Hello, Creative People on Hive!
I am very excited to share with you my most recent digital portraiture of a Netflix series character - Wednesday Adams. I decided to draw or paint her because I want to hop in the trend I see on my social media accounts. Her dance became a buzz everywhere. I even have my Wednesday Dance on my personal Tiktok account.
Aside from the dance craze, I also want to make my own version of Wednesday Adam Fanarts. If you want to view the timelapse video of the process you may click this link. I hope you will enjoy the process. So, without further ado…
Sketching
I start my digital painting today with sketching because I really wanted to have a good output of this one. I want to somehow reach the bar set by professional artists I follow on Instagram and Tiktok. But, do not get me wrong, I am not putting so much pressure on myself. This is just my way of motivating myself to do better. For this sketch, I used one of the brushes I purchased from Etsy by Spirkitty. I am new to this set of brushes so I really did a lot of trial and error in this painting.
As usual, I used grid to have an accurate dimensions but it cannot be seen in this process because it is only a drawing guide on procreate. It will not be shown when you export your drawings or paintings.
Painting Process
After sketching, I used the no.8 skin brush in the portrait brushes set from Spirkitty. I started with one color as the base color, then added more colors which are darker or lighter by clicking the specific area of reference photo similar to a dropper tool in other applications. Then I smudged and blended these colors. From this point, I felt like I was not satisfied of the result of the smudging and blending, but I still kept on going.
Trial and Error
I turn off the sketch layer to see clearly the result from the previous procedure but I was really not liking it. I tried to add more colors and then blend it again using different brushes, but I still did not like the outcome.
I decided to have a break and look for inspirations via instagram, youtube, and tiktok. Gladly, I found what I was looking for. So, I decided to delete the current layer and to start from the beginning of the painting process. I know from this point that I was doing it wrong so I needed to fix it.
Repainting
As mentioned above, I decided to redo the process because I was not happy of the outcome. It is okay because this is my first time to use new set of brushes. So, I deleted the layers I used and just retained the sketching layer. I added again the same base color for the face and then added some more layers of colors on it. I also smudged and blended these colors but now using the same type of brush for painting. I was able to control now the strokes I made for blending and blurring.
More Painting
I switched off the sketch layer so that I can see clearly the result of the smudging and blending. I was happy and satisfied this time. It is more realistic than the first painting process. Then, I added some details in the eye. During this time, I was already getting the technique for this specific brush (Skin no. 8). I also added dark colors as shadow on the left side of the face, smudged and blended them.
Trying the New Hair Brushes
I also bought a set of hair brushes on Etsy and I also wanted to try it here in this artwork. Since I was not very confident on using this new procreate brush, I added a layer so that I could easily delete it if I would not like the output. While doing the hair here, I also started working on the lips and tried to add more shadows on the chin and left side of the face.
Deleting Hair and Continuing the Face
I did not like the hair, so I deleted the layer for that. I decided to continue the other side of the face. To do that, I added another layers of colors to have depth and contour on the face and then smudged and blended them a little similar to the previous steps. I was happy that my subject was starting to come in life. I could say that because my wife and nephews already recognize it as Wednesday Adams.
Painting the Hair the Second Time Around
After some trials on the hair brushes I finally had one brush that satisfies my liking. I painted the hair on the same layer as the face. When I finished painting the base of the hair, my wife said that my Wednesday Adams painting is not creepy. That comment was a new challenge for me. I just hope I could at least alter this a little to have a creepy-vibe.
Adding Freckles and Highlights on the Hair
When I was happy already with the face, I added freckles. Fortunately, the portrait brushes set I bought also has a freckles brush. So adding the freckles took less than a minute. I also added highlights on the hair to create volume and to make it look realistic and not plain and flat.
Adding Eyelashes & Background Color
With the constructive criticism in mine, I added eyelashes and darken the eye part of my subject. But, I do not like to over do it because it might ruin the painting. I may not have copied the emotions of the eyes but I am certainly happy of the output. It is still better than my previous portrait. That only means I am going forward.
Final Steps
For the final steps, I added more highlights. I used this very bright violet to compliment the highlights on her face. I also added the blouse including the prints on it. I also fixed some details on the blouse. Lastly, I darken the background more.
So here's the final output...
Conclusion and Final Say
In working on this artwork, I have made lots of errors because I introduced myself with new brushes. I also receive criticisms from people while I was still painting this. But all of these are okay because it is part of the learning process. I just promised myself to not stop. Maybe, I paused a little to refocus.
While we are learning a skill, we cannot avoid these circumstances of failure and mistakes, but let us always remember that it is an opportunity for us to be strong and to master the skill itself.
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