I've been working through the portrait lessons on MedsMap and returning to the same private photograph of my husband after every few lessons, redrawing it to practice whatever I've learned since the previous attempt.
Keeping the subject consistent has made it much easier to see where I'm actually improving. I'm gradually learning to think about the face as connected planes, proportions, value shapes, and landmarks rather than a collection of separate features.
The goal isn't to copy the photograph one-for-one, but to understand the structure well enough that I can stylize it deliberately instead of relying entirely on my usual face-making instincts.
This attempt naturally ended with me covering him in violent purple and blue lighting, because I can only keep up with realism for so long
(and the hue sliders are always fun to play with after finishing up a piece)
There is still plenty to learn, but this one felt like a real step forward.
Private reference used and artwork posted with permission.
With Art Fight coming up, I wanted to get this batch posted now so I can start moving toward sharing newer work again.
This batch is from a fun stretch of experimenting, figuring things out, and slowly pushing past my comfort zone. Some folks may have noticed that I used to post a lot of busts, and honestly, that was because it was what I felt most confident in.
Over the past year though, I have been trying to push further into other parts of art too - composition, full bodies, poses, rendering with more intent, and generally trying to make choices for reasons beyond "my brain says this looks right, probably."
I have also started working through some courses I paid for approximately billions of years ago.
I may post studies here and there, but I will probably focus more on cleaned up finished pieces, especially since some studies are course assignments and I am not totally sure how much of that I should post back to back.
Either way, I feel like I found my general style a long time ago. Now I mostly want to expand what I can actually do with it.
The brain fog is catching up with the word vomit, so I will leave it there. Thanks for looking through the archive chaos with me.
Oh and for anyone curious, one of the courses I have been poking at so far is MedsMap:
In this online course, you'll learn the fundamental techniques used by professional concept artists and digital painters. Each lesson comes
Sharing just because it's been teaching me some new tricks, even from the foundation lessons. The price definitely made me sweat, but I'm finding it worth it so far.
This was from a time where I was really practicing that painterly, no-line style and trying to see how much form I could get across without relying on my usual sketchy outlines.
I was really happy with how it turned out and that I hadn't fully lost my roots in drawing animals from when I was younger.
Mix that with my love of fantasy where there are a plethora of races including lizard folk and the occasional khajiit , and you get someone who branches into making the occasional furry art and monster art x)
I hope that made sense my brain has been absolutely fried in this heat
Starting off the archive arc with a little collection of ye olde posts from around 2010-2020.
Some of these are tiny baby artist fossils, some are just neat to look back on, and all of them are being tossed lovingly onto the archive shelf before I move into the newer 2020-2025 pieces individually.
Please observe the ancient sediment layers of my art development.
A softer one from the fantasy OC archive.
Chapy and Arathea having a soft little moment together. Since it is Pride month, this one gets to escape the archive pile sooner rather than later.
Two characters being sweet and cozy together with some nuzzling, a ritual even ancient beings can partake in from time to time.
Dusting off one of my D&D characters for the upcoming artfight
This is Arathea, one of my older characters. I still really like the dress concept here and how they work with her being.
A little appetizer/introductions before I introduce the rest of my pieces with her
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Another one from the pile - This one’s from another D&D group my lycanthrope blood hunter being looked after by her romantic interest after a rough run of character development.
Just a quiet little "you’ve been through hell, let me take care of you" moment. Big ol' dog getting a big ol' bath and some much-needed coddling.
Somewhere from the 2020–2025 archive pile, from a time where my proportions were also going through some much needed character development :')
Also, got an art trade going on where her monster form is currently in the works by Voidtech because I mean ***look at how they draw creatures???***
sretghserhg I’m so excited to share that once they're ready, I'm doing my magic touch of humanoid in exchange
Found some old footage from years past among a few other pieces, so I’ll be sharing them for a bit while I work through the archive.
Speedpaint first, finished art second.
This one’s from when I was really hooked on Toram Online and made most of my in-game currency through the community art forums. The people there were super supportive of budding artists too :’) It was one of the first few MMOs where I got to meet a bunch of really cool folks through art.
Always satisfying to see speed paints of hours of work and catching a few things you could improve. That said, painting hair like this was very cathartic, almost like those zen gardens with little rakes.
Someone requested a doodle of “some of the Dominion’s anti-human propaganda” but tbh this is too real outside of star trek. this is probably plastered over the entire Citadel in Mass Effect
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