Gabriel, Archangel of Strength - Failed Version
Added 2019-11-19 20:43:21 +0000 UTCThis month, I'm doing something a bit different. The software company Procreate is paying me to work with their program this month instead of my usual tool of choice which is Adobe Photoshop. I normally don't do commissions since you Patrons pay me so well, but in the rare instance where I'm able to create Angelarium paintings without restriction or sacrifice, I treat the commission money like an extra pledge to the campaign.
This was my first attempt at painting a finished piece in Procreate, so this painting had a rocky start. The tools work really well but I'm used to working in very specific and esoteric tools. That means I'm taking a little bit of a step back to a more traditional way of working to complete this project. It's good practice for my eventual pivot to traditional painting.
One of the first things that might pop out at you about this trashed attempt is how dark it turned out. That's not how it looked to me when I was working on it. The problem is the iPad has a variable brightness to its display that can affect its appearance dramatically. This means that I didn't realize how relatively dark this piece was until I exported it to a standard computer monitor. After that, I recalibrated the default brightness and started to get better-looking work. It's an issue I see a lot of people have when they don't compare their working environment to others while painting digitally.
There were a few reasons I dumped this piece but the main one was its lack of unique characteristics from the original painting, Gabriel, The Golden Herald. The similar body pose and a lack of a unique hook made me question why I was making it. Whenever I redo an existing Angel, I prefer to give that painting a unique reason to exist. If I'm not exploring some new idea, I question the entire purpose of Angelarium as a project.
Comments
I enjoy hearing your thoughts and drawing processes, and although I can see the similarities you were talking about, i still really love the color palette, so i like it anyway
Amee
2019-11-21 19:17:03 +0000 UTCI initially started painting in full color with Procreate, but switched to using it only for a grayscale phase, for the exact reasons you mentioned. So now, I treat my iPad and Procreate as a way to work only in grayscale focusing mostly on value, drawing, etc. But then I move it all into Photoshop to work to final and start introducing color. Truthfully, I started doing that once I learned of the gradient map method you use. It's what I use today, and I really enjoy it. However, I do see your point of eventually working in traditional painting and how this is good practice. All that being said, I do like this initial version.
Rene Arreola
2019-11-19 21:53:32 +0000 UTC
