A picture book journey of my designs and artwork that I constantly work on as I develop arthritis. If you want me to make a graphic, come on in and let me know! Beware when reading, I'm unapologetically foul-mouthed sometimes and I like cracking dad...
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*Make sure your brightness is up. I used dark colors on her hair so they don't show up at low brightness.*
If you read the Credentials page or checked out my book "Fragged", you'll probably recognize this banner. The girl depicted is Shanoa, the main character of my book. There's a heavy VR element in the story and Shanoa goes through a lot of emotional turmoil, hence the VR visor and the tears. Shanoa is half Filipina and a lot of the Filipinas I've met who don't bleach their skin have a dark tan complexion with some yellowy undertones.
My two cents: I'm not 100% happy with it because I didn't get to add more shade and depth to the painting. I rushed through this painting because I'm impatient when it comes to graphics I do for myself. I'll probably go back through the shading layers and fix it later. Also, her lips need help lol.
Painting process Started out with the shittiest sketch I could think of. I wanted to get the form right, so I didn't bother with details.
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Next, I worked on the skin. Colored in my base color and some crappy shading.
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Next, I added some more shading around the edges of her face, her chin, and I also carved her nose. The dark line across the bridge of her nose is the shadow for the VR visor.
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I added the lips. Tbh, I'm not 100% sure I shaded it right. During my dorito binge, I might have screwed up her top lip. Oh well. *shrugs*
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Then the visor. I don't normally use solid black in my paintings, but VR visors are hecking dark. I also wanted it to resemble a blindfold, because it represents Shanoa's willingness to blind herself with a virtual world. I quickly dabbed some shine on the right and left sides of the visor.
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Then the hair. I just filled in with a base color, which in my opinion was too dark (I've come to realize that now). Oh well. *double shrug*
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I added some shadows and highlights in her hair so that it looks like actual hair. I removed the white lines of the sketch and narrowed her face down a bit. Then I cleaned up the shading and the edges of her hair and skin.
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Finally, I added tears, what looks like a blue, off-shoulder shirt, some loose locks of hair, and whatever text I wanted.
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