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That is, one painting per day, at 30 minutes maximum for each piece. I decided to start one of those 30 day challenges for myself - mainly to work on speed and accuracy. Also I want to improve in depicting character expressions.

Taking an idea from an art stream I was watching a few days ago, (by Bobby Chiu, who I consider to be an incredible and highly inspirational artist), I picked out two features/expressions for every face or character that I will paint for this challenge. I think that will help to keep it simple and allow myself enough freedom to interpret the character's features on the fly. (I'll post the two guidelines along with every painting I post).

Goals:
1. Get as close to "finishing" a character in the allotted time.
2. Be more consistent and focused with practice, and to develop good work ethic for my personal projects.
3. Have some form of improvement in my painting style by the 30th day.

And so it begins. I am open to any comments/tips you care to give!

Post #1 - 8/14/13

"Pampered, Envious".

Post #2 - 8/15/13

... I really HATE the way this one turned out. Its supposed to be
"Happy, Young".. I have a lot of practice to do on pretty much every type of expression and face there is without it looking overly old, creepy, angry, and/or frightening. At a certain point this person looked like voldemort, if he had been dead for a week. Could have turned out worse! I know, the only way to get better is to keep practicing - but todays painting was a low point!

Nice work so far!
I really need to do something like this, haven't really drawn much at all lately.

They're not bad, but definitely need more contrast in them. It's hard to make them out from the background.

At 8/15/13 11:31 PM, Kashi wrote: They're not bad, but definitely need more contrast in them. It's hard to make them out from the background.

I know what you mean! Part of it is that I still haven't gotten far enough in the 30 minutes to get to a stage of adding highlights and dark shading, but I am also purposely avoiding adding color and finer details - which unfortunately makes for a washed out and saturated image.
Thanks for the feedback!

If you're working in photoshop you can play with the levels to make it have more contrast. It's a quick and easy solution I use often too.

Post #3 - 8/16/13

"Tall, Carefree".

I feel pretty decent about this one. Everybody is suggesting I work on contrast in these sketches, so I made a point to get started on brighter/darker colors sooner in the process. As you can see I was unable to finish the face, but I feel like the pose and movement portray the topics close enough. That right leg is really bothering me though... not to mention the hair. Okay, on second thought, maybe I'm not that satisfied lol.
Happy FRIDAY!

Post #4 - 8/17/13

"Sour, wrinkled"

At 8/17/13 04:51 PM, cisco4321 wrote: Post #4 - 8/17/13

"Sour, wrinkled"

this one is waaaaay better than your others. In the previous faces you stayed to light in your values.
in this one you nearly go all the way to white in some places.

Better already! Try some variation though, they've all got the same nose. The exercise is slightly pointless unless you experiment; not every drawing needs to look great, it just needs to help you get better.

Post #5 - 8/18/13

Topics - "Quiet, Afraid"

I used a photo reference for this one. Otto's comment on similarity helped me realize that I'm getting lazy, and I'm only on number 5! I DO tend to execute elements of the face in a way that I'm comfortable or familiar with when I don't feel creative or motivated enough to mix it up. I don't plan on using references for every post, but for now I think it'll help me try some new facial features/combinations. Thanks for the helpful feedback!
On a side note, I really wanted to keep going with this one! So much left to do.

Interesting style of your paintings!

Post #6 - 8/19/13

Topics - "Solemn, stiff"

Post #7 - 8/20/13
Topics - "Sleepy, cuddly"

Kind of a weird lookin' baby eh?

Post #8 - 8/21/13
Topics - "Slimy, sleek"

Post #9 - 8/22/13
Topics - "Anxious, toothy"

Post #10 - 8/23/13
Topics - "Indignant, old"

Stupid, I know..

Post #11 - 8/25/13
Topics - "lanky, energetic"

Yes, I already missed a day. I let too many distractions get a hold of me!

Post #12 - 8/26/13
Topics - "attentive, hopeful"

Post #13 - 8/27/13
"small, capable".

Post #14 - 8/28/13
"furry, alert".

Now THIS.... is weird. But I love it. I took an extra 5 minutes to put some finishing touches in.

Post #15 - 8/29/13
"pretentious, bad-ass?"

At 8/29/13 09:12 PM, cisco4321 wrote: Post #15 - 8/29/13
"pretentious, bad-ass?"

best one so far.

Post #16 - 9/1/13

"Noble, Rough"

Post #17 - 9/2/13
"Vain, talkative"
Not too happy with the proportions, but I got to experiment with a lighter background and I had time to work on smoothing out the strokes.

It's nice to see you learning

Post #18 - 9/3/13
"Paranoid, malnourished"

Post #19 - 9/4/13
"Excited, young"

Post #20 - 9/6/13
"dark, focused"