The digital art girl. Artists and art lovers would instantly recognise her.
She’s stunning. Digital artists swoon over her perfect feminine form and spend countless hours recreating it.
If you’re a digital artist, you’ve probably tried drawing your own version of this girl, only to be frustrated by how difficult it is to draw even her most fundamental facial elements.
To draw portraits of girls, what fundamental skills do you need to master?
We’ll deconstruct what a digital art girl is, what makes them unique, and how to create your own.
Get inspired by our favourite picks from the beautiful gallery of art girls.
Contents
What Is a Digital Art Girl?
In a nutshell, digital art girls are portraits of young women that capture the female beauty, the artist’s expertise, and their character drawing abilities.
Digital art girl isn’t a specific lady, but instead can be recognised by a variety of facial features—depending on the artist’s imagination and aesthetics.
She’s been depicted in a variety of styles since each artist has their own unique definition of what beauty is.
The level of an artist’s skill is also visible in the portrait. The portrait demonstrates whether or not an artist has a fundamental understanding of basics such as proportions and colour.
Advanced artists know how to layer an illustration, adding details using digital software to give their digital art girl paintings dimension.
Finally, this female painting is a character study, as well as a showcase of the artist’s ability to create a portrait that feels like a real person. Minor details like accessories, dress, and facial expressions all contribute to creating a convincing character.
30 Portraits to Inspire Your Own
For digital illustrators, other artists’ visions of their digital art girls have been an infinite source of inspiration.
We handpicked 30 digital art of girls to show you what kind of style— and which digital art girls — are now popular.
How to Draw Digital Art Girls?
The secret to drawing the girl is in:
- Using the right tools
- Mastering technical portrait painting skills
- Understanding the fundamental concepts required for portrait drawing
- Defining your digital art girl
In the end, it’s all about honing your talents and having the resources and motivation you need to create your signature digital girls—or a digital art boy if you want to take a different approach.
Basic Tools, Technical Skills, and Concepts You Need
For digital art drawing you’ll need these:
Tools to work with
- iPad (drawing tablet), smartphone or PC
- Pen for tablet
- Drawing apps or software
Technical skills to master
- Sketching
- Creation of original concepts
- Composition
Concepts for portrait drawing
- Proportions
- Planes of a head
- Lightning and form (shading)
- Rendering and edges
- Colour
The tools you use as a digital artist are determined by your tastes. For example, tablets are preferred by those transitioning from traditional to digital art because they feel like they are drawing with a pen and paper.
While the tools you employ have no right or wrong, you can’t say the same about the technical abilities and approaches you’ll need to create a great portrait.
It’s tempting for beginners to jump right into advanced methods like shading. If you want to take your art to the next level, start with black and white drawing and work your way up to more complicated skills. As your skills improve, so will your tools.
Watch Angel Ganev lay down the main concepts you should study to improve your core knowledge and secure your success as a digital artist:
Understanding and using these concepts will not only help you improve as an artist but also allow you to create something unique. You can only break the rules once you understand them.
Pro tip: Look up classes in Skillshare for step by step drawing instructions or general tips and tricks that’ll take your digital illustrations to the next level, if you want to learn from the finest in the field.
Drawing Process for Digital Portrait
The four-step drawing process for a portrait of a girl is:
- Detailed sketching of the drawing
- Colour selection and application for the image
- Creating layers to add depth and dimension (transparent sheets available in digital apps)
- Working on finishing touches and smoothing up the drawing
Don’t rush through your first sketch. Because it’s tough to go back and rectify mistakes once you’ve added numerous layers, creating a decent first base for your digital image is critical.
The colour scheme you choose will create the tone for her personality while also emphasising the image’s overall atmosphere. For example, you can create a cosy winter mood on your art print by applying the contrast of warm yellow and cold blue colours.
What if I told you some artists have their own distinct style, including favourite colours and tones to work with?
The portraits we chose as inspiration all have one thing in common—they’re not flat and one dimensional. Layers bring your artwork to life. They give your 2D drawings dimension, making them appear more realistic and 3D.
Smoothing everything out and highlighting the details is the final step. This is your last chance to address any mistakes.
In the following video from her YouTube channel, artist Erika Wiseman shows how to create a portrait from her digital art girl collection following similar steps: l:
Know Your Girl to Capture the Moment
Ask yourself these questions:
- What is the world like for your digital art girl??
- What kind of character is she?
- Which moment of her life do you want to capture?
This guarantees you’ll create a well-rounded character that tells a story, that your design is pleasing to the eye and that your art print stands out among the crowd.
Hinting at the World She Lives In
Drawing the art girls requires the creation of a world. Because this is a portrait, you don’t have to draw every detail of the world she lives in (graphic novels are exceptions to the rule), but a few suggestive details help us get to know her better.
Her dress, accessories, colour palette, one-of-a-kind jewellery and hairstyle all contribute to determining whether the world she lives in is modern, ancient, futuristic, dystopian or magical.
Drawing Her Appearance and Personality
The next step is to think about her outlook on life, her likes and dislikes, favourite season, interests, quirks, and social circle.
To add this to your drawing, follow these steps:
- Dress her up in clothing and accessories that reflect her personality
- Pay attention to her facial expressions
- Consider her body posture and body language
Is she a pleasant, alternative, half-cyborg witch? Is she more extroverted, introverted, or prefers cats to humans? Include all this in your canvas print.
Wings, spectacles, tattoos, flowers, and jewellery are common elements that bring personality to digital art girls’ drawings.
Finding Inspiration for Digital Portrait
You can get ideas from other artists’ work, as well as different aesthetic styles and visual sources.
The girl has already been reinvented by digital artists in many, many ways. ArtStation, one of the world’s largest online social communities for artists and art enthusiasts, is a fantastic place to start looking at how they achieved it.
Beginners frequently start by looking to other illustrators for inspiration. By copying their drawing style, techniques, textures, and lines, for example. Then students develop the necessary skills to create their own work.
Borrowing from diverse aesthetics is a common part of defining your own style. Some people, for example, use fantasy, cyberpunk, or the Chinese zodiac to add a personal touch to their work.
You can also acquire ideas from other mediums (such as architecture, fashion, and literature), or try out different drawing techniques.
Hanna, for example, made her digital portrait one of a kind by including natural elements in her drawing:
Professional artists have a habit of creating sources of inspiration to avoid being stuck in a creative rut. As a result, you’ll never run out of creative ideas and will continue to develop as an artist.
Having visual references on your computer at all times can help you overcome creative blocks by providing a starting point when you don’t know where to begin.
Pro tip: Look for photographs of female portraits taken in unusual lightings, such as golden hour, fairy lights, shadows, etc. This translates into realistic-looking, captivating digital art girls.
Because you’ll have to figure out how to add natural-looking lighting to every photo, not every photo is a good reference.
As a result, while pictures based on photos of your friends and family are a lovely personalized gift for them, unlike drawings based on professionally shot photographs, they may not bring you clients.
Start Sketching and Drawing
Drawing digital art girls is all about mastering the fundamentals of portrait drawing, finding inspiration in unexpected places and creating unique characters.
Now that you know what distinguishes a digital art girl, it’s time to create and personalise your female portrait.
In your digital art, emphasize what makes the girl unique, use your signature colour palette, and keep practising since great work takes time and devotion.
Do you need additional information on how to master digital art or advice on which tools to buy?
Check out our Proko courses reviews or be inspired by the finest artists and their best work that we’ve handpicked for you on our website.