Thank you for taking your time for making such an insightful, layered and interesting video. In an era where content has gone so repetitive and trend based, watching a video that took me on a journey and that offered so much insight about art and life, is amazing. Thank you.
Gale is there for people who fall in the ‘yes babe infodump about your special interest to me!’ Category. (I love him a lot. And Astarion too, for various reasons some which overlap.)
@@EefjeSavelkoul I share that with him as well, so I do get it, but gods above 😆 He said something so triggering for me during Act 2 in my first playthrough that I still haven't forgiven him 😅 I am doing the try though! I made a character specifically to be a good match for him so I can try to see his good timeline play out. I also started an origin run for him because I figured the less he can over react, the better chance I have of seeing his story through 😁💜
Thank you friend! I owe many of my portrait skills to your classes! Sketching/doing studies digitally has really unlocked something for me. I think having the freedom of the undo button paired with being able to move and transform things that are almost right but not quite really relaxes me and allows for a better flow than what I am currently capable of traditionally 🥰
DnD, Balders Gate and painting. Just advanced multiple levels in my paint guru list. My warlock, my Drizzt fascination and my pallette welcomes you to the A-list.
Oh dang, what a treat! And so much to potentially comment on here... First: That is a great color combination and what a fitting subject you've chosen! But holy prep work! You have my deepest respect for the amount of studies you've done beforehand. Astarion turned out really amazing! It shows that you spent a lot of time and effort on this painting. Btw, the developers said something in their EULA about sending them your fan art, so you might want to reach out! Also, I didn't know that you are a fellow gamer, and this discovery has made me very happy! I'm super happy how much overlap there is between the geek and the art communities. I recently painted Karlach after finishing my first playthrough of the game (I'm late to the party, I know). Astarion put me off a bit with his initial arrogance and attitude, but I've learned a lot about his background and romance by now, and I appreciate the work and care that the developers have put into his character. Painting portraits can be rather difficult, especially because getting the likeness of a character right is often just a matter of milimeters. I spent the majority of my time when drawing portraits on tweaking the features just slightly to try and get closer to the likeness. And I feel you when you talked about painting white hair. A while ago I painted Thranduil from the Hobbit, and almost despaired when I got to his blond hair. I originally got into watercolor painting from black and white drawings, so using the right colors or tones is my personal struggle, plus some stuff like how to render hair or how to paint freckles in this medium. I also avoid painting bearded men or men with very short hair, because I have no idea how to paint hair stubble. So women and men with wavy hair it is! For a subject matter so far out of your usual comfort zone, the result is even more impressive! I think you can be very proud of this. Thank you for this treat on a Saturday evening. ☺
Thank you for all your kind words! The color pairing lent itself way too well for my to not paint him 🥰 I have several in progress Karlach games but have yet to make it to Act three to get that achievement. I'll get there eventually! If you also watch CR, there's a Mollymauk painting tucked away in my Roman Ssmal video 😁
Hullo Denise, I do enjoy watching your process and I am so happy that your doing well and able to keep creating videos. I am encouraged by the enthusiastic response your getting from so many others! I look forward to seeing where you take this series, I am so glad your reaching out to the D&D fans who are just discovering your interest in that genre. Go get 'em Denise!!
I know nothing of DnD but I really enjoyed watching this, I think I could watch you paint all day! I love alizarin crimson & this palette is just gorgeous- the portrait is fabulous.
I love how Astarion turned out. The limited palette plays together nicely and works so wonderfully for him. I'm on my third play through and while I left him in camp during my first a lot, he became one of my favourites. His story is really heart breaking and I try to give him the best ending.
I got so excited when I saw the thumbnail! I think personally I am biased towards human portraits because I loved your Mollymauk piece and this one is also sooo gorgeous
One thing I did that helped me a LOT with capturing likeness and picking up speed in portraits, was drawing people I know. I put out a call on Facebook for my friends to drop a selfie (within some parameters like no filters, whole head must be visible, etc.) and promised them a 5 or 10-min pen sketch that may or may not look like them in the end. I got a ton of faces to sketch, and it was easier to see if I captured their likeness due to familiarity. A couple of them became profile photos which made me feel good haha
This rocks, Denise! I'm one of the stragglers that didn't quite get to watching this when it first came out (it's finals time, and I had a lot of projects to grade), but hopefully better late than never! It's amazing how well these two colors go together. I appreciate you showing your process, too; my favorite part is always the thumbnails/studies stage, and it's always to treat to see how an artist thinks and plans an image. Likeness is also really difficult and I think you did a wonderful job - it really looks just like him! If you wanted to move further away from loose sketches on top of refs in the future (no shade at all, it's a great way to figure out proportions!), one of the tricks I've learned is to focus on the shape of the shadows themselves! It's not always possible with certain lighting scenarios, but if you have a face that's 1/3rd to 1/2 shadow it's a lot easier to abstract shadow shapes down and sketch the gist of a face (without worrying about the finer/distracting detail). I think oil painters tend to do this when they do an underpainting or when they "sketch" their face before painting it! That being said, it's totally not a big deal either way! I do that too - it's a great way to measure proportions, especially in ambiguous photos where detail has been blown out by weird lighting. It's also great for simple measurements - how else would I know a horse is 4 horse heads long?😆 The only Baldur's Gate game I've played is from 2001; I remember enjoying it, but something tells me I'd enjoy Baldur's Gate 3 a whole lot more, haha! Looks like a fun game. Thanks for sharing, and beautiful work!
Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful comment! I'm glad you could catch it, and appreciate the tips. Al Case has a great class on Skillshare that I took a while back that includes using those shadow shapes. It was a great lesson!
Oh my gosh this is so fabulous. The shadows and light is so well done. Love it. I am not a game person but love vampire stories. So that was cool too. I love the colors,Paynes gray is one of my faves. Excellent video. Thank you
This combo works really well together though I have tried this duo only with a non granulating Payne's Gray so far. PR264 (Pyrrol Crimson) is my main choice these days for replacing Alizarin Crimson (PR83) but only if the brand does not offer a Perylene Maroon (PR179) in which case I prefer it even over the crimson and I eventually mix a hue of it using the staple Quinacridone Rose and the Perylene. I feel like the PR179 expands the mixing possibilities of the palette much more than any other crimson.
I’ve been really curious about paynes grey for a long time and rarely use crimson. I’m doing a computer course at the moment so I’ll haven’t had any time to do any gouache or watercolour painting, or even drawing. I’ve been missing it so much. But watching your art and these colours in use is so relaxing but makes me crave the play of painting and drawing again.
I’m in Australia and it’s always difficult to catch live videos on here so I tend to catch up on videos at a later time. I’ve never thought to paint a vampire before but this minimal palette is a great choice.
I haven’t played this game, but I am super intrigued by what you did tell us about this character’s story arc(s)! I’d love to hear more about it sometime!
I like the idea to work only with a limited palette with 1, 2 or 3 colors :) old masters was working also sometimes with few colors and useful colorcombinations. the whole endless range between the colors will be looking very harmonicly at the end.
omg ur portrait of astarion turned out lovely!! I love how misty & mysterious it is ✨ I also love how you also painted the blood & how it actually curves over his jaw/chin, it makes a 2D illustration feel so tangible!! i’ve spent the last two years playing with color and pigments and now that I feel confident with a palette I like, i’ve realized I forgot how to actually draw, much less get a likeness in portraits T_T the struggle is so real. i can relate to having problems painting highlights (although yours here look pretty damn good :D ), my arthritis has been making it hard to even hold a paintbrush sometimes 😭😭 compression fingerless gloves have been a huge lately for me plus I don’t get my handprint on my watercolor paper as a bonus lmao :} I haven’t played bg3 though your review is REALLY tempting me, astarion is so babygirl 🥺 I played two sessions of curse of strahd back in 2021 I think but we didn’t get very far before the other folks in my party left b/c other priorities (life amirite😞) buuuut I do want to eventually finish it! me myself being queer, audhd, and traumatized it’s only natural that fantasy vampires have my heart 😌 /lh ty for this video and for noting all the supplies you used as they came onscreen!! i’m seriously so grateful for that!! ✨
Thank you so much for all your kind words! I had to wait days to paint that blood but it was worth it 😆 I've definitely had to relarn drawing as well. It was my go to when I was younger, but since picking up painting, it fell to the wayside for a while. And chronic pain never helps in terms of practice time, does it? Haha. I am so, so grateful that both of my D&D groups stayed together throughout the pandemic (were scattered across the country and play online; we lost one player, but the other nine played all the way through). As much as I love being able to play D&D as a player, CoS really hit different as a DM and it was such a fulfilling and gratifying experience. I hope you get the chance to play again!
as someone who is also scared of portraits I applaud you for going for it on camera! I know very little about DnD or Baldurs Gate but it's fun to hear you talk about it
Looks just like my first DnD character which was a pink high elf with purple eyes. But she had black hair. Fun fact that you play DnD! Our current campaign is strahd so this was timely. Please do more narratives with the characters you paint!!!
Well there's a glorious snarky Elf inspiration. Love the big crossover art has with D&D and other gaming communities. I've been PnPing since 2nd Ed and my son thankfully has followed in my and his dad's footsteps and loves playing too. They have a regular online session using D&DBeyond and Roll20. I love how online facilities keep P&P gaming alive when people have such busy - and distance - lives. This is a glorious piece of work Denise ❤
This is very interesting! When mixing (Payne’s grey’s) can have a range from more blue to lil purple, then neutral tint but finding that can use Indigo to darken many colors & like using it as know which way leans! Again great tutorial & still love Alzirian Crimson (fugitive or not) 😊!
paynes grey is a mixture of blue and black pigments, so is indigo. Neutral tint does not contain black, and depending on the brand it will include different neutralizing combos (m graham uses pv19 and pg7, but plenty of brands use a 3 pigment mixture of primaries to achieve the same effect). That's why indigo and payne's gray will lean towards violet or blue, because they literally are a blue plus a black. it is not the best idea to use it as a crutch for darkening colors, unless you are using it deliverately like denise in this limited palette. Many artists find themselves gravitating towards it initially, then learning to do better afterwards haha. That's because black will kill the glow of your watercolor, even if just very diluted. And if you learn to make different shades of darks on your own, neutralizing the same colors you are using in the rest of your painting, it will all look way more harmonic, and it will teach you confidence in your color theory knowledge, plus as i said, your painting will retain it's glowing undertones.
After mixing several colors with indigo can tell certain places wouldn’t use it. Mostly did it to test which way brands I have performed & with Pyrrole scarlet (better colors) & Q. Rose looks good with it but looks good with Ultramarine. So enjoy learning how these colors lean, which combos just love each other & shading so far big challenge but practice basic shapes as what most things see (just add lil more) details!
I'm still a very new artist, and I really only got into it because I wanted to do fan art. I'm not at all into drawing or painting animals, but I've enjoyed your channel during my learning process nonetheless and have obviously learned things that are applicable all around. So all that to say, this video made me especially happy. I had to skip some bits to avoid spoilers (thank you so much for marking them clearly in the timeline) because I haven't yet finished BG3, but this was still really enjoyable. Your painting came out great.
I can always trust that you will have gotten into the same DnD-related obsessions as if you - a complete stranger to me - share my particular brainwaves. I remember that time you surprised us with the Mollymauk portrait and my brain almost vibrated out of my skull in a ‘same hat!’-type moment. Loved seeing you work on Astarion and hearing you talk about why he resonates. I am also wearing this same hat. (My dark urge character romanced him and oh god the PARALLELS.) I love all of the characters so much, and will flipflop on my favorites. Thankfully I’m not obligated to choose, I can have as many play throughs as I want with all the different Tav/Durge characters who make different connections. (Have I also started a Gale origin run just for Bloodweave brainrot reasons? Maayybeee.) I also love seeing your sketching process! I love it when artists show the amount of work they put in and the thought process behind choices. This is also a great limited palette, and while I’ve not painted in ages I might actually get myself to make space on my painting desk again to see if I can get something going again by only picking two colors and experiment. (Though I might still accidentally end up playing BG3 instead.)
The amount of editing I had to do to this script to not gush for another 10 minutes over the Resisting Dark Urge/Redemption Astarion story was immense! It's my favorite storyline I've ever consumed in any form of media 💜 I was watching an interview with the main writer for the Dark Urge, and he spent a few months working on Astarion as well. That's why they have more interactions than any of the other companions, and I'm sure it also contributed to the parallels. I am a puddle just thinking about how great it is 😍 Thank you for all the kind words! Enjoy both painting and BG3!
@Denise Soden your portrait of this character looks phenomenal! I have very much enjoyed watching your growth as an artist all of these years. Seeing your progression makes me happy, on that artistic comrade sort of level. I feel the same way about animals that you feel about creating portraits, as I've mostly concentrated on human subjects for the duration of my life. You inspire me to similarly go out of my comfort zone as well. Perhaps I'll try a still life or an animal subject soon. *P.S. - I'm an old D&D/RPG nerd and enjoyed hearing your admiration for the subject matter and character design, etc. I have yet to play Baldur's Gate. I'm dating myself here, but; I started with Gauntlet, (elf has shot the food!) as a kid, Heroes of Might and Magic, on PC, etc., Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, etc., Elder Scrolls Games, (watched my friends play Final Fantasy Games,) played way too many years of World of Warcraft, and now enjoy The Elder Scrolls Online MMORPG. 🥰😘
@@InLiquidColor of course! - I do too. I love when you can tell that games are created with this in-mind; immersion, environmental design, character design, story, etc., etc. I get really excited when I see color theory in my video games. ❤️
It's in my Steam account! Two of my close friends have been gently nudging me to play for years. I tried a couple months ago but immediately got overwhelmed by the controls. Once my ND brain gets over the overwhelm, I'll see it through!
I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED. Been in an art block for ages but I might emerge from my casket to sketch my favorite pale elf from BG3. THANK YOU for showing the sketch process; I would have suggested you use photos of (young) Neil Newbon for the practice sketched actually since even he noted Astarion bears an eerie resemblance to him (despite the game model being made already before he was cast)! Still, I'm even worse at portraits than you: I usually paint cats. >.< I might do a loose portrait though, using tracing. I'm still scared, but for this pixel man? I SHALL PRESS ON???
This portrait came out fantastic!!!! I have a TERRIBLE time with drawing faces and then painting them! Also check out the work of David Mack- Eisner award winning comic book artist who does everything with watercolor! I think you would enjoy his work!
24:10 You should try The Last of Us 2. The romance between Dina and Ellie is absolutely amazing. A bit disappointing in the end. But my gosh do they love each other. I HIGHLY recommend this game if you like player choice games. 👌
The music playlist is just optional for those who want to avoid trigger warnings or are not interested in this topic. The video is as voiced over as my failing voice would allow 😅
@@InLiquidColorThanks so much for all of your work ❤ I am loving your Limited Palette series. And I am looking forward to the eye studies, whatever the creature😊
