My art process is an absolute mess. Very rarely do I actually start with a plan on what I will be drawing. My go to thing to draw when I’m bored is a girl’s face, partially because I have a pretty good idea of what girls’ faces look like because I am a girl with a face. I always start with this base, and from there, I create either a color scheme or a separate image to base the drawing off of.
1) To start, I set up my usual sketch outline of a woman. I then lowered the opacity of the sketch and put a peachy-colored layer beneath it. Then I did my usual shading and highlighting: I used a purple color on a multiply layer for shadows and a light pink on an add layer for highlights.
2) Next, I realized that the shadows created around the bridge of the woman’s nose looked similar to the wings of a butterfly. So, I started drawing a butterfly over her eyes. In my mind, I was basing the drawing off of a bright green rainforest or jungle. As I continued drawing, I realized that I preferred a color range of more blues + purples instead of greens and yellows. This was when I began to set up my color scheme.
3) But once I got to this point, I decided to split off my original setup and my new idea. I finished up the red-orange portion (Gala) and then copied the layer and began working on part two (Carnival). On this separate layer, I messed with the colors, shadows, and highlights of the image using the “curves” option. Basically, I did my best to create the most chaotic mess of colors I could while still making it look like a person. I also used the butterfly I had originally sketched and redrew it into this new layer.
So, I started with a pink-themed portrait, added a green butterfly, and then split this one idea off into two different color schemes. This summarizes pretty well my whole art process. I let colors and ideas change as I go on, and this helps to create something that I really love, and not something that I feel I could’ve done better on.