Piece #7: Color Vision

When I started my drawing journey, I was interested in not just drawing but digital painting as well. I want to be like Sam Yang when I grow up. I started with drawing because it's a lower-cost entry point. I wasn't sure I'd like this hobby, so why spend a boatload of money on something I'll end up hating.

Well it turns out I don't hate it at all. In fact, I think I straight-up fell in love with it when I drew that one hand. So for my birthday recently I bought myself a Wacom Cintiq 16, which I read was a good mid-tier, entry-level drawing tablet. So far, I love it!

I'm using Krita, which is an open-source version of Adobe Photoshop. I was kind of forced onto that path since my personal computer runs Linux (because I am a special kind of nerd) and I haven't had the time to figure out how to get Photoshop on Ubuntu. I've read that Krita has pretty much every feature that most of the others have, so I might just stick with this and figure it out.

Now for the fun stuff! To break in my new toys, I painted this:

I didn't use a reference photo, but I did follow this tutorial by RapidFireArt. Even though the tutorial is for shading with a pencil on paper, I followed the process with stylus and screen. I think it turned out pretty well! I like the color of the iris!

The eye looks a little cartoonish. Maybe the outlines are a little too pronounced. Maybe it's the lack of shading for the rest of the face. Maybe it's just the color and texture of the skin. I know part of it is the eyebrow, which was not included in the tutorial. I took a guess at what to do and it looks too sharp. Too many individual hairs stand out.

Here's what I learned from painting this piece:

• I have no idea what I'm doing in Krita. I should definitely learn some painting techniques.

• The lesson I learned on the last piece concerning taking a break and coming back with fresh eyes applies here, too.