I’ve been really getting serious about painting. Digital, that is. As much as I like the tactile of brushes and paint, I’m not the only one who messes around here, but I am the primary when it comes to clean up. I’d rather be learning than cleaning…I’ve also been actually drawing digitally. Er, rather, sketching. I’ve always drawn in Adobe Illustrator, and filled in w/color, then some texture, simple shadows and highlights, and I’m happy with those and will always continue to create that way. However, I was feeling a bit stagnant with that process, and just need to shake things up a bit. Sketching in Photoshop has really been challenging for me, but as I get more comfortable with it, as with anything, I’m really enjoying this new process as well. Most of the things I’ve been doing will never make it to this page, but, I do want to show off a bit of progress. I keep watching the Folio Academy vids, and I’m realizing more and more how much my brain/hand/eye connection has atrophied, drawing what I think I know rather than what really is. Worse, drawing too many things that don’t exist at all! Creative, sure, but I want to be sure my synapses are firing on all cylinders 20+years from now, so I want to keep everything well exercised. It’s not just the body that needs it, it’s our mind as well : ) I’m really spending quality time getting my skills back up, in PS and Corel Painter. I’ve had the latter for years! Keep upgrading too but never really dove into it. Anyway, so, here’s my little sketch. I’ll keep going and continue showing my progress!

 

This first one is just the really loose sketch I did in AI…

 

This second one is a bit of the tightened up version, that I’ll eventually paint in PS or Corel…