Too early for Christmas but since it's quarantine, why not??
Hi, so we're all staying at home but it's not so bad to be bored cause you realize that you can do so much things to fill in your time and be productive.
I was scrolling on insta and looking at animal pictures and I came across someone's photography page. I loved the picture of red deers. I asked permission to paint it and he said yeah.

Here it is! 🦌🦌🦌🦌🖌️

The reference photo with the name of the account:

I did not put a background yet because I am not sure if I want the green rich grassy background or the snowy type (for Christmas). Leaving it blank isn't so bad for now.

Process 🖌️✍️🖌️✍️🖌️✍️

I made a video and I talk about the process simply. Not a fancy video tbh but it is all I got.

Base tones
Mid tones
Adding shadow and opposite colors
Highlights
Inking (optional)

Those are the basic steps I use for the process. And let's take a closer look at the work in progress photos shown in the video.

2020-03-31 08.24.28 1~2.jpg

2020-03-31 08.33.56 1~2.jpg

2020-03-31 08.41.37 1~2.jpg

2020-03-31 08.54.18 1~2.jpg

2020-03-31 09.03.25 1~2.jpg

2020-03-31 09.05.00 1~2.jpg

2020-03-31 09.43.40 1~2.jpg

I gotta say, this is my favorite picture, the angle makes it a bit real. Only thing is, they're eyeless.

Flow
Let me talk about the process or flow each artist follows when making art. Sometimes artists draw or paint the background first, then the subject last. Sometimes when drawing faces, some start by drawing freehand and some with some basic shapes for a guide, sometimes artists start drawing noses before the eyes, I draw the eyebrows first sometimes. The main point is that, artists just do what is easiest and natural to them. So, here I drew the eyes last because I needed to finish drawing the structure of the face before adding the eyes. Personally, I would create less errors with that process. So that's what I do.

2020-03-31 09.51.05 1~2.jpg

2020-03-31 09.59.02 1~2.jpg

Purple reindeers behind
Emphasis and subordination
Instead of drawing the other reindeer in the background full blown, I made a shadow of them using light brown, orange and purple.
Why just a shadow? The split complimentary color gives is a subtle contrasting which emphasizes the deers upfront rather than being distracted by those behind.
This is a principle of design.

Could a light blue be used, yes but it will have a cooler effect. It would probably remind the viewer of a wintery feel.
Purple is warmer, with more red pigments it could represent a non winter feel as it is in the reference photo. Another thing, the reindeers nose has a touch of purple especially if you zoom in on the picture so we know for a fact, that naturally purple matches the color scheme especially in terms of matching the color of the
Fur of the deers.