Spider Queen

Originally this piece was going to be cell-shaded as my line art is very poor and rough looking and I need the practice.  However after completing the line art and base colour I decided it would benefit from a more "painterly" look. 

I have an awful habit for getting lost in details and ruining my paintings as a result.  Because of this my brushstrokes are usually very "scratchy" and paintings take forever to be completed.  In this painting I tried to use broad strokes and focus more on using them to emphasise form rather than detail.

Original sketch

Line art and colour blocked in

Window ->  Arrange -> New window for [file name] can be used to have a zoomed out version of the piece your working on sitting in the corner of the screen as you paint in the original window.  That way you’ll see how the changes you make up close effect the painting as a whole.  

Close up of detail

My brushstrokes still feel scratchy and I didn't put much thought in to this drab and lifeless colour scheme.  As a result the over all piece feels quite flat.  The composition is also off -for instance the skull is not centered in the frame.  I think this painting could have benefited a lot from a dramatic use of lighting (under-lighting to enhance the spooky/gothic theme I seem to have going on here) which would also have increased the tonal range in the painting, possibly helping it look less flat.  Definitely also need more careful planning before jumping in to a digital painting.  However before I scrapped the cell-shading idea, I did feel the quality of my line art was improving - it's looking a lot less messy and more solid now, though I do need to vary my line weight a bit more.  The painting also took a lot less time to complete than usual, even though the end result is rushed looking. 


Will keep practicing this method to get the speed and quality of my work up.