Here is a spectacularly unspectacular overview of how I am working.
I painted Shadowheart after I had just finished a huge painting of a Zelda inspired character in a pool that I spent way too many hours on. I had used that chance to learn how to paint some new materials. For example, how to paint an inflatable bathing ring. And how to paint better light at an outdoor scene like this.
It turned out that I enjoyed the subject “lady chilling in a pool”, so I wanted to paint another one. Simpler and more straight forward. Have her sit there and look nice while I practice again how to paint the materials and light to get a better hold of them.
I took a look at different outfits that Shadowheart might wear and referenced them to design her some nice bathingwear and jewelry.
Like I said: This painting is pretty straight forward so I had the pose quickly. Pool beneath her, leaves behind her, done.
Fun fact: The leaves that you see on the wrongly spelled “leafes” layer are painted with a custom brush. Custom brushes have been a thing for decades. You could already make them back in Photoshop’s “early days”. (Procreate also offers the option to create your own custom brushes.)
So my landscape brushes have been around since I painted all those huge fantasy illustrations of ladies hanging around in forests and meadows when I was a teen. It allows me to paint a lot of random texture on the canvas that somewhat resembles leaves. This creates more detail and helps me to work faster.
In my workshops, I usually teach students how to build their own brushes and use them to paint better texture, and faster. And my new workshops will feature this segment, too. ^_^
(btw I noticed too late that her hand rests “too low” in the water. But then I was already done and didn’t want to change it anymore because I liked what it looked like under the water. XD)
At a point, I usually merge all my layers. Shocking, I know!
Where does this habit come from?
First, I have a background in traditional painting and I want to use the color blending brushes to further blend my colors and work on my edge control. The color blending brushes work best when all is merged, like on a real canvas.
Second, I used to work on a really shitty computer when I started out that would only allow 4 layers. So merging the layers is deeply ingrained within me and I sometimes have to force myself not to do it.
(For example when a client requires that the character stays separated from the background.)
Procreate offers some nice brushes for color blending.
However, I built my own color blending brush with Procreate 5’s brush engine since I also wanted it to have a texture like a real bristle brush. That makes the painting look more “painterly” than using Procreate’s color blending brush from the airbrush set, which kills too much detail/ texture. I also designed my brush to give me better edge control and pressure sensitivity which makes it insanely powerful when I am working with it.
Here is a comparison that shows my custom made brush vs the blending brushes already available in Procreate 5:
I teach my workflow in its entirety to my students, and I give my brushes to my students aswell so they can emulate my technique exactly the way I do, if they wish to.
So on my merged layers I do lots of my color blending, edge control, and extra texturing. I also still add separate layers, for example, when I am not sure how I want the glitter to look like. Once I am happy, however, I merge it all down. XD
I have just now become aware that this part is really hard to explain in writing. So I am making a mental note to make a free tutorial on that part once I find the time.
I hope you enjoyed this short excerpt into my work. Once I have made my new free video tutorials, I will make sure to link them here aswell. ^_^
References for my Shadowheart painting with emphasis on light and material:
PS: I am deacticating comments on these blog posts for one specific boring reason. When I made my first blog post I forgot about it, and now I have people there who didn't get an answer to their comments for about 3 years. I find that quite embarassing to not reply to people for that long because I forgot about this blog. So I am deactivating the comments, lol. XD