Step-by-Step Process of My Art!

Hey everyone,

Back in the old days, to improve my skills, I used to pick random references, paint them, and try different techniques with colors, textures, lighting, etc. I stopped doing this, but today I wanted to give it a try with no clear meaning behind the series. I think I was looking for some kind of "break" from creating new characters every week. Don't get me wrong, I love doing this, but it's good to stop from time to time to gain some perspective. Also, maybe I'll learn something new.

You are probably asking, "Good for you, Ramon, but what's in it for me?" Fair enough. Here's a step-by-step process execution of each of these studies.

How are these step-by-step processes useful? For each phase, you can:

• Compare side by side with the reference to see which lines I chose to define the character silhouette and what aspects of the original reference I left out.

• For colors, consider the palette, brightness, and combination. Not all characters or studies have an equal amount of hues; this mostly depends on the type of vibe I'm aiming for. For instance, "cheerful" will predominantly have brighter and slightly more saturated tones.

• For values, consider the color tone and hue of the shadows. This is a single layer in multiply mode on top of everything previously done, except the line art layer. This was tremendously influenced by the references, as I often don't feel like a pro painting shadows, but I guess for this particular case, it was very good for practicing.

• Refinement, last but not least, where I clean up a bit more and add some extra colors and effects.

Here are the references from each pic; feel free to give it a try following my steps or, better yet, doing it your own way! Let's practice, I'll give 20 Skill Points for those who dare.

Reference 1

Reference 2

Reference 3

Reference 4

If you find these particular processes useful, remember that the Mastering Maestro tier members have access to the PSD files, which you can dissect layer by layer like I did today, plus the process video to quickly catch some insights in execution that I might be missing in text format, all for only $10 monthly.

Thank you so much for your support.