Learn: characterdesignreferences.com

An excellent website filled with reference and instructional images like the one below. 

(In fact, the image below links to this page: https://characterdesignreferences.com/visual-library-1/character-anatomy-skin )

Artist: Angel Ganev: Some Excellent Reference Videos

Angel Ganev is a talented artist who, if I understand correctly, is entirely self-taught. I wouldn't say I'm the hugest fan of his humour (in fact, some of these videos may be NSFW) but Angel gives very good advice and makes PDF’s to help budding artists (which is cool; he could be charging for these). I wanted to list some especially useful videos here for future viewing and reference. 

Head Drawing Exercises by Angel Ganev

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEBnAr4kaxc

Basic Anatomy of the Face

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C31IyUW6Tg

THE SECRET TO DRAWING PORTRAITS (very real) (not clickbait)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIulck9VqwI

The Rules of Digital Shading

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOzqWyX0xyo

How To Learn Portrait Painting by Angel Ganev

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGtrmNQ6HWc

Artist: Jeffrey R. Watts

Some very impressive pieces from traditional painter Jeffrey R. Watts. I love his mark making, shapes, and brushstrokes. Apparently one can audit his online classes at www.wattsatelier.com.

Daily Work: August 2nd, 2020

Some studies of an image by Australian artist Rosarrie (her work is the top left corner). I like her style, use of colour, and line work; it's expressive and charming. 

My own studies are outside of the circle. The focus was choosing colours, experimenting with different brushes, and blending. I also used the lasso and fill tools for the apple (although edges weren't an immediate focus). 

I'm training my eye for colour: I look at the original content, then pick out what I think is the correct colour, first by navigating to hue, then altering the saturation and value. The green for the leaves surprised me by how much into the yellow the hue was!

I liked the textures of the brushes so much I noted which brushes were which. The Eaglehawk and Tamar brushes left lovely textures and blended well. 

Daily Work: August 1st, 2020

Drawing from a photo and practicing with charcoal. Focusing on using values to make sections (where the light falls) especially pop, but maybe it's too bright in spots; I think I should have toned it down on the muzzle. Also, the transition between the head and the neck should have more nuance. The red background is perhaps unnecessary; the red and black together makes it look somewhat like a Halloween piece. 

Reminder: Zodiac and Carols

I think a fun project would be illustrating the animals of the zodiac, or the 12 Days of Christmas, in a pen and ink (and watercolour) style. :)

Daily Work: July 31st, 2020

This evening was a colour study of Arnaud de Viviès's evocative art, as well as practicing the different lighting modes (Multiply) as well as different brushes. 

Viviès's line work is very fine yet despite its weighted lines-- and, as I said, is evocative. The especially finer areas feed into the viewer's imagination. The eyes of the dragon and facial features of the spirt, for example, dwindle into shadow, leaving the mind to fill in the blanks. 

The colours in my study are not exact, but of course I don't want to be "cheating" by relying on the colour picker. Looking at it now, overall, the colours in my study should be more desaturated. Plus, the grey colour of the dragon should be a tinge more in the yellow spectrum.