well, I'm calling it.

DONE. Or close enough that I don't care.

Attempting to figure how to paint tattoos without losing the skin shading/tone beneath. Never really found an answer. More attention to cast shadows as well.

Messing with the hair, glasses, & eyes.

This is me giving up on subtlety. Screw it, let's just paint the damn tattoo.

Some last-minute adjustments - more shine on glasses, etc. As done as it'll get - but I'm fairly pleased. It looks painted, not digital. Colors are getting better. All in all, I am pleased. Now if I can just jump the shark to "complacent", I'm set!

Total time: 5-6 hours?

more digital experiments in progress...

Initial stage - crappy sketch over random background. Just to get base shapes planned.

Marking big areas of color/shadow. This stage is absurdly sloppy, there's no real need to stay inside the lines, etc. (a.k.a. The Fun Part)

More work on color & shade. Trying to work in some reddish tones here & there. Laughing at how I flounder when it comes to color...base tones ripped straight from source photo.

Further refinement. Laying in glasses, eyes, highlighting the face, smoothing out the color transitions to give nose shape, etc. Whew. LONG way to go on this one...maybe 1 hr 45 minutes in thus far. More as it happens.

something other than SR Nerdery:

Okay, another experiment with digital. Took a base image, roughed in the base shapes, drew a super-rough linework version, then moved to refining shapes & color. Ditched the linework partway through and focused on making the shapes clear. This, at long last, is something resembling a painting. Not a particularly good painting, mind you, but a painting nevertheless.

Perhaps there's something to that whole "draw EVERY DAY" thing.

P.S. Please forgive the remarkably lame attire/pose. It's the reference I had available.

More SR nonsense....

More shadowrun characters, all digital. We decided to play an extra game on our regular off-week, so had a bit of a time crunch on these. Not happy with most of 'em, but I am getting a good chance to try new tricks. Feel like skin tones are at least beginning to approach something I will eventually be happy with.

Final 2 player characters...

Two more Shadowrun characters (all digital), and then two older drawings I added color to...trying to build a stockpile of characters for the guy running it to reference. Top left is my character, the Brit. Haveta say this is the best game I've played in a while. I am super geeked-out.