So, I've spent so much longer on this piece than intended, that I have decided to call it quits for now. Because I feel its just not teaching me anything any more (and stressing me that im not getting it how i want lol), So ill come back to it  at a later date and make a decent portfolio piece of it... When i feel the ability is there. I kind of want to attempt to sculpt this and try out some stylized pbr... we'll see :)

Spent a fair chunk of my day playing around with rocks still mainly focusing on colour, but I had a fair attempt at lighting this time.. still a long ways off what i hope to produce but I'm still proud for now.

For the blending I found a hard round brush with opacity set to 80% and transfer on which I felt gave me the most control over blending compared to other techniques I've tried.

SO, With the thoughts of schools year long portfolio assessment. I decided I will really take this opportunity to attempt to tackle my weaknesses and really try make an artist of myself. The task, or 1 of, is to build a portfolio (derr!) and another to research something art related and report back to the class at the end of the year with a tutorial with what you have learned. So to kick things of I'm choosing COLOUR as my subject of interest. Although its a very broad topic.. i do mean all of it lol.
So in my first attempt I took a small study.. Or rather a test to see if i could put recent theories or observations to the test.
I really think things may already have clicked and its only my first attempt at taking this seriously.
Counting my chickens right?..
   Any way, here t'is (please forgive the anatomy and forms neither where the purpose of this study).

So my process here was to rough out a sketch and lay out a base colour.

I sketched out a bit of shadow and lighting to hopefully give me an idea of how to go (noticed I attempted to display wrapping around the muscles to show roundness.. I could have done a better job but MEH just practice and you don't learn unless you FINISH!) and duplicated the layer so that I wasn't to destructive.

I then grabbed a warmer slightly more saturated skin tone for shadows and proceeded to blend.

Next for my own piece of mind I blobbed in some highlights.

Then although hardly noticeable when I look at it now I attempted to add a little bit of red to the skin to add a bit of colour variation. Which I would really go alot harsher with it next time and not be afraid of it.

Now here was where I feel things finally start to make sense. I was always focusing on picking the right colours and never really followed a process like this before, and constantly getting frustrated But Hurray! It finally struck me. It's not about picking the right colours it's about what you add and how you mix it in (this obviously only applying to the lighting and shadows, colour schemes are a whole differnt story haha) so I lightly added a saturated redish-violet colour to the shadows and blended things through a little more... It may have been horribly obvious but you can get so caught up and frustrated watching all the tutorials and get mixed messages from them but the more you attempt your own theories from them the sooner things will click.

Finally, I added a bit of yellow to the skin, which I though would make a little sense around areas bones become prominent. Then obviously added a bit of a purply rim light.

Revisiting Friday's class time as i was severely disappointed in my performance lol.

can you guess who?

Getting there :).. teeth are a pain to do!