“Targ” | Digital Character Portrait + Chat

[@johncollado1151]

Hi Cynthia...I know you are a busy person, but the videos are definitely a plus. I learn so much from them, and I know others must as well. You may think you are not quite ready to teach but trust me, you are. Showing the full screen and all pallets from Photoshop is a big plus in helping me study your work techniques. Great video, keep them coming.

[@gimmealargesalad]

I agree. It helps me as well to see how artists choose their colors. There are so many different ways to do it and it's nice to see the variation :)

[@johncollado1151]

There are probably hundreds of ways to do the same thing with Photoshop and all artists work differently. I wonder, Cynthia, do you use any other software other than Photoshop?

[@nicolasbarbas868]

Thank you Cynthia, your work is very inspirational ! I love that you do both digital and traditional art, this is awesome!

[@DaveGreco]

Your commentary is always superb! love watching these.

[@emilysparke2591]

When you wake up and see new Cynthia'a video, you have something nice to watch while eating before you go to school.

[@jardrodrigues]

Exactly, for me its a ritual, I wake up and grab a cup of coffe so I sit for draw and watch some videos of Cynthia :)

[@arachnidsLor]

wish i had friends to play dnd with.. seems like a really fun game also always happy to see you upload, i feel like especially your oil painting work has been really helpful for me.

[@1stPenokom]

Thank you very much for this upload. Your art is fantastic; but more so, I appreciate seeing the concept and painting of the character. Talking through your thought process is also a nice inclusion. I do have a preference for digital art so thi video literally satisfies every possible request I could make of a character painting. thank you so much!

[@KoalaFuPhooey]

Another great video Cynthia! Super interesting and your voice is so relaxing to listen to when drawing.

[@antonioblanco3086]

So amazing!! Thanks for sharing your process

[@MillionPM]

Wonderful. I loved the Q&A at the end.

[@catherinedicaire5753]

A great source of inspiration are the dnd campaign I have with my friend, although we create a bunch of universe and play system. It get a lot more complicated but it give us a freedom of creation we love. My universe keep evolving for the past 10 years, and I keep drawing from it. Most of my drawing never got the coloring phase and I try to correct that since its my Achilles heel... Thanks for the great video, eager to se the next one :)

[@farahplans]

i have a bunch of dnd characters commissioned to push out in the next couple weeks and this was perfect to get me in the mood. thank you for sharing, as always

[@martearty922]

This is so fun! i would love seeing more of these

[@SofiaPereira]

I found this video way too amusing Cynthia - from content and subject matter to the final art. Dwarves are always my favourite, they're just too cool and compact with a perfect mix of charisma and looks. Targ is approved and ready for action!!

[@shoethief]

Thanks for the videos. Your insights are always helpful! Hopefully you'll be my art director someday soon!

[@richardbrummel926]

Who knew a dwarf could look so full of himself? Love it.

[@DigitalArtcast]

Loved this painting and the conversation behind it, would still love to have you on the podcast :)

[@AL-bh4pm]

Oh wow, you did that dwarf illustration huh? My first D&D character was the premade dwarf cleric that came with 5e, and when I found that illustration it really made me more excited about playing the character.

[@nadavy111]

Always glad to see a new video from you Cynthia :) fun time is granted hehe you have mentioned the differences between you and Richard in the therms of a person who's trained academically and one who's trained imaginative drawing. I'm an art student at the moment which my goal is to learn imaginative drawing but now learning more of the academic approach , do you have, or anyone on chat, a place that I could read more or practice it ? your video is a great example for that, which I'll try and do more by myself :)

[@SheppardArts]

Imaginative and academic drawing aren't total opposites, and can be practiced together. Academic drawing attempts to imitate life through observation, and you can apply the same principles of form and light and mark-making to sketches from your head with good results. Best wishes!

[@NicholasMoreira]

This is not ridiculous... This is amazing! More D&D characters!!! :D :D :D

[@NicholasMoreira]

Fantastic!!

[@TheKevphil]

Richard IS very good, in his own way, and you certainly are, too. It's an interesting contrast. :)

[@kwanarts2502]

Love your content so much !

[@katekursive1370]

He's a smug a-hole, I love him already XD

[@Maren617]

I love Targ and want to see more D&D character portraits! No need to edit the videos, you can just leave them without commentary in real time if that's less complicated. It actually teaches me more. :)

[@monpuasajr]

I've done some characters for role-playing games but I still use a lot of layers while painting. It's amazing how you can create an excellent quality using only few. Thank you so much for keeping us inspired. ♥ By the way, do you also do online portfolio reviews? ~ mon

[@tengentopka727]

i like that liquify tool.

[@grenader6409]

One of the best videos from you! Interesting process with pro insights. Now I want to paint my own character, thank you Cynthia :)

[@artisty6847]

Hey Cynthia!! I love ur music!!! How do you make such beautiful music... Please tell us something about that!!!... Thank you in advance!!

[@SamReevesWrites]

First, it was epic seeing you paint a D&D character. I haven't played in years, but the nostalgia was great. Secondly, a question: I am struggling with proportion of the human form. I keep hearing advice around the Net for studying artists, "Don't just copy what you see. Learn from it." But that is as far as it goes. What steps do we take to learn?

[@SheppardArts]

Great question, thank you! I was told that same thing in school (when I was very much stuck in the drawing only what I see headspace), and "learn from it" felt like a very nebulous statement without a clear path. I'll try to think up some good practical steps, like perhaps looking at a figure from one angle but trying to draw it from a different angle by rotating it in your mind. Or breaking the figure down into its dominant shape(s). Gesture drawings are good too, but they're not entirely enough on their own.

[@SamReevesWrites]

Thank you.

[@vansty]

I miss the Awesome Horse streams. you already are a great teacher :)

[@mickmousebuildahouse]

His sword could be from one of his hot headed mistakes which caused someone to die, so it shows he actually cares but doesn’t show or wouldn’t tell.

[@SheppardArts]

That's a great idea :)

[@partingmist8550]

Call me "Ricochet the accurate stone" and toss me sky high that's damn efficient.

[@brendon205]

12:39 lol I heard "finger skating" xD

[@ShaneWhiteStudios]

Hi Cynthia...been really digging the videos. What are you using to record the digital sketches with?

[@SheppardArts]

Just quicktime on my Mac for now, BUT, I just bought a new desktop PC, so I'll be able to use my cintiq and upgrading to better screencap software soon.

[@danielmc2080]

In my portraiture I really focus on getting the values right, and as such never really move out of greyscale. Color kind of scares me. Do you have any tips for painting in color? I see here that you went straight into color and am curious if that helps you creatively to make interesting color choices. Do artists have to sacrifice their values to make more interesting color choices?

[@SheppardArts]

Great question! After college I went through about two years of this same problem- I'll see if I can work some color talk into a video, in a way that's not just reciting color theory.

[@danielmc2080]

Thank you so much, I'd really appreciate that.

[@juriaan13]

we're do i pour my liquin when it's digital!

[@SheppardArts]

Good question! D:

[@ruok3351]

i can hear him laughing already

[@Andre-lp9xs]

First

[@gimmealargesalad]

I loved this! I'm a huge D&D fan and player and love to paint the characters that my friends and I make. I also loved the Q&A section at the end. I also stop things to take screencaps to study later XD Have you heard of movie-screencaps? It's a site that saves screencaps of almost every movie. I use it for studies and lighting scheme ideas :D I see you still use your old faithful brush! So many artists abandon brushes that worked for them, including myself. I still have the ImagineFX tutorial of Athena from a long time ago where I first saw that brush. Again, loved the video and hope you do more like it in the future!