Digital Painting Progress

Fig.1 - Portraits/ Painting Progress

Looking back at my work I decided to focus on my paintings as I was still trying to find a technique, and understand the brushes, strokes, shading, colour and everything else in photoshop. Going forward with this plan I started painting friends faces and created a business Instagram account to have the feel of a freelancer. Since I was new to this I decided to digitally paint some peoples faces for free as they would spread the word out and reach out to many audiences/ viewers. 

This was an interesting process as doing this made me realize how to talk to a customer and advertise your work. For example; some would like to lower the price and not stay in contact with you or disappear/ ghost on you until you make a free offer. Learning from my experience it made me more strict in putting out to the front what I want and expect thus making it easier for the person to know what to discuss and not having to explain every detail.

Fig.2 - Instagram 

What I learnt during this process is connections makes you more visible. I was able to reach audiences through my connections to people who has a bigger platform. Since I am more of an introvert, social media is not a big part of my life. However, I took advantages of my friend's platforms who are doing films/ fashion, music and more. Thus creating different pathways to people I did not expect to talk to. For example in fig.2 Max a YouTuber, and a friend of my sister Anatoria known as Blessing Chitapa who is still being mentored by Oly Murs in "The Voice."

In the end, I was happy with the result as shown below of my progress as it was a success. I aimed to learn about painting however I did not expect it to turn out realistically. I was able to learn a lot and know what to expect now in the future. I am happy of what I created now that I am having a lot of requests, however, I put my account on hold as I still have much to learn for my premise project. Because painting a character would be different from painting a realistic face.

Digital Paintings Progress

Fig.3 - First attempt to painting a face

Fig.4 - Understanding colour

Fig.5 - Practicing 

Fig.6 - Understanding different types of brushes 

Fig.7 - Trying to make it realistic

Fig.8 - Experimenting with brushes

Fig.9 - How to blend colours together

Fig.10 - Progression in my paintings

Fig.11 - More practicing

Fig.12 - Finally understanding colours

Fig.13 - Practicing

Fig.14 - Practicing

Fig.15 - Understanding Lighting and shadow

Fig.16 - Process

Fig.17 - Painting Final Result