The Art of PaulDNg

Pencil sketch with simple shading that I did as a study a couple of years ago. I am super busy and overwhelmed lately, so "older work that I haven't posted here" it is. I hope you like it nevertheless! 🤎

REFERENCE:

For traditional, read the first paragraph under each section (it's written for digital, but doesn't use any digital-only tools or processes), and then the additional notes for your medium. You can use this method for graphite (additional, graphite-only notes marked with "✏") as well as for wet media ("🎨") - I have experience with watercolor and acrylic, so I'm approaching this from that mindset for the latter. I made this digitally (Gimp + Wacom tablet), using the hard round brush set to vary size and opacity with pen pressure, with a base opacity of around 85%

1 - Paint and shade your thing.

🎨 - Wait for the paint to dry completely before moving on to the next step. For watercolor, that's at least 24hrs, even if it will seem dry before - you want the paint to set completely to avoid it being picked back up with water.

2 - Pattern.

On a new layer in normal mode, draw trembly, squiggly lines (make sure to check that line stabilization is turned off). Make some parts thicker, and you can add some "splotches" for interest.

✏ - Use a dark, soft lead (B-grade) pencil and mark lightly, in layers, so you don't carve grooves into the paper, and to make the next step easier (because H-line pencils won't smudge as easily).

🎨 - Wet on dry technique. Try completing steps 2-4 by sections instead of each step all in one go, so your paint doesn't dry out.

3 - Smudge.

Increase the brush size a little and turn on jitter. Tap or nudge lightly along the lines to smudge them; drag lightly in some places to fade them. You can opt to smudge only one side of a splotch to create a fade effect. I still used the hard round brush for this.

✏ - Using the side of the pencil, or drawing very, very lightly if you're using a mechanical pencil, draw some fade along the lines as described above. Then, smudge using a tortillion, Q-Tip, tissue, or finger.

🎨 - Paintbrush with just water. You can experiment letting the lines dry out more or less in different places to add variety.

4 - Eraser.

Set your eraser tool at <50% base opacity. Go over the lightest parts of your subject (the ones hit hardest by the light) and lightly erase a little of the lines to make them lighter, if necessary.

✏ - Kneadable eraser or normal eraser using a patting motion.

🎨 - Pick the paint up with water on your brush, or with a tissue (only if watercolor), depending on how much water you have on your painting surface. If using acrylics and the paint has already dried enough that you can't pick it back up, apply a wash (very diluted paint) of the lighter color on top.

That's it.🙂It's really basic, but if it helps anyone or can help give them ideas, here it is.

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