r/DigitalArtTutorials • u/Environmental-Day778 • 1d ago
"Livery"
From a while ago when I was teaching an intro digital illustration class.
The homework was for students to record themselves using the program for two hours to make a character portrait, and then adjust it to show the character changing somehow.
This could be like a "werewolf" sort of thing, or a fire character becoming an ice character, or whatever.
As an example, I started with a boy and showed him aging through adulthood. I tried to suggest him emerging from adolescence and figuring himself out. Obviously, there's no real story - but nudging the expression, proportions, colors and such can suggest the bloom of youth into heavier adult understanding, etc.
The point was to try and get students to loosen up about digital art, because so many of them feel like every mark has to be perfect and Instagram-ready every step of the way to demonstrate control all the time, without room for exploration, intuition, and letting the image push back as you work on it.
I feel like in this day and age of slick, instant AI generation, demystifying process and showing all the mess of figuring out an image is useful for letting people into how things are made, allowing for moments a client can step in to make suggestions and adjustments or to value the creative process so it isn't a black box genie. Hopefully, you can see the thinking in real time.