PROCESS VIDEO // river

As promised, the process video for my River painting! This one is a typical example of how often I can change ideas as I go. The pose changes a bunch of times and the end result is basically very different from the initial sketch and setup. But I’m a big supporter of just going with the flow and changing things if you feel like you need to - even though that can lead to a more chaotic process, it sometimes also leads to better end results! 

Some basic information about this process video:  

• The process has been sped up by 300% - so three times the original speed. 

• This painting took me about 3 hours to make.

• I used a mix of brushes for this one. 

  • I used the Macalabs pencil brush to sketch the initial lines: http://cbr.sh/fg8up?ref=loish

  • I used the hard round brush from my own set to blend and paint. 

  • I used a mix of brushes to add texture. Most of them came from Wes Gardner’s sets (both 2020 and 2019).

EVOLVING CONCEPT

I had the idea in my mind for a while: I wanted to draw a kind of vertical river with a spirit in it, and I wanted it to feel a bit skewed and mysterious. When I have an idea like that, I try not to overthink it too much. I gather some necessary reference images - in this case mostly of rivers that have rocks in them, and water surfaces - and then I try to get the idea down as quickly as I can. Once I did that, I was disappointed - it didn’t look the way I wanted it to. My main issue with it was that it looked too literal. It was missing that kind of surreal feeling that I was aiming for. This is something that becomes clear to me about 4:30 minutes into the process, and from that point forward I just work on changing and modifying things to get that more mysterious vibe that I wanted. The reason that I bring this up is because many of you have said that you struggled to visualize your ideas, and that you feel disappointed once you get your idea down. I personally think that's quite a normal part of the drawing process! It's OK if it doesn't look the way you initially - you can keep searching and take steps to get there. If you keep an open mind and just keep trying, sometimes you'll manage to get there in a different way than you originally thought you would - which is what happened to me in this drawing process. 

APPROACH TO LAYERS

My approach to layers is kind of messy. Rather than use them to establish the different parts of the painting, like line work and base color, I quickly merge them all together in the early stages and just start adding new passes of detail on a new layer each time. The reason I do that is because I want to be able to go back to my old version if the new details aren't working. Basically, I want to be able to go back and forth between old and new versions. So I'm just constantly painting over my drawing, but with the option to it or erase it if I need to. That's why you can see that the amount of layers is kind of ridiculous! It's not that I'm constantly navigating these layers or giving them specific purposes. They're just different stages of the painting - it's more like a timeline. I only really pay attention to the top ones, or most recent ones. That gives me the confidence to change things about painting constantly throughout the process. I can paint over it and redo it, because I nothing do I feels that permanent. I feel like that's the advantage of digital art for me: being able to use the tools that gives me maximum flexibility, so I don’t have to overthink anything. 

MESSINESS CREATES TEXTURE

Because I change the concept a bunch of times, there's a bunch of details that end up not really making it to the final version. My original idea included some trees and clouds, but those get painted over or moved around throughout the process. The benefit of that is that all of these details become a kind of texture that I can paint over as I move towards a more defined idea. For example, the clouds end up getting painted over and become a light purpleish tone in the bottom left corner, as well as a highlight on her hand, that I think adds a lot of dimension to the painting. So even though I didn’t keep the cloud idea, it was still useful for color variation and texture. I think the final piece has a painterly and textured look that's the result of layering new details over old ones, which gives an organic and natural looking result. This is another reason why I think you don't always have to have a really clear idea that you carry out from beginning to end! Sometimes the twists and turns of the process gives the painting a kind of randomness that is appealing. If I had known that is exactly what the painting was going to look like from the start, it might've been harder to get some of that texture in the final version.

I hope you liked this video and as always, let me know if you have any questions!