DIGITAL PORTRAITS
I began exploring the power of the brushes panel and a Wacom tablet a couple of years ago when I enrolled in a free online course called the One Week Portrait Challenge taught by David Belliveau. We learned how to study a photo and then block in and blend values and color to create a rough form, followed by a stage of detailing and refinement. Below is a series of portraits I've created since then (with the reference photo displayed in the corner). While the beginning stages of this process for me involved replicating the photo by digitally painting it in Photoshop, I've learned vast amounts in terms of how to control the brush and texturing tools that I am gradually trying to get away from replication and instead, I'm applying that knowledge to my own style. The bottom two portraits are in that vein as I work on a more stylized/cariacature approach.
