Starting off with the first four months of the year, there is understandably some bad happening. Overall, I feel like I had some okay ideas, however, the execution made them fall flat. At this stage I was very eager to come up with something cool looking, but I was lacking some basics: three of them being anatomy and understanding colour and values.

It's also very funny how whenever I would finish a piece, I would feel so proud of it. They weren't exactly good, but were executed at the best of my abilities at the time. It's quite endearing to look back on it, haha :)

My main goal during this period of time was to get faces right and I can see that I leaned torwards portraits a lot. In a sense, it was kind of a safe zone for me because it's what I was focusing on more and what I was most comfortable drawing at this point.

Most of these pieces are lacking a pop when it comes to colour. For the longest time, up until July, I rarely messed around with Adjustment Layers because I wasn't aware of what they could do in terms of colour correction. Nowadays it's quite mandatory for me to at least experiment with it. It's important to take full advantage of what tools PS (or any other painting softwares) has to offer if it means it will improve our piece.

With this said, it's not like these functionalities will do the job for itself. It's up to us to know how to properly use them in our favour!

And finally the last third of the year. Looking back I can see I moved on from faces to bodies little by little. Even though the anatomy isn't perfect, it's always a start. It's like we need to get the bad out of the way to finally get to the point we want - and this is achieved by making mistakes at first.
In comparison, I feel like my work is looking a bit more tridimensional and not so flat like before.

I think my progress was as standard as to anyone else's. I started by doing whatever was on my mind and able to realise it wasn't turning out that great due to lack of practice and some knowledge. So I would focus on a specific part for quite some time (faces) and then I moved on to other areas (body).

One of my goals for this year is to practice anatomy and to be able to portray more dynamic poses as well as draw men. I also want to start recording voiceovers for my videos to add a bit more value to them. We'll see! :)

Other than this, I learned and still do learn a lot just from watching digital painting timelapses. There is always something to learn even if it's just from a glance at a sped up video process. Many times before sleep, I would lie down and watch these types of videos. This also helps you develop your taste and decide what you like and don't like in terms of art style. From that, you will be able to find and form your own.

And that's it! If you were brave enough to read this text wall, big props to you! If you are also on this digital painting journey, I would love for you to share your experience.

I will be back soon with a timelapsed video. Until then, enjoy the beginning of this new year! :)