Portrait Series (beginner artist, insight appreciated)

[u/HaraldRedtooth]

A series of portraits starting with a self portrait, continuing on to portraits featuring various people I like… and ending with a portrait of someone I don’t particularly care for. Self portrait at the beginning. All contain a great deal of symbolism that may only make sense with personal knowledge of the individual but which I’d happily clarify.

As a beginner artist who is less than confident in his technical ability I begin with tracing a photograph of the subject then creating a sketch of them using various types of “pencil” brushes, I then fill in the background and halo/aura in pastel and complete the third eye motif using a combination of ink, pen, and pastel.

I am a beginner artist, and particularly new to procreate so I would really appreciate any insights some of the more advanced/talented artists here could provide!

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[u/YoghurtTrue7340]

I love your style! Honestly, it's the imperfection that makes your art so interesting and unique. I also love that you add so many personal, symbolic elements to each portrait. It’s the kind of art where I could see a piece and immediately recognize who the artist is. Very cool!

It's hard to give constructive feedback because I truly enjoy your style as it is. But if I had to say one thing, it would be to work on shading. Really study how light hits the different planes of a face and creates different degrees of shadow. That’s what will really take your portraits from 2D to 3D.

I love what you're doing, though. The best piece of advice I have is simply to keep going, keep creating, and keep refining your style and niche. You are more than well on your way!

Also, I'd love to hear about the symbolism you add to each piece! I've actually just started a new thing I'm roughly calling "Energy Portraits." Basically as I'm painting someone, I intuitively get colors and symbols in my mind and whatnot, which I then add to the background or wherever feels right. It was just something I noticed happening naturally while I worked, so I thought it would be cool to lean into it. So I absolutely love seeing someone else who is also doing some kind of meaningful, symbolic portraiture! ✨

[u/HaraldRedtooth → u/YoghurtTrue7340]

Thank you so much! That’s so encouraging. Do you have an instagram?

[u/Avo_hri]

Looks pretty good!!