I have always been more comfortable drawing cartoons and doodles, probably because that’s what I’ve done for most of my life. All children start with crayons creating outlines. Some will lay down areas of color, but that’s more about the action of scribbling than forming shapes.
Outlines are elementary. They’re fundamental to most art. It’s where artists start. Most of the time. Whether it’s a visual artist, a fashion designer, an architect, a carpenter, a filmmaker planning out their shots on a storyboard, a line drawing is usually where ideas come to life for the first time.
But painting, as opposed to drawing, is shape-based. To coordinate these shapes to work together, with their varied colors and sizes, and form an image, is really an advanced skill. I really envy people who can pull this off. Especially those who can paint with oil. There are so many things to consider due to the physicality of the materials and tools. Traditional painting has to be a passion that an artist is willing to undertake such a challenge. But there’s no doubt that the results, when done right, are awe-inspiring.
Christina Kent is one of my favorite artists working in oil. I think her work is brilliant. Gorgeous color palettes, compelling textures revealing her expert hand, simple. I’ll never get to that level, but I can learn to be a better digital painter with this kind of inspiration.
I have been playing with one type of brush in Procreate called Sharp Render created by Jingsketch. I’ve made my own variants so that I can vary the width with pressure and blend underlying colors into the current color for a oil-like effect. It’s not a substitute for a dedicated digital oil brush, but the texture and sharp edge is compelling to me.
I hope to experiment with this more often in the future.