/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>4501147
To illustrate what >4501174 is saying.

You need a plan, you can't start rendering like that without knowing what goes where. I like to incorporate my sketch into my painting process to preserve the maximum of the sketch shapes, Also you get more texture as the sketch lines seeps a bit out the painting here and there.

Just put you sketch on multiply and start blocking out a rudimentary value / color base. Be crisp with your shapes (personally i tend to lasso them). Then you can merge and start painting, rendering on top of it.

When you render, especially in the beginning, try to be conservative with your strokes. Big deliberate strokes that describe big bold shapes, and use a solid brush. As you get toward a finished piece you are gonna use finer and finer strokes depending of how detailed you want it to be.

Also don't be afraid to use the whole value range, play with saturation in the midtones (having a dash of saturation at the limit between shadows and light planes usually works well), lose edges in shadow.

If you do all of that, your painting should get a bit less muddy.