Retouching old works

Sometimes, some things that were created years ago should be left alone, for a semi-current example, the Star Wars movies [Episodes 4, 5 & 6] are ones the many people got upset over when George Lucas went back and tinkered with them.

And there's nothing wrong with tinkering with older works, to want to improve them.
But sometimes, one can tinker too much, or the current technology\ability  / skills doesn't mesh well with the older style.

I've been going through some of my works lately, and wondering what I could redo, touch-up or what I should just leave alone. The Death Beckoning I should have left alone, and when I went to redo it, I was happier with the original.

With this, the Alseid, a woodland nymph of mythology who lured men into the forests to devour them, souls and all, I originally tried a few techniques that seemed to have worked.  Yet I was never really satisfied with it - I like it enough I'm planning on making a print of it, but I thought I'd try touching up a few spots that always drew my eye to and I wanted to fix.

So here's the original, with the touched-up version below.

Old and New with a touch of advice

I painted this a few years ago:

And I painted this last night.

As an artist, it's easy to look back at previous works and want to improve something. And sometimes, in the trying, you recognize that it doesn't need to be improved and is fine just as it is. ...and sometimes when you try to improve on something that's fine as it is... the results are less than satisfactory.

Art is art is art - and sometimes, as an artist, you gotta just like your own work, slit that inner-critic's throat to silence it long enough to like your own art.

End of Class - Spider-Girl

It's the end of the six-week Comic Experience: Intro to Digital Painting Course.

And I gotta say, it's a lot different from the Intro to Comic Colouring Course.

It seems similar - and it is similar, colour theory, highlights and shadows - but when you get down to work, it's a different beast altogether. As was discussed in class, when colouring an inked piece, the shadows and blackest parts are already in place. But for painting, you go as dark as you want / can, because there is no 'darkest point' laid out for you.

Once again, a Comic Experience course that doesn't disappoint and is worth the money.
I know what you're saying / thining - that's a lot of money for a once-a-week, 6-week course.
Yeah, they're pricey, but they're also small class sizes, so you get more time to go over your work and see where you can improve - and what you've been doing well. The homework is often as enjoyable as it is challenging, and it's also stuff that you may recognize if you've been cognizant of media over the last 5 or 6 years.  Wait, Spider-Man [tobey macguire version]came out in 2002? Okay, so the last 10 years. 10 years? Ouch and wow, comic stuff has been in the mainstream media for a while now.

Anyhow, I did all this in RGB..and when it converts to CYMK, it looks like chalk art [light, not quite pastel-ish colour].  I learned a few things - important [for me] things and hopefully I'll remember them.

I need to re-tweak my tablet-monitor's colours/contrast/gamma, as what looked nice and dark came out not so much. But that's kind of the point of a class - learn things!! And in a Comic Experience course, you learn all sorts of good stuff.