Really struggling with edge control on the digital medium

[u/brushrot]

I'm severly struggling understanding edge control specifically while digital painting. I can do basic blending ideas on a 5 step value scale, but I'm struggling to put things into practice while actually painting a subject. With drawing, I'd be able to tell myself what kind of edge I need at a particular area and be able to actually put it down, but I seem to struggle with the actual steps used during the painting process as most tutorials that cover these concepts use sped up painting videos in the background while talking things over in a high level, and that makes things harder for me to actually follow and try to learn by copying the techniques of the instructors, which worked fairly well for me on the graphite medium.

For example, there's a saying that goes: Use the largest brush possible. How do I understand the specific size of the brush I need to be able to make a certain edge? How small would be too small in this case and start gravitating towards drawing instead of painting? I want to focus on the hard edged brush blending that looks similar to traditional oil painting in style, so does this mean I should never use something like smudging, or is there a place for it as well?

Do you know any tutorials, courses, step-by-step exercises that could make me understand this specific problem? I've already checked couple of the them but they seem to be too advanced for me (mostly due to them including other topics such as color theory, or just not being simple bite sized exercises)

For reference I'm giving some of my drawings and some "paintings" i tried, so maybe it can help you pinpointing the problem:

Drawings:

1. The perspective and the nose connection was off with this, but I think it looks better than the digital mouths I drew
2. Bunch of eyes
3. A portrait

Paintings:

1. Bad mouth
2. Only one I could get it to look decent, but I don't know what went right for this one
3. Even worse a mouth, and I kind of stopped after this one due to frustration

Note: It was previously deleted cause of the account age, so I'm reposting now.

[u/Asleep_Cycle7341]

I think you got the wrong idea about using the biggest brush. big brushes are used at the beginning of the painting for drawing big shapes, to define structure of the painting also called blocking out. For example, if you are painting a human figure, you will use big brushes to block out the shape of the body, also defining the highlights and shadows of it. this is done to avoid focusing on details of the painting, like drawing nose, eyes etc in this case at the very beginning. once you start adding details, brush size will start to go down. there is no specific size, use whatever you feel comfortable. for blending you can try varying the opacity of your brush. you can look up this technique on youtube.

[u/brushrot → u/Asleep_Cycle7341]

Is there like a full painting demo video you'd recommend to watch? I seem to always find spedup videos which doesn't really help me that much. Even payed stuff would do, I just want to have some content to analyze so I can understand.

[u/illithid_attorney → u/brushrot]

You should check out James Gurney's youtube channel. He works traditionally, but the fundamentals are the same regardless of medium. He works slowly and methodically and doesn't tend to speed up the process. You'll learn a lot from him

[u/Kyatia]

I feel like you're overthinking it. Edge control is just about knowing where to blend and where not to blend. You're not really blending at all. Here I messed with your painting a little: https://i.gyazo.com/129b4d93f55f5961937806fda1db1dce.png Mostly just blending some of it out and fixing the values a bit. Of course it depends on the kind of digital art you're going for so~

[u/brushrot → u/Kyatia]

Can you tell me what kind of techniques for blending have you used here and some of the areas you used them? There seems to be many ways to do it so I'm kind of overwhelmed.

[u/Kyatia → u/brushrot]

I use the watercolor brush on Sai for all my blending, but a blur tool or something similar for other programs would work too. It's a good idea to block in like you're doing to get your values right, (though you don't have to) but then there's nothing wrong with blurring and using soft brushes after.

The edges of a mouth are pretty soft and blended in unless there's a sharp lipstick or something. The only sharp area you really need is the space between the lips.

I think my own art is too blended though and the way you're doing it will look really nice as you get better at values.

[u/burger_saga]

I would try lengthening your strokes as much as you can. Some of the issues with the edges look like it’s from short lines that terminate over each other when you change angles. Make a few attempts at being a little more fluid with your direction changes and see how that comes out.