WIP 10 + PROCESS THOUGHTS

hi hi! there will be no wrap-up this month because i have literally no personal paintings i can show you from this month, sorry guys. ya gal was too busy, which is crazy but good! and now that i've taken a hiatus from the monthly commissions, things are calming down i can take weekends off again, which is very nice ;v; 

so in lieu of the wrap up, i wanna show you some personal WIPs (at last!) and talk about them a bit! gotta have a monthly wall of text, no?

i started two personal paintings; first is of lucretia from the adventure zone, and the latter is a spoiler from the latest episode of critical role, so beware! it's a big one!

re: lucretia

i posted this wip a while ago on my tumblr:

it's very very rough, i had no idea in my head for the piece at all, aside from wanting to just... paint her in the uniform. it didn't even occur to me to try and maybe make it look like a renaissance portrait, i just wanted to get it the simplest pose + lighting out of my system. and i did! in this black and white sketchy stage, it's not looking to shabby, and i think it looks better in this stage than it does in the next stage.

the only goal in my head was to make her look regal, and just as i started painting i began worrying if it's too unoriginal an idea to paint. i feel like i barely stepped out of the "cliche static portrait" zone at all in this one (which is a zone i like, mind you, but not all the time). so i haven't laid down the colours yet, and i already felt a defeated with the lack of direction. i had no plan for a colour scheme, lighting, or making it stand out from your typical "person against the window" schtick.

regardless, instead of just maybe finishing it in black and white or chucking it into the "finished" folder altogether, i continued with the painting, like the Boo Boo The Fool that i am.

BEHOLD MY CURSED WIP that i dread to look at:

a big mistake i did is i laid my photobash foundations way too early and with no direction; the window/light placement makes little sense (if it looks like a shitty makeshift background it's because it is), and the blue uniform looks just gaudy for now; maybe if i tinker with it some more i will see the potential in it again, but for now i feel like i've i'd have to start over entirely. which is what happens when you don't take breaks for your eyeballs and continue working on a piece you don't like/that doesn't work, it might turn into a polished turd. nice and polished, but still a turd; it also was during the busy-busy month, so now i see why i was rushing - i was trying to work quickly to get something, anything personal done.

so yeah, lucretia in the end was a lesson to learn, and not a painting.

i decided to take a break from photobashing entirely, because i wanna keep myself from relying on it too much, thinking this may be the root of the problem. i wanna work slowly and try to imagine what the piece will look like when it's done instead of just hoping it'll all make sense in the end.

the next piece: (CR spoilers)

now this is looking way better already. what i did differently:

• i smacked myself on the hand when i found a pretty photo to include in the photobash stage before i even had a sketch done (a mistake i did with the lucretia piece above, the face was plastered on without a solid base); i might do some lil texturing later, because i do enjoy the effect, but for now i wanna paint everything by hand and plan ahead instead of making the reference photo itself dictate the ilghting/colour scheme.
• i actually did go out of my comfort zone; this was supposed to be a simple portrait of the red tiefling, but i chased (and caught!) the idea of the daughter running in reflected in the mirror. so not only does it have some background, it also tells a story, and is a bit more dynamic.
• i took more time on this sketch, tweaking the composition and establishing colous and lighting early on, and i'm not done yet, i wanna sleep on it before i move any further. and even now that i look at it i can see some things that need changing, like the light behind the blue tiefling. i think it's too distracting, and a lightsource can be indicated by colour, not just the value. see, i'm working it out on the spot!
• so now the biggest trial begins: i gotta be patient!

i'm going to fling myself onto bed and not say up late trying to finish it ASAP. i have to remind myself that i have a whole weekend to tinker with it, and if i don't make it by this monday, i'll have another one in a week, and there is no rush.

let this painful art be a reminder to be patient with yourselves, and remember that taking a break and planning ahead will not hurt your progress (be it art or writing or anything creative), and not stepping back at all and powering through it with reckless abandon might later cost you the whole project.

thank you for sticking with me through the ramblings if you did, i do hope you enjoy these wips in a way - even if one is still a little monster in my eyes.

toodles! 💕