Software used: Photoshop & Artrage 2 (download here)
I used Photoshop to do the painting and then used an overlay image that I made in Artrage, to make it have that dried oil look to it. The point of this excercise was first, to introduce me to digital painting (this is my first ever digital painting), and second, continue to study the back muscles. I would greatly appreciate any feedback.
~Will
Hi Will,
Welcome, and thank you for the nice pm earlier. 
It’s good to see your first piece here. If you would like to tell us something about your art training and background, that would be helpful.
The main thing that I think all artists need to focus on primarily is learning values. Check out the Skull Shading exercise / tutorial that is linked in this thread:
Personal Sketchbook Primer and Tutorial / Workshop Guide
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=403198
I recommend trying this tutorial and looking at the SPOTLIGHT images of those who have done this tutorial previously as inspiration. I’ve seen enormous growth in those that do. Check out in particular NR43’s thread:
Sketchbook Thread of Johan Derycke
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=375447
Another exercise which can be of enormous usefulness is to do master copies. We just concluded a great Workshop on Torsos here:
Anatomy Lesson Series: Body Part 2 - The Torso
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=405198
Finally you can see a collection of paintovers and demos I’ve done in the past as collected on my personal website, www.foundationalarts.com:
Paintovers & Demos
http://www.foundationalarts.com/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=9;t=30
I look forward to seeing your progress here. I encourage you to check out others’ threads and to post replies and constructive criticism. As you become a part of the community here, you will find yourself learning a lot and growing tremendously, I think.
Cheers,
-Rebeccak
Thanks Rebeccak,
I really appreciate the outpouring of help I get here. I can’t wait to dive into digital artwork, it really excites me.
As for my training, I am still in school. I drew as a boy, but it was all self-taught. When I got into school, it wasn’t really helping a whole lot, but I finally completed a minor in Graphic Design, which was eventually pointless because I decided to change and go to a school online. I am currently attending the Academy of Art Online, and am receiving some great education and I feel like I’m really growing in my art. I am currently pursuing an associates of art in 3D Modeling and Animation. I should be done with it by next December.
Any comments would be great, even “You suck, give it up, go do us all a favor and die.” LOL
~Will
Will,
You’re welcome! And thanks for telling us about your background.
With respect to your piece, I think the main thing to focus on initially is values. You can take a look at how I’m developing a value based piece here:
http://www.foundationalarts.com/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=7;t=37
Color is of tertiary importance to the two most important things to a painting: drawing and value.
I really recommend the skull exercise, as I think it will go a long way toward enforcing the importance of values in a painting.
Cheers,
-Rebeccak
Hi Will,
that’s a really nice one for a first
The good thing about doing some greyscale exercises, what Rebecca is talking about, is they will teach you the importance of contrast and how you can use it to lead the eye of the viewer to the focal point of a piece. It’s tricky so the more you do of those, the better you get (believe me argh experiencing this myself at the mo).
Welcome aboard and I hope to follow your progress as time goes by.
I appreciate it. I took a look at your sketchbook, and would like to say that you’re doing a good job. I liked how you did a step by step demonstration. I should do that too. I’ll be doing the greyscale thing today. I was in my anatomy class earlier this semester and they gave us some pictures of skulls, so I should have some. Can’t wait to do it. Thanks again.
~Will Beeler
Well, it’s been a LONG time since I have updated the thread. Here’s a basic ball excercise that I did, based on the apple excercise. The actually shape of the ball is slightly wrong, I know. Anyways, here it is. Is the application of painting techniques right, or is there something that I’m missing? Thanks.
Hi, drawing circles can be a real pain sometimes… it just takes practice really and even if you’ve drawn already hundreds you still have to do it carefully.
Say… that anatomy class you did… could we see some of the stuff you did there?
would be awesome 
Hey, thanks for the reply. Yeah, here’s some work that I’ve done in my anatomy class. Hope you like it.
Ooh, lovely drawings. Would love to see more of these! With the shading exercise, I think you just need a broader range of values. It can help to use a lower opacity on the brush, but also remember that when you have the brush selected, you can alt + click an area of the canvas to sample the color / value of the area you click (the pb temporarily turns into an eyedropper). You have enough values down on the ball now that you can sample directly from the canvas instead of relying totally on the swatches. I would say to continue to work on this and refine.
Keep going! It takes time to get used to painting digitally. You’ll get it, with practice.
Thanks again for the encouraging reply. I love this community. I need to do some more drawings of the body. I don’t think I draw enough as it is. Yeah, I hope to be doing some more digital painting in the future, but I’m trying to figure out how to plug that into my time constraints. Thank you again for the encouragement and good critique.
Hi William, welcome to the most addicting community in the world:D
those are some really great pieces you have there. I can’ wait to see how your thread develops. Ciao.
I’m really glad you’ve posted those drawings. Thanks for sharing!
They look wonderful.
You could broaden the value of these lovely drawings by heightening them just a bit with a white pencil or so… just be very careful not to put too much pressure at once and slowly build up your highlights.
Excellent stuff
Really looking forward to see more!
Thanks NR43 and Ha-dou-ken. I appreciate it. I’ll try to post some more in the next few days, at least, I’ll try. Thanks again for all the great encouragement.
Alrighty, here’s another digital painting thing I just did (2 hours). I had a pencil sketch laying around that I did of my hand, clasping a small can, so I used that. I then added basic values, and then refined, especially around the edges. Another thing, I don’t feel like it’s really “finished”. Is there something else I can do to really heighten it? I already thought of the contrast, but anything else?
Edit: by the way, is there a way to clean this thread? Like get rid of the earlier posts and images and start at nothing again without deleting the thread? thanks
Really nice stuff you have got here Will. I like your drawing very much. I like your approch for shading hand. Keep up the good work.
I appreciate it. Thanks. I’ll check out your links to your blog and sketchbook. Have a good one.
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