PROCESS VIDEO // ruffle - part 2

Here’s part 2 of the process for Ruffle! As I mentioned in the last post, it took about 11 hours total to make and this is the second half. It’s sped up 10 times. 

Some things to keep in mind while watching this video: 

CHANGING DETAILS AS I GO

What I love about digital painting is that you don’t have to stick to the original sketch when adding detail. You can just wing it and anything that isn’t working, you can change later on. I felt like the pose was working great in the rough version, but later on, it didn’t feel right anymore. So I just change it! It’s not a problem that I have merged all of the layers together. At 5:20, I get rid of the arm that’s bothering me by painting over it and sketching a new pose for it. This new position opens the composition up a bit more. You can also see me changing the face a lot throughout the process because I struggled to get it just right. There’s no limit to how much I can paint over it to adjust the details until it does feel right.

FLIPPING THE CANVAS

This is something I started doing fairly recently. I noticed that most of my paintwork tends to lean to the side, without realizing it or being able to see it unless I flip the image! I also tend to add more detail to the top left corner (probably because that’s where I start reading, so that’s the first spot my eye goes to). So I sometimes mirror the painting and paint on the mirrored version for a bit to get some more balance in the composition and detail density. I do this around 9:45 minutes in. I feel like this is a useful way to spot areas that could use a little more detail, which I overlooked before.

ADDING FINER DETAIL

I think one of the main things that makes a painting ‘visually rich’ is the balance between low and high detail areas. This makes the high detail areas stand out even more, and make them more appealing to look at and take in. So when I add my final pass of finer detail, I tend to focus it in one specific area so that details in the painting aren’t competing for attention. In the case of this painting, I do that mostly around her face. This is osmething I start doing around 24 minutes in. I make the brush smaller and add sharp, fine detail on her facial features and on the hair around her forehead. This will help draw the eye towards the face - and leading the eye is a really important way to make a painting impactful and visually rich. 

Hope you liked these videos! Let me know if you have any questions!!