Yet another landscape, painted using Krita 5 beta 2 RGBA impasto brushes. I am enjoying the impasto brushes in Krita.
This is a landscape painted using the RGBA impasto brushes in Krita. I am really enjoying these brushes, as they give a genuine oil knife painting effect to digital art. Mimicking real media using digital painting is very cool.
This scene is composed from my imagination, but I used references for the chalet as well as the dead tree.
A painting using Krita’s new RGBA Impasto brush. This one was an experimental painting using a single brush and not sure whether it works or not, but I am glad to experiment like this once in a while.
As said before, I am trying Krita 5 beta 2 and it has some cool new brushes. This painting was done using the RGBA Impasto brush. I am not sure whether I achieved the effect I wanted1. However experimenting with different brushes is an interesting exercise.
Landscapes are always challenging and I’ve been trying a few lately, as a break from the usual portraits. My point in digital painting is to mimic real media as much as possible or at least keep my creations “painterly”. To that end, Krita 5 has made it easier.
A painting of Kolavai Lake, Chengalpattu, using Krita with my XP-Pen Artist 10s.
Yet another landscape painting in Krita. I downloaded Krita 5 beta 2 to try out some of its new features. Though I tried the new brushes (RGBA brushes and the water colour brushes) I found the strokes to be extremely laggy on my laptop to the extent that I couldn’t create a painting with them. Maybe in future, when I get a more powerful laptop, I might use these brushes. For now, this painting is created using the default “Paint” set brushes.
Kolavai lake is a lake near Chengalpattu in Tamil Nadu and is a beautiful location. It is a major source of water for the nearby districts and is an ecologically sensitive area. I had already painted this beautiful lake a long time ago.
After a few portraits, I usually feel the need for something different. So here it is – temple tank. Painted in Krita with my XP-Pen Artist 10s.
I thought of making this a monochrome painting1, but I like the subtle colours of this one. I am still not 100% satisfied with digitally painting landscapes and feel the need for a different technique. This one, I post-processed slightly in GIMP by adding the “cartoon” effect because the details felt a bit too muddy otherwise.
The biggest challenge in landscapes is not the detail or “likeness” to the reference image but how to subtract details from the source and get enough depth to stand out. A lot of the time, copying all the tiny details from the photographic reference can kill the depth and soul of the image.
A portrait of late Tamil actor “Major” Sundarrajan. Painted using Krita with my XP-Pen Artist 10S.
For those who are not aware, “Major” Sundarrajan was a distinctive actor in his time, holding his own again giants like MGR and Sivaji Ganesan with excellent character roles. The “Major” sobriquet is from his iconic role in the play, later adapted as a movie, Major Chandrakanth in which he played the titular role of a retired, blind major and shot into fame.
This is one of those portraits that I didn’t struggle with to get the likeness. Getting a likeness is still magic to me – it sometimes works almost effortlessly and at other times, I struggle and struggle till I give up and use a different reference image. I guess the trick is not relying on a single image but using multiple references, because a single photo doesn’t convey a person’s distinct personality. I chose to go with colour with this one, because it’s been a long time since I’ve painted a portrait in this style.
Painting of a dog done in Krita with my XP-Pen Artist 10s.
Drawing an animal is a good diversion from my usual portraits as I don’t have to worry about getting the likeness exactly like I would in a human.
This is one where I’ve captured the painting process in a timelapse video. This is the first time I’ve attempted something like this and it’s really quite simple in Linux. The final few touches in the finished image have not been captured in the video though.
I’ll probably write a tutorial on how to create a timelapse video of the desktop screen some time later. In the meantime, enjoy:
I hope to make a few more timelapse videos of my creation process in the future.
A portrait of tamil actor Vijay Sethupathi from the movie “Master”. Drawn using Krita with my XP-Pen Artist 10s.
Yet another portrait. This time, I’ve gone back to my trusty XP-Pen Artist 10s with Krita. Vijay Sethupathi was a challenging one to get right. I had multiple attempts from different photos, until I chose this one from the movie “Master” as a reference. Part of the problem with likeness of certain actors is capturing their personality. The other one I drew on the iPad was a poor likeness which I struggled with for hours before I discarded it. However, nothing is wasted, and I think after studying his face, I kind of got it right this time. It is a big relief, because every time I struggle with a particular portrait, I keep thinking that I’ve lost my touch.
I wanted to make a smooth portrait after the rough pencilwork, but I chose to publish this, as I think this style looks a bit different from my usual stuff.
A portrait caricature of Tamil actor-political leader “Captain” Vijaykanth. Painted on iPad using Sketchbook and Adobe Fresco.
Adobe Fresco is a decent ipad painting app with enough free features and good brushes to get along. Yes, you can also export as PSD which is very useful. It does use cloud storage though1 , so if you want a local copy of your creation it is better to export as a PSD file and store it somewhere.
I am also getting used to the Apple Pencil (1st gen) and feeling less rusty than before. I hope to continue drawing and painting more regularly now.
After a long time I’ve revived my artwork. This one is a fun caricature of veteran actor late Sivaji Ganesan created on my iPad with the Autodesk Sketchbook app.
Yes, I do feel a bit rusty after such a long gap. Also Sketchbook on the iPad is not nearly as good or feature complete as Krita and I’m not 100% happy with the brushes in Sketchbook. But drawing on the iPad with the Apple Pencil is just so convenient compared to the desktop setup with a screen tablet pen. Probably I will end up using a different painting app.