Ginger

Today I did another picture aimed at improving my grasp of hair, this time painted. I pulled the reference from a search on Pinterest for “hair style”. In addition to practicing the big/medium/small approach to rendering hair, I also tried to tackle using a new painting program: Artstudio Pro for the iPad.

Procreate is the clear leader in the space. When I first started drawing, it was with the PC program Krita and a Huion tablet because it was a cheap way of dipping my toe in art. My early attempts at color were, at best extremely rough. Then a YouTube tutorial suggested you think about color in Krita as applying a blob of pigment to the canvas and using the blending brush to give it shape. I tried with some real success. In Krita the blending model doesn’t just apply the pigment you are mixing in; it melds the color with the paint beneath. You get both natural looking blends and interesting color artifacts because it’s never fully homogeneous.

I disliked being tethered to the laptop to draw, though, so I switched to Procreate on the iPad. I spent long months struggling with it’s blending model, which is much more mathematical in nature. Everything took on a “digital” look. A brush economy approach can ameliorate the worst of it, but I always longed to get back to the more physical look of my first works.

I learned about Artstudio Pro from someone on Cara and decided to give it a try when the promotional materials talked up its “pigment” blending model. This painting is a product of me trying to figure out my way around that program without taking the rational step of a tutorial or even reading the user manual.

Still, though, I think it looks pretty good. I’ll keep at it. I think it comes closer to what I’m imagining when I picture these things in my head.