💛Divinity 💛
" The rain poured down from the ceiling out of darkness, falling, it glowed and danced upon her body. She had beckoned the storm from within, and then it was. Pure and divine, I too wanted to be cleansed. " - Nycto
Hello there my friends!! IM BACK!! And this time with my latest study/piece! Ive been working on a more painterly approach to my art in order to progress further as an artist. I have been too stagnant in my process so I felt like I needed to change things up. This also means that I change up my process as well.
Allot of the time I will map out my lines definitively before touching any color but I wanted to see if I could get to the same results, or maybe even better with a more painterly approach! Alright let me take you through my whole process!!
First thing first is that I came across this amazing photo of the model Model Summer Soderstrom.
Now sometimes An image just hits me and Im like.. WOW!!! I HAVE TO STUDY THIS!! By studying from life I am able to pull allot of knowledge from said study and apply it to my original pieces. I have been doing this process of studying and then trying to work a piece by imagination back and forth for the past couple of years. Here is a peek at a piece I was able to successfully create with only my imagination just for comparison.
Through studies I have been slowly learning and getting closer and closer to my personal art goals!! And you can do the same!! Of course if you do a study be sure to tag your reference model, send it to them, or at least let people know! And the second thing... a rule that I ALWAYS stand by and always will is...
NEVER EVER EVER EVER TRACE!!!
I mean you can if you want to but personally I believe that tracing handicaps an artist. You don't force your brain to figure out shapes in 3 dimensional space! You need to work from observation, learn anatomy, and constantly challenge yourself!!
OK rant over!! Here is my process!! =D
- Sketch out your figure.
If you are a beginner you may want to draw more shapes and try and find out the internal structure of the figure. You can do this from bone structure, to simple shapes, or even some gesture which is what I did here and is also my favorite to do. With enough practice you can draw around simple shapes in your own head and try to be as accurate as possible.
Another good piece of advice is...
If you aren't happy with your sketch. DONT START COLOR!! The under structure of your figure is the same thing as a structure to a building!! You cant make a structurally sound building if the foundation isn't solid.
But again we all have different ways of going about art. These are just my own views and opinions!
2 - Begin the under colors and start mapping out shapes!!
Now again this isn't my normal process and its a bit more chaotic than making everything a good solid flat color but.... This can be seen as a more painterly approach! Treat your digital canvas like a traditional one! Challenge yourself to drawing on only 1-3 layers! Constantly merging and going at it with blind faith in your own abilities.
3 - Continue. Let your hand flow and follow your eyes.
The next few steps are pretty much the same since this is a pretty organic process but Ill try and explain my thoughts behind each step!
Here You can see that I am still blocking out large shapes of color but also.. you can see that I spent a bit of time on the face as well. A painting should almost always have a focal point! I definitely wanted the face to be the star in this one... and the horns of course. 😈
4 - Bringing more details and ideas into a piece.
As I continue a study, many times I find myself changing things up. In the past year or so Ive been on a big demon girl/ angel kick. So as you can see Ive added in a sharp halo and also a tail! love me some demon girls with tails.
5 - Lighting is your friend.
Just like the last step I continue my transformation whilst still trying to accurately depict my subject! I have made the background lighting a bit more extreme, made her arms glow a bit more.. and then of course there are the translucent wings. Picking little details as I go along. Including the rain drops coming down in the background.
6 - Getting clsoer.
As time goes on your piece will come more to life but your time spent will exponentially increase! These last 2 steps take up 90% of the total time spent because of all the tiny details that need to be done. But at this stage I believe that I have mapped out everything as good as I can. So I continue.
7 - All about the details.
Now this is where you really need to start pushing your eyes and skill. Little details start making this piece pop! Like the small water fragments bouncing off her body, the subtle little shines in her wet skin. The small hairs radiating light. I also added some motion blur to the wings, gave it some action in a nice still shot! But.... so much more to go!!!
8 - All worth it in the end.
Hours upon hours later I have my finished piece! I could have spent more time on it but when it comes to art YOU Have to decide when a piece is finished! That depends on a bunch of different factors but as you improve you will continue to push your own envelope.
I hope you all have enjoyed this tutorial of sorts!! I wanted to give you all a bit more insight to my process, especially since this was such a new way of going about things for me!!
The most important rule to art is.... HAVE FUN!!! There are tons of rules and opinions of other artists that you can follow but what I've come to figure out in my short time on this earth is.
Just draw what makes you happy, express yourself, challenge yourself.
Thank you for reading all the way through and Ill see you next time. 😈
🖤😈 🖤😈 🖤😈 🖤😈 🖤😈 🖤😈 🖤😈 🖤😈 🖤😈 🖤😈 🖤😈 🖤😈 🖤😈 🖤😈 🖤😈 🖤😈
I hope you all enjoy and stay tuned for lots more art! ;) AND I APPRECIATE ALL YOUR COMMENTS AND LOVEEE!! - Nycto
my artstation - www.artstation.com/nyctoinc
my facebook page - www.facebook.com/nyctoinc
my deviantart - www.deviantart.com/theviljackass
my instagram - www.instagram.com/nyctoinc