Artwork Post
Added 2024-08-11 22:41:38 +0000 UTCHi everyone. Today we're posting something a bit different than our usual.
This is the progress showcase of the barn owl in our cover photo. When making a digital painting, I begin by getting my references together and creating a rough sketch from it (it was easier in this case because I was drawing directly from a photo). After I get the lines to a good place, I'll get all the base colors together and in their own separate layers which is super important for when you start painting later. It's honestly the most boring part of the process, but it's essential. After I finish with that, I can begin adding dark and light areas.
A lot of artists would get a more solid brush to do this, but i prefer using a lighter paint brush from the start. I'm admittedly not an animal painter, but I kept my strokes in the direction of how the feathers would go. In this painting specifically, using lighter colors on the light parts really helped give it that "fur" look especially on the face. When it came to the eyes, I used a very bright white to try to give it a shiny look. The wings were the biggest struggle, but for that I just tried to emulate the feather pattern and direction from my reference photo.
I think the biggest thing I learned from doing this painting was how to paint different textures. My only self criticism is I think I could've used more darkness in certain areas. Overall I was very happy with this as someone that never paints animals. I'm no master of Photoshop, but I'd love to help anyone that might have questions about how to draw/paint digitally. Comments are welcome!
View artworks here:
https://www.deviantart.com/chewyworks/art/Barn-Owl-Painting-1059318519
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/JvAlXa
