Feels like Forever: Art Painting for Myself

I've always felt there was room for improvement and I could do better. However, I've always shied away from better PC tools like Photoshop and the likes. My mistake was making myself so comfortable with mobile that anything else bores me. I could remember few weeks ago when I saw are we to paint myself with Photoshop but I didn't see it to completion because I simply got tired. I have a stylus but my fingers feel so much faster .

Anyways I found another software last week which helped me realize -to a great extent- my dreams of having professional tools on mobile. I had hitherto been using Autodesk Sketchbook. Don't get me wrong, Autodesk Sketchbook is a great software and I'll definitely still go back to it from time to time. For instance, I made this earlier this with Autodesk Sketchbook, still (me).

I just completed my Schooling and I have the burning desire to go back to my old habits. I think Hive is a great place to document my journey and help with my consistency. I have been here for such a long time and I have indeed missed the fun I had. Hive helped me to be consistent; Over the years I have improved in my writing skills and also Artworks. My journey essentially started around here
https://hive.blog/realism/@marvel1206/my-second-realistic-drawing-tutorial-45c0fce03de9e

My rate of improvement without the consistency over the last two years has been neither here nor there. Can't say I am on the professional level but I hope to say that soon.

Enough talk ..I downloaded some lovely hair textures and it had every bit of wholesomeness. I used it for the hair edges but I eventually started stroking the inner part of the hair with a tapered brush. I then got lost , I couldn't figure out how to use the pen tool. Took me enough googling to find my way

The outline! My word it felt so clean and neat. Kind of imitates the pressure on a stylus. This kind of outline is perfect for Vector artwork but I had no intention of keeping this outline at the end of the day.

Then the shading began.. Over the years arts, I have learnt that it doesn't always make sense until you are at least half way done.

I continued with the shadows and ended here. If you notice that in the previous screenshot, the shadows were coming off the outline. Prior to this work, I would normally erase the edges manually but I just figured out that I could just select the outer part of the outline layer, switch to the shadow layer then clear/delete. This new discovery saved me alot of time.

The eyes.. look at the details this software affords me. You could zoom infinitely and still have those tiny bit of details. Oh and the stats bar was already ticking hard

The lips has always been my problem for a long while but I think I just had it figured out. This is the final work in comparison with my previous lips drawing

Continuing with the timeline...
I reduced the opacity of the shadow and the lightning which came off a bit too pronounced with little variations of course to the hair and the beards..

Then the neck drip,background, little more highlights and boom. Close up

Software: Infinite Painter Pro
Duration: 9 hours