The Blue and the Red Portraits

Two unexpected vampire portraits, made in a little over a week using Photoshop (more than a week actually, because I was dreading certain parts of the portraits that I didn’t feel confident tackling right away).
The Red Portrait was a test for the portrait of a character belonging to a friend, before starting their commission. I really liked how the test turned out, so I decided to keep working on it and experiment a bit (with things like composition, color choices, and a very pencil-like brush that I really enjoyed using).
Another friend, after seeing this portrait, pointed out that the skin lacked texture compared to the rest. Inspired by that, I decided to make a second portrait in a similar style, this time using one of my own characters, and challenged myself to shade the skin using that same sketchy, pencil-like brush.
That gave me the Blue Portrait, which I really like, the texture came out really well. I’m quite happy with the overall result and the lighting, even if I think it could have been better with a bit more technical control.