Join Patreon to support me as an artist and/or access my ad free tutorials and video demonstrations! Join for a year and get two months free. Join today at www.patreon.com/rachelsstudio
This is also available in its raw, unedited live version with ads for free at https://youtube.com/live/v5-Dn2hYkXA
Thank you to Bon Bon the Rabbit for supplying the adorable muse. Visit Bon Bon at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085481200284 and tell her I sent you!
I painted this on Hippie Crafter paper to put me squarely in a mindset that was playful, experimental, and low pressure. Painting for fun is one of the best ways to learn, because research on learning shows that when you're in that mindset, you naturally learn and retain information much better! So in our fun, we will be doing some serious learning, and very effective experimenting which is how your style emerges, by doing your own experiments in a playful mindset!
This is a beginner friendly tutorial and will take you through the ugly stage - putting the dark black dry brush fur put this squarely in the ugly stage and made the painting look a bit busy, so to pull it together, I added a strong blue behind the bunny's head, some scribbles, and darker grass textures and splashes.
Usually a painting is unbalanced in some way in the ugly stage, and you have to find ways to balance it out, in this case a few more medium values to help the eye know where to look. I wanted the viewer's eye to look at the bunny's face, so adding strong contrast white fur and blue background accomplished this goal.
5 Ways to Get out of the Ugly Stage
Balance Values
Strengthen Rembrandt Edges - https://youtu.be/hLHvg03qDzU
Use a color or an artistic element in several places (I like to scribble with micron pen)
Punch up contrast in the main point of interest
Soften unimportant edges - I like to use a scrubber
Glaze blue over an unimportant area - https://youtube.com/shorts/DFHj2EcYg4w
Other Useful Playlists on my YouTube Channel :
Beginner Basics - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLk8QfRJaMFF2GmPlBBVxrvF6b4FFAqCy4