Painting In Procreate - Starting With A Study

[@emyart23]

Your line about you wanting to keep the moose, even though it messes with the composition, earned you my subscription bru🥺 I struggle with that problem AALL the time in my more complex paintings, but I think at the end of the day, if it's for you having fun and as long as you know what rule exactly it is you're "breaking", it's totally fine to do so. Also, in my experience many a times there's a fitting solution to keep your favorite subjects in the painting without ruining the composition.

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks! Yea I feel exactly the same. Understanding the rules allows you to bend them effectively. Also, yes as I said had I planned to have the moose and/or character from the start, I could have set up a much more effective composition. Thanks for the sub :D

[@studiozealot]

“But I want the moose…” :( That’s such a relatable thought during a creative process, hahaha! My roommate and I are both author-illustrators, so we often talk about the concept of “killing your darlings” in writing, and how people don’t talk about how frequently that happens in art too! Great video! I love doing studies like this precisely for lighting or color or composition practice (with reference credit), and I’m trying to get better at painting in Procreate, so this was perfect, thanks! ✨

[@gradyfrederickart]

haha! Sometimes you just gotta take a hit to the comp just to scratch a specific itch. In this case I had a major moose itch. Thanks for this :D

[@studiozealot]

@@gradyfrederickart Yes, I’m glad you stuck to your moose guns even if you had to nix the party. A real moose would probably party wipe a group of adventurers quite handily-druids should pick them for wild shape more often!

[@AnthonyAvon]

These are word for word my feelings about photobashing...

[@Frostensen]

Love the fact that in the world of artstation and photorealistic looking concept art, you still paint/draw. Seeing you work is calming and listening how you approach and think about your sketching really resonates with me.

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much for this :) I'm glad

[@MoranaPetrusic]

Thank you for explaining the process, especially for the coloring!

[@gradyfrederickart]

You are welcome! Thanks for watching:)

[@bronzemontana5071]

the way you keep every thing so simple that is really amazing I like the painting I hope to get this level one.

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much :D

[@eliseu_player3838]

Brother i really like to see your art. I can't wait to see the world you are building. Keep up the good work, you are definitely an inspiration!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much dude 😁

[@Authormatthewtaylordotcom]

I see a new Grady art video - I click like. I see a new Grady art video feat. Tree Moose, I leave comment. Thanks for taking the time to upload your work Grady! As always a joy to watch the process and hear your thoughts on the flow as well as the internal struggles or occasional doubts you bring up from time to time touching on the less-visual side of the topic.

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much man! It means alot

[@chocolatechips02]

I love seeing your work as always. You’re such an inspiration to me, as someone who’s also building a world of my via writing and drawings. I love getting to see your process and philosophy about art. Thank you for sharing!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much, that means a lot to hear :D

[@juhba]

Very beautiful artwork! Always nice to watch your process and hear your thoughts

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks for watching!

[@mckinleyhughes59]

so thankful for these videos and seeing your process. i'm in my third year in my university's graphic design program and i've been trying to pull in painting/illustration into my latest project and these videos have helped me so much. i really enjoy your commentary as well

[@gradyfrederickart]

That's awesome! Glad it's been helpful :D

[@TheImbeseal]

You keeping that moose is very inspiring to me lmao, I felt a bit trapped by all the art rules and sometimes I forget that they're more like guidelines.

[@gradyfrederickart]

yes indeed! Allowing yourself the freedom to bend the traditional rules a bit is important, given you understand why they exist in the first place :)

[@Pixe1head]

Awesome video man, I relate soo much when it comes to having no idea when starting a new piece.. thats one of the reasons why I have so little problems working on client stuff, and so many problems working on something personal 😅 so yeah - coming up with solid ideas for personal work is an art in itself for me, but totally worth looking into, that way you start this honest dialogue with yourself as an artist.. and hey, moose does bring something extra to the piece, so it’s not a bad move I think 😉

[@gradyfrederickart]

Yea I find I get frustrated easily when starting an image, so trying my best always to mitigate that haha. Thanks :D

[@ziggs3923]

Love your work a ton, happy to see you uploading more!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much!

[@HalfWarrior]

The tree you drew certainly is awesome and it seems to be the hero (however you put that); and I do like your moose too, it also competed for attention with the tree. Regardless, it looked like there was certainly a story in the whole painting. Great stuff and thanks for sharing your approach Grady! 👍🏻🫡

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks man, appreciate it! You rock

[@adibara]

hah, i love the moose, i think it's great. your struggle whether to have it in or not is so familiar to me as i often find myself bumping into similar problems. in your case i think keeping it in works great for the image - even if the composition isn't as striking as if it had just the tree in the foreground, the image gains on other aspects. the moose adds a lot of character :-) thanks for talking about your artistic struggles and process in such a genuine way - great video as always

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much :) Love seeing all the support for my Moose haha

[@Willlustrates]

Hey man, thanks for another great video and showing your process.

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks man! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@lablue5748]

Love your art style! The landscape feels so cozy I want to do study from your picture now😅

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thank you so much 😀

[@vinesdesign]

I love it!! Your vids always make my day better. The way you talk about art and creativity always feels so genuine! I would really love to see you do a video on developing your drawing and sketching skills like you touched on in this one! Just your thoughts on the topic. I've always been so bad at keeping a traditional sketchbook habit, but would love to have the freedom to create beautiful stuff with just a pen. Always felt more comfortable in my painting skills, but the efficiency of drawing is always so appealing. My brain just can't wrap itself around communicating noise with drawing very well (stuff like foliage or highly textured surfaces or scenes with otherwise detail-dense elements).

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much for this, it means alot. I want to do some traditional sketching for a video soon, I am just trying to sort out the best setup. But yes, sketching is really important and I want to improve on it as well, so expect videos covering it :D

[@vinesdesign]

@@gradyfrederickart Really looking forward to it, man! 💪

[@Arraxey]

thank you so much :D your videos are very relaxing

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much!

[@OX_Tools]

Wow Melanie Thompson is masterful. Thanks for sharing. I wonder if it is possible to get that super smooth oil style digitally. I mean, your "sketches" are like masterful works to me already, but I'd LOVE to see your painting in oil or maybe oil-like digital. maybe there is just a magic to oils that belong to the medium.

[@gradyfrederickart]

It certainly is possible to do if that is what you're going for. For me I'm not super concerned about mimicking a specific medium, as much as just having a grasp of the composition and colors and understanding why the work and are effective. But yes the list of looks you can achieve digitally is endless. Thanks for watching as always :)

[@MechNuggets]

A true artist that never uses photobashing 😂💪 Great video man!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Ayy thanks dude!

[@MetteMeers]

love your channel! keep up the good work!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks!

[@siegfreidx1633]

Hi Grady have you ever heard of zig zag/shoe lace method on value, if so do you always think about that when composing your value sketch ?

[@gradyfrederickart]

No I can't say I heard of it 🤔 When composing my value sketch, I try to just think in major lights and darks. That's why I so often start with a 2-value (or Notan) sketch. It helps me understand where things will be grouped.

[@sketch2807]

i wanna see the moose in every painting from now on

[@ExoplanetesSpace]

Very inspiring work as usual. Thanks!Procreate looks really interesting compared to Photoshop on iPad which is very heavy as soon as you have more than 10 layers. How many layers do you use on this kind of project?

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks! I think I had 2 layers in the end. I end up merging the moose and tree to the FG, and the landscape in the BG is all one layer. I like working that way once my composition is established so I have more freedom to work on edges and to unify everything to feel less "digital" :)

[@Kukriarts]

I really loved it😍

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks man :)

[@aureliencouturier8842]

Another amazing painting ! It’s so cool that your dnd campaign inspired you ! I also like to draw events of my dnd campaign and show it to the players. it’s crazy how this game can motivate to draw or paint! Were you the DM ?

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks! Yea I looove designing for DND campaigns :) It's a great way to get inspired. And yea I was the DM (not the greatest though)

[@user-cw4zj6kc8u]

I had a painting teacher once say that your landscapes should have something with a heartbeat in your paintings. Whether that's a human or some kind of animal. Even if it's small and in the distance. Landscapes by themselves can feel empty. I was thinking maybe the moose is smaller and under the tree on the left side while there's a small village/farm/cottage far off in the distance in the valley where the moose was standing. So in the mid ground where all the light is hitting. It would balance the composition while keeping the tree the hero of the piece but gives some visual interest to where that focal point is without competing with the tree. The moose is awesome I just don't know if it fits for this painting.

[@gradyfrederickart]

I love what your teacher said :) And yea there are alot of ways I could have worked it out if I had planned better. I find almost all my recent works have some kind of manmade structures, so I felt like keeping things completely natural :D Thanks!

[@Tahasikeri]

Thanks

[@ELPHENlX]

Loving it man ! ( also i would like to know whats the name of the grainy textured brush that you used for some parts of this painting ? like clouds and mountains )

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks! Its just a round brush with some grainy texture from photoshop :) It would be easy to make in either software!

[@HannahSample-fq2ex]

Love the vid what brushes did you use?😊

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks! I used a collection of my custom brushes from photoshop :)

[@johncox5939]

Good call removing the human silhouette ! Lovely to watch .

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks :)