Death Valley

 

Oh boy... Compared to some of my older works on Deviantart the rendering is very disappointing, BUT I'm giving myself a little grace because I'm just getting back into it and I did do this fairly quickly. I used to spend 8+ hours rendering any given  piece to the point where I took out the linework entirely. In the end I decided to leave these lines because it IS a sketch. But I would be lying if I said it didn't disappoint without the lines. It's got good bones, but my rendering has suffered quite a bit. I had a way of doing things and I just need to find the PATIENCE again to figure that out; but that is a challenge in and of itself. I know I'm capable of better, so I'm hoping to improve with practice. That being said, I needed to color this to see how bad I'd gotten. I wanted to quit halfway through, and it didn't used to be that way. I'd render all-night until I could barely hold my eyes open and wake up to rushing to finish. I miss those days, but to be fair, my process has changed since then. I always wanted to be faster and so I prioritized 3D over my tradigital methods and because of THAT is why my skills have suffered. So, to go back, into my old rendering ways, like this is definitely difficult. They were always time-consuming, though, which is something I may not have the patience for anymore. So, that being said, maybe I can work at painting faster and I'll catch up to my old technique. This took a little more time than I wanted to give, but I did patiently render it except for the hair, which I left a loose interpretation. In the end I think it was good practice, but I'm nowhere near satisfied enough with it to post it on my Deviantart for example. I used to be much better! But like I said, it was good practice, so I'll leave it at that. Til next time.