[JJ]

I feel like there aren’t many people doing (traditional) painting on this challenge, so I’m excited to see your work! Great stuff.

[JJ]

DAY 21

A bit of a slow day, but a return to portraits. This one was off to a pretty good start, but in its current state, I’m trying to render every form when thats not totally necessary! I’ll have this finished for tomorrow. Been looking at changing some of warm up exercises and practise routines, we’ll see where it leads. Hey, 3 weeks completed!

[JJ]

DAY 20

It’s the weekend, and I’m taking it a bit easier than normal. Instead of working on the previous days post, I did a different arm (though these are both based on reference photos from NMA). Maybe I’ll tighten both arms up for tomorrow? Either way, I’ll just recharge today and start off the work week strong.

Hope everyone is staying cool out there.

[JJ]

Hey Daniel, thanks for the kind advice and words of support. Appreciated!

[JJ]

DAY 19*

*I messed up the count – the previous post was actually DAY 18

Honestly, hit a wall while I was working on this piece – I just couldn’t focus. I mean, the hard part of this challenge is doing it everyday no matter what, so I pushed through and got as much as I could. Not my strongest work, but I’m not going to get too upset about it. Might work on this some more for tomorrows post, might work on a different arm study. If anyone wants to join me in using these posts as a casual blog, I say go for it!

[JJ]

JP! Merci for the kind words on my challenge – yours is going quite well too! Everybody struggles with rendering. Keep going!

[JJ]

Iliya! Thank you so much for the critique! Really appreciate it!

DAY 19

So I didn’t see Iliya’s critique until after I had worked on the piece some more, but after I did I went back and tried to simplify the values and shapes a bit more. My figure work is improving, but this arm proved to be very difficult. I’ll be focusing on those for the next couple days and try another figure after that. I feel like I’m starting to understand portraiture better too.

Hope everyone is enjoying their day!

[JJ]

DAY 17

Technical difficulties on my end slowed progress down on this one – the tablet pen just doesn’t want to work sometimes, for some reason. But I did eventually get it to work, and found a pic of Rafael Nadal looking like Conan. The perspective on the arm was difficult! I spent lots of time redrawing this picture and even then, I only did a passable job. Also, the reference picture I’m using just cuts off his torso on the right side, so I can understand if it looks a little janky. I’ll still have to fix the proportions as I keep working on this piece.

As for the state it’s in, I try to start by drawing a good road map with lots of shadow shapes. Then I try to use only 4 or 5 major values to flesh out what I’m going for. This is where it is today, we’ll see where it is tomorrow!

[JJ]

DAY 16

This is likely the best portrait I’ve done so far. I did make a point of working with a smaller value range when I was mapping out the piece, and I think I got a lot more cohesive values this time around. Things might be a little too soft in places, and I tried to correct this by working with a harder brush, but it seems like I could try to seek out more edges in the next work. Even the likeness is pretty good! I know theres no reference posted, but I guess I’m saying is that the eyes turned out okay – the hardest part of getting a good likeness (I think, anyways).

[JJ]

DAY 15

Last day on the statue piece. Really wanted to tackle the hair on the top of the head. I think I was able to bring some nice dimension to the overall piece. It was nice working on one thing repeatedly. I think the total time was about 5 and half hours on this thing. I think I learnt quite a bit!

[JJ]

Thanks for the kind words Jenny! I think your own challenge is going very well – you’ll be more than equipped to take on digital painting. Keep it up!

[JJ]

DAY 14-b

I changed my file format from png (which all my uploads have been) to jpeg and thats my best guess why it worked this time. Either way, a good bump in terms of quality. Wanted to dig a bit more into the intricacy of the beard and I think I was able to translate some of that rigidity in a “natural” way. I don’t know if that makes complete sense. I did the beard pretty well! Still using too much black for outlines. Gonna work on this one more time to get some more blending practise in.

[JJ]

DAY 14-a

So it seems like the website is experiencing some technical issues – seems like I can’t upload my image! I do have progress to show, and I’ll try again later, but otherwise I’ll just upload it tomorrow. Consider this post as evidence that I didn’t forget.

[JJ]

DAY 13

This is the first part of a multi-day session. At least 2, possibly 3. Because I was drawing from a statue reference, I’m including it here this time. I feel like this is definitely a famous statue that I should know, but I don’t. If you know, tell me!
I wanted to focus a bit more on the drawing than usual because there were so many components, and so many angles in the intricacy of the beard. I did a pretty good job, and ended up with a good road map to take the piece further.

[JJ]

I will definitely give that shot! Thanks Joshua!

[Author]

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