Skill Development

The first step I took to build skill was to digitally paint an apple. This took me quite a while to do, but since I'm posting this after the initial completion of the apple, I will just explain the different stages.
The first step that I took to create an apple was to watch several videos of others painting apples using digital software. These videos gave me a good idea of what to do in order to be successful. I found that the basic idea was to get a referance image and trace around it and its seperate colors. Then, I colored in the sections.

The next step was to blend. This was the hardest part to wrap my head around because there are so many different methods to use. Above is the first method that I tried, which was to adjust the opacity of the brush. This was obviously not finished at this time, but I was getting frustrated with the outcome, so I switched techniques. 

The above picture was achieved by adjusting the flow instead of the opacity, and I liked this approach much better for this specific project (SIDE NOTE: I ended up using the opacity method on my final painting). At this point, the only step left was to finish up the blending and clean up the choppy edges. 

This was my final product. I am aware that it could have been much better, but I was satisfied with it. I had gotten pretty good at blending, and I liked the way that it looked.