Heinrix (Patreon)

Another Heinrix piece, this time a proper painting!

I enjoyed playing around with the lineart look this past month or so, but I have to say that I find it easier to paint more subtle pieces, especially when it comes to expressions, linelessly. It can be really restrictive to stick with lineart, especially if it's not flowing well. I was originally going to line this piece, but I realized I'd made some anatomical mistakes with Heinrix's left arm in the initial sketch that had the piece looking stiff. After giving up the lineart and just working with my sketch/underpainting, I could merge everything together and fix issues with the good ol transform tool.

I REALLY prefer to work on one layer, I'll usually have a base layer and a sketch layer, paint under the sketch layer, and then merge them together, paint over them. I'll add new elements on a new layer and merge them together pretty quickly after getting the geometry/sharper shapes in. Previously, I would delete my sketch layer or just keep it as a guide, but I think merging it in at a certain point helps keep some of that original sketchy flair that inevitably gets lost if you ditch it.

I definitely think that artists that excel with lineart must have incredible self confidence with their work- I need my pieces to be super malleable the entire process or I get stuck. And once I've got a piece lined and the flat colors in, it always feels like I'm stuck with whatever I've got haha.

Anyways, I'm just really trying to push more stylization in my rendered pieces. I'm really proud of how this one turned out. ♥

~Lily