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Description
It seems it's once in a blue moon that I upload things to dA these days, mostly because I've been focusing on a lot of NSFW things which I feel belong more over on FA. But nevertheless -

I've been practicing digital painting more and more these days, and also trying to get better at shading, and Robbie here is part of that effort.
One of my biggest issues as an artist has been my obsession with precision. I've always been very keen on doing lines and color and shading that goes exactly, precisely where it's meant to. I won't bore you by psychoanalyzing why, but suffice to say, the further back in my art history you go, the more you'll see of this.
It has taken me a long time to realize that in art, making something that feels right is often better than making something that is millimeter accurate. Indeed, oftentimes making something that is precise will not only look worse, but also take a considerably longer amount of time than simply dashing some paint where you feel like it.

I think Robbie turned out great. I've been reading up a bit on how shading goes hand in hand with color - the hue needs to go warmer where you shade, and cooler where you highlight. Simply shading by making it darker will make it look flat. Of course, it takes some effort to figure out which hues work and which ones don't. I've also been practicing -where- to shade. How to apply it to produce something which looks three dimensional, as opposed to some earlier work where shading was just haphazardly applied to one side of the face without much understanding or thought as to why it should be there. Good shading can eliminate the need for a lot of lineart.
Finally, I've been practicing the nitty gritty of proper photoshop usage: What brushes to use, when and where to apply clipping masks and layers for various effects, and knowing how to modify your brushes to make them do what you need them to. There's a lot to learn that I never really bothered with before, but I feel like I need to if I'm gonna hone these skills further.

I want to give a shout out to tacklebox - for a while now, I've been fanboying his art and looking to it both for inspiration and as references. Anybody else who's familiar with him will be able to see the inspiration in this piece I'm sure. I'm borrowing from his style as another tool for learning, and I feel like i've already picked up a few hints for the future!

Description
It seems it's once in a blue moon that I upload things to dA these days, mostly because I've been focusing on a lot of NSFW things which I feel belong more over on FA. But nevertheless -

I've been practicing digital painting more and more these days, and also trying to get better at shading, and Robbie here is part of that effort.
One of my biggest issues as an artist has been my obsession with precision. I've always been very keen on doing lines and color and shading that goes exactly, precisely where it's meant to. I won't bore you by psychoanalyzing why, but suffice to say, the further back in my art history you go, the more you'll see of this.
It has taken me a long time to realize that in art, making something that feels right is often better than making something that is millimeter accurate. Indeed, oftentimes making something that is precise will not only look worse, but also take a considerably longer amount of time than simply dashing some paint where you feel like it.

I think Robbie turned out great. I've been reading up a bit on how shading goes hand in hand with color - the hue needs to go warmer where you shade, and cooler where you highlight. Simply shading by making it darker will make it look flat. Of course, it takes some effort to figure out which hues work and which ones don't. I've also been practicing -where- to shade. How to apply it to produce something which looks three dimensional, as opposed to some earlier work where shading was just haphazardly applied to one side of the face without much understanding or thought as to why it should be there. Good shading can eliminate the need for a lot of lineart.
Finally, I've been practicing the nitty gritty of proper photoshop usage: What brushes to use, when and where to apply clipping masks and layers for various effects, and knowing how to modify your brushes to make them do what you need them to. There's a lot to learn that I never really bothered with before, but I feel like I need to if I'm gonna hone these skills further.

I want to give a shout out to tacklebox - for a while now, I've been fanboying his art and looking to it both for inspiration and as references. Anybody else who's familiar with him will be able to see the inspiration in this piece I'm sure. I'm borrowing from his style as another tool for learning, and I feel like i've already picked up a few hints for the future!