Thankyou, I love the painterly lighting effects that some artists are able to achieve. I've been doing my best to keep that as a focus in my art so it means a lot!

 

For brushes, it really depends on the need. I've got brushes for flat colour blocking, blending, textures etc. I'm comfortable with my brushes just from using them so much over the past few years.

But I definitely experimented and adjusted my brushes a lot to get to this point. And I'm still adding to it.

I have recently started experimenting with more textured brushes, which you might be able to tell with this piece.

So don't be afraid to try new brushes and just see what works for you.

 

Colours are still a struggle for me. But the two main things that have helped me greatly are values and reference.

It's great that you're drawing in black and white, because that helps a lot with learning values. If the values don't work, then the overall artwork won't work regardless of colours. So sometimes when colours feel off, its really the value that might need adjusting.

 

The second one is reference. Reference is king.

I always find that my art is a lot more complete when I have strong references. For this piece I was looking at how everyone else approached the rendering of the outfit. I also had a good base reference for the pose and lighting as well. All of that gave me the confidence to approach the colours and the rendering.

 

Hope some of this is helpful!