This portait of Thranduil took me 20+ hours (I lost count after that point honestly)

Hi guys, I'm a digital artist who likes to experiment when I'm able, and I really got into portrait studies a few weeks ago. In case you are curious as to how I did this, there is a speed paint on my TikTok account (@siren.bones), and if you would like to learn the methods I used, then I would highly recommend looking up Istebrak's tutorials on YouTube; she's an incredible teacher. (I also use her brushes that you can find on her website.)

I painted this on Procreate over two or three days, and in total it took about 20-something hours. In all honesty, I would have loved to work on it more, but I was getting fatigued and had to move on to something else before I got burnt out. Once it was complete, I couldn't believe the amount of progress I had been capable of all along, as only a few weeks prior, I couldn't draw Thranduil at all and believe me, I tried. (I LOVE HIM)

It just proved to me that difficult things are possible through practice, and I'm still so proud of myself, atm, I feel a little rusty, but that's fine. I just need to get back into the habit of drawing daily so that I can shake off the dust again, drawing beautiful men might be my calling after all (≖⩊≖)