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Kelsey's Portrait Progress
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Weekly Progress

View exercises and goals for each week
Week
Exercise
Goals
Exercises
1
Week 1
1: Lay-in
First week
Shameless plug to check out my 😎
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2
Week 2
1: Lay-in
Don’t make eye area look like 3D glasses
Remove inky outline feel
Work on head construction
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3
Week 3
1: Lay-in
Make lines smoother
Put more thought into nose design
Balance use of curves and lines
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4
Week 4
2: Planes
First week
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5
Week 5
3: Line weight
First week
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6
Week 6
3: Line weight
More line variation (especially line width)
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7
Week 7
3: Line weight
Less inky
Be careful with feature design
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8
Week 8
4: Shadows
First week
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9
Week 9
4: Shadows
Just more practice
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10
Week 10
5: Transitions
First week
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11
Week 11
5: Transitions
Unify the lights (remove darkness/midtones and unnecessary detail from the light)
Keep a clear separation between lights and darks
Harder brush strokes in the hair
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12
Week 12
5: Transitions
Keep grinding
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13
Week 13
6: Rendering
First week
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14
Week 14
6: Rendering
More confident/clear planes
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15
Week 15
6: Rendering
More confident/clear planes
Don’t just push paint around the canvas 😂
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16
Week 16
6: Rendering
More subtlety between different types of edges
Work on eye design
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17
Week 17
6: Rendering
Choose better references
Push the shadow and lighten/remove midtones
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18
Week 18
6: Rendering
Do a couple more for consistency
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19
Week 19
6: Rendering
Make the features clearer
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20
Week 20
7: Energy Lines
First week
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21
Week 21
7: Energy Lines
Focus on female sketches (eye design, eyebrows, eyelashes)
More line variety
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22
Week 22
7: Energy Lines
Make irises bigger (not egg-shaped)
Lines are too thick and fuzzy (sculpt with eraser more)
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23
Week 23
7: Energy Lines
Taper and sculpt lines more
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24
Week 24
7: Energy Lines
Make eyebrows thicker near the nose
Refine the nostrils more (not just completely dark)
Don’t make outside corners of eye too sharp (can add some space)
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25
Week 25
8: Females
First week
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26
Week 26
8: Females
More subtle edge variation (bring more clarity through hard edges)
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27
Week 27
8: Females
Simplify planes
Don’t add midtones until after lights
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28
Week 28
8: Females
Build up brush strokes
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29
Week 29
8: Females
Clearer separation of light and shadow
Don’t make midtones too dark
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30
Week 30
9: Still Lifes
First week still lifes
For female shading, make soft edges softer
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31
Week 31
9: Still Lifes
Brighter, more vibrant colors
Crisper edges
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32
Week 32
9: Still Lifes
More glowing effect
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33
Week 33
9: Still Lifes
Work on rendering (make it sharper, looks too blurry right now)
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34
Week 34
9: Still Lifes
Do a few more alien color references
Bring same sharpness to the female shading
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35
Week 35
10: Color Portraits
First week color portraits
Rendering needs work (more roundness in the cheek, don’t forget deeper shadows, build up the eyes more to make them clearer)
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36
Week 36
10: Color Portraits
Work on female head shape
Rendering needs work in general
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37
Week 37
10: Color Portraits
More hard edges/clarity
Make irises larger and shift them upward
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38
Week 38
10: Color Portraits
Keep going
Bring clarity of black and white into color portraits
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39
Week 39
10: Color Portraits
Choose better local colors (don’t go too light)
Capture the vibe of the colors
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40
Week 40
10: Color Portraits
Work on rendering
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41
Week 41
10: Color Portraits
Render planes, not skin
Skin should start out less saturated, add more saturation in shadows
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42
Week 42
10: Color Portraits
Choose more vibrant colors
Rendering needs to be more confident (hard edges should be harder; soft edges should be softer; combine and separate planes better)
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43
Week 43
10: Color Portraits
Soften more + more subtlety
Add midtones + gradients without making it muddy
Soften and then harden it again
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44
Week 44
10: Color Portraits
Rendering is better now
Focus more on colors (adding more vibrant colors for midtones before blending shadow, use brighter color for reflected light)
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45
Week 45
10: Color Portraits
Bring more clarity to color choices and rendering
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46
Week 46
10: Color Portraits
Add some warmth into the cold shadows (final step)
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47
Week 47
10: Color Portraits
Unify values on the side planes
Don’t make the eyes too light
More hue variation (don’t just make the lights yellow and the shadows orange/brown)
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48
Week 48
10: Color Portraits
Colors looking a bit muddy—after building up different colors, unite them with one color using airbrush
More color harmony (consistent hues)
Build up hair more before adding the blue
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49
Week 49
10: Color Portraits
Work on rendering the hair more
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50
Week 50
10: Color Portraits
Work on design subtleties
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51
Week 51
8: Females
Focus on sketches and edge variety
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52
Week 52
8: Females
Watch the new exercise 5 videos and follow the shading process
On the bright side, design looks good
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53
Week 53
8: Females
More confident brush strokes in the hair (bigger brush strokes with lasso tool)
Refine the edges more (sharpen and soften)
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54
Week 54
8: Females
One more week just to show consistency
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55
Week 55
8: Females
Work edges throughout the earlier stages (not just the rendering phase)
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56
Week 56
8: Females
Miscellaneous things:
Show structure in the cheekbone area
Eyebrow design
Soften lips
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57
Week 57
8: Females
Make the skin softer (work on brushwork and smudge more)
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58
Week 58
9: Still Lifes
First week with new still life references
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59
Week 59
9: Still Lifes
Don’t go too bright or too saturated
Warmer in the shadows
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60
Week 60
9: Still Lifes
Avoid crisp edges for the still-life outline
Separate the side plane for women (instead of the cheekbone plane)
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61
Week 61
9: Still Lifes
Move onto alien color still lifes
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62
Week 62
9: Still Lifes
Do another portrait
Missing purple in the apple (currently too warm)
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63
Week 63
10: Color Portraits
First week back in color portraits
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64
Week 64
10: Color Portraits
Use more vibrant colors
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65
Week 65
10: Color Portraits
Looks good. Try another natural light portrait
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66
Week 66
10: Color Portraits
Need a better balance of saturated and desaturated colors.
Right now the shadows are too saturated. Need to build up saturation.
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67
Week 67
10: Color Portraits
Clean up brush strokes (don’t make them as obvious)
Work on another lighter skin tone
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68
Week 68
10: Color Portraits
Capture more subtle colors in rendering phase
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69
Week 69
10: Color Portraits
Move onto women portraits!
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70
Week 70
10: Color Portraits
Lots of subtle rendering tips
Better color transitions (show the connection more)
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71
Week 71
10: Color Portraits
Better color transitions (go warmer, more saturated in shadows first before adding cooler colors)
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72
Week 72
10: Color Portraits
Work on fill light
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73
Week 73
10: Color Portraits
Missing light
Work on eye design
Add eyelashes
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74
Week 74
10: Color Portraits
Work on eyelashes more
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75
Week 75
10: Color Portraits
Choose a better reference
Don’t draw the eyelashes if they’re not in the reference 😆
Digital painting of a light-skinned woman with curly hair in a bun
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