Adventures of Oliver and Dynamite - new color version

 Happy New Year!

I've been slowly making my way through this Domestika course called  "Digital Painting for Characters - Color and Light" because I feel weakest in understanding color and light when trying to advance my artistic abilities.  And while it took a while (I can only squeeze in a few hours a week at night after the kids are sleep), it's been really helpful and fun.

So here's a new version of the color for my old drawing of Oliver and Dynamite on a scooter.

I feel like this has come a long way.  For comparison, here's how it looked when I tried to color it last time.

Yay, progress!

sketch - arm and hands study

 

Color Exercise

 I made up a new color exercise where I pick an image where I like the color palette (in this case, one of Pascal Campion's daily sketches because he's a master of color) and then another image (Batfleck) and draw it using the color palate.  It was a lot of fun.

edit:  noticed that my tablet screen is pretty blown out.  So colors tend to look much darker once I export and I view on other screens.  Adjusted the color curve so this color study doesn't look so redonk dark.

sketch - anatomy study

 

Sketch

 

Domestika class homework

 I'm taking an online course called "Digital Painting for Characters - Color and Light" by instructor Joel Santana from Domestika.  I'm really enjoying it so far.  Color and light is an area I'm pretty weak in when it comes to art and I'm been wanting to level up on it for a while.

Here are my homework exercises from the first section of the course.  Some sphere studies, and then modifying the spheres and then textures.  I'm learning a ton both in terms of technique and also how to use Clip Studio Pro.  (The class is taught in Photoshop, but I've been able to find equivalent features in Clip Studio Pro.)

Sketch

 I have some encouraging progress on Project Apricot.  I've been struggling to settle on a style for the story and characters.  Mainly because I don't have a style of my own.  But recently I discovered the art of a talented artist who goes by Toi, and fell in love with the style of her characters and their subtle expressions.  And I knew this was the style I wanted for Project Apricot.

https://toixx.tumblr.com/

https://www.instagram.com/toixx/

 I've reached out to ask about commissions and freelance work, but haven't heard back.  In the meantime, I'm trying to learn her style of drawing characters.  Here's an attempt to understand the way she does faces and an exploration of some looks for the character of Fang.