Hart Illustration

The Warden of the Wood (+progress shots)

Hm. Long title.

I finally bit the bullet and bought Procreate for my iPad. This isn't my first Procreate painting, but it's the first one I'm really proud of. I should have switched programs sooner to be honest. It's so much easier to paint with these brushes than Autodesk Sketchbook.

Anyway, this is a portrait of the MC from Meridian. I guess the title of this piece is something of a spoiler. It's fine. 

Here's some screenshots showing my progress. I have lots of screenshots cuz when I'm drawing, I constantly send shit to my friends for validation. I hope you guys enjoy.

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1) Outline - There's not much to say for this screenshot, to be honest. You can peep my reference image to the side.

2) Blocking out some flat color. I always start with the most detail on the eyeballs because.... I like eyeballs. I also changed the background to an off-white.

3) Started blocking out the hair and bringing in some details to the face. I liked starting with lighter colors and gradually getting darker, because it made everything look softer. That's why I start with a layer of brown for almost everything, even stuff that's going to end up black. Also I discovered that all the airbrush brushes are actually the best ever.

4) We're getting some highlights on the hair. We're getting some details in the face. He has lips, but he has no ears. That's just how it be sometimes.

5) All of the shading and detail is done on the hair. The hair looks darker because there's an overlay layer of blue on top. I also started doing more shading on his face, especially in shades of gray, but I wanted it to stay light because I normally overdo it when it comes to faces.

6) I decided to add some flowers and shit. I outlined them all in white (so they would be visible over the hair) first but I thought that would be a boring screenshot to include. Anyway, I added flat color to the flower and leaves, then made the outlines darker to help with the shading later. I brought the same green and yellow tones into his face because.... idk I thought it would look nice.

7) An ear appears. The ear was the second-to-last thing I painted on this. After the outlining, all of the leaves and the flower were all painted on one layer. Then I realized the leaves were too small, so I blew them up... then, of course, they were fuzzy, so I redrew all the details again. AND I got rid of some of the twigs because they were a pain in the ass. Anyway, now I've finished all the details I planned to do in Procreate.

8) So here's the final image. I always move back to GIMP for the final touches. I made his near eye larger and a bit less droopy, then I rearranged the far eye so it didn't look so fucking weird. I layered some textures on top and that's it!