dakotapaints

[dakotapaints]

Been keeping my oil paints out and ready to go to mix things up when I need to. Today I did a pomegranate still life as a warm up.

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Couldn’t sleep last night so I listened to the Baby Driver soundtrack (so good) and got this out of my head. Definitely some Pascal Campion vibes.

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This series inspired by things my husband says is a side project that I turn to when I want to do something fun and low pressure. Him and his obsession with his plants are always a good source of inspiration :) Here in California we experienced a very serious heat wave that caused him a lot of concern for his succulents. You try telling him that they are desert plants...

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Finished this one up from the other day. Full piece on my website :)

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Work in progress. Because fall, guys.

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I love ewe! Newest illustration :)

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Lost in the details

One my biggest downfalls when I work on a new piece is getting too caught up in details and making something look juuuuuust right. The truth is that something reads louder when you can sell it with less information. Fewer, more confident brush strokes are better than spending a lot of time making something technically accurate. It’s all about the emotion and action of the ENTIRE image.

Don’t overwork it.

I often work with a lot of layers and rely heavily on the lasso and lock pixels tools. This absolutely enables my tendency to overwork. To counteract this I recently forced myself to work on as few layers as possible. I did my best to use only one layer and if I did add another layer, I would merge it down before I started to overthink my decisions. I found this to be a great way to force myself to be more confident with my brush strokes and in the end I was really happy with how the piece turned out. It’s definitely an exercise I will try again.

To sum up... Don’t get too comfortable in the way you work. Try new things and risk failure. If you painted it once, you can paint it again - so don’t get too attached. Mess up and try again. Just my thoughts.

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Another character exploration. Mary Lennox and her little robin friend.

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I am currently working on a new visual development project for my portfolio. Meet Mary Lennox! She is quite contrary.

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Background painting I recently made. Inspired by the light and cheery backgrounds you see on the Disney Tangled series.

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Personal piece. The original is in color but I really like the black and white version. Thinking about opening these types of illustrations up for commissions. Thank you cards maybe?

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Full piece on my website but I quite like it cropped like this 😊 Painted with @procreate on my iPad Pro. Now on to a commission.

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Painted in Procreate with iPad Pro.

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When you live in California it’s kind of hard not to take inspiration from the weather... Also, you can spot my sis in this one.

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Character study using Procreate on iPad Pro.

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First days of school are always easier when you know you've got a big sis on campus.

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Here is a portrait I finished recently and a peek at the beginning stages of the illustration. This was a fun one!