shut, I think I need to give more emphasis to the eyelashes to show that the eyes are nearly closed.

Things I struggled with:

The glasses. I ended up tracing them - they take up a huge amount of space in my kind of tiny face. Besides I could NOT seem to get the angle/perspective right
The likeness. I'm used to seeing myself in the mirror, but that's not the same as what others see, now is it.
I wanted a more saturated colour-scheme than my previous two sketches, I sort of got there in the end, but I'm really anxious about using too much colour.
The background. Allthough I like it, it's not how I imagined it. Don't know how to explain this - I think the image works well, but I still feel that the images I produce should look more like the ones in my mind

Things I like about it:

The colours and the mood.
The expression (at least when I fix the lashes, I think)
The likeness. I got there. In the end.

Please comment - always grateful for feedback on my stuff

Camomilla

Moar eyelashezzz I think it reads better now. I've published it on my site. It feels good

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