bluequills

blue - she/her - artist - just joined tumblr bc i heard there was a lot of jrwi brainrot here and i don't know how this site works

[bluequillss]

theyre matching :3

[bluequillss]

my piece for this year's @voicesfortheblade, a charity event in memory of technoblade in which donations are rewarded with art or fics. thank you @sunnythestriker for the prompt!

[bluequillss]

I’ve been staring at how you shade clothes and I am absolutely fascinated, how are you doing that?

Hello !! thank you :D clothing folds are The Worst (TM) and i'd definitely recommend looking for references!

tracing is also good and well & a fine way to learn but i personally don't prefer it because i feel that i learn much less from doing so. i also don't particularly think tracing for client pieces is best practice but the entire art industry would disagree with that take LOL

the main thing i remind myself when shading fabrics is to use a combination of hard and soft edges (which is also pretty standard practice/advice for the whole piece LMAO). shadows are thin, dark and sharp for very intense folds, and then get softer and lighter for gentle folds. your typical piece of clothing will include both (many folds start out tight & then loosen as they go toward the edges).

yeah :D hope this helped & thank you for the ask!

[bluequillss]

i had such a blast drawing this oceanic whitetip shark for @20kleagueszine, a for-charity ocean themed zine! the project was able to raise and donate over £1000 to the ocean conservation trust. thank you for having me!

[bluequillss]

had such a time watching the artemis ii launch yesterday, took the opportunity to practice drawing some industrial/mech stuff since i suck at that kekw

[bluequillss]

i designed this lenticular print for @lettersfromchb, a pjo themed merchbox !! everything in this project turned out SUPER COOL & u can snag yourself a copy now since leftovers are open !

[bluequillss]

heard the game turns 9 today so !! quick little doodle to celebrate

[bluequillss]

got pulled into arknights endfield by a friend. never been so excited to build a factory in a gacha game before lmao

[palesiblingszine]

The Pale Siblings Zine

cover art by @bluequillss

The Pale Siblings Zine is complete! Featuring the works of several artists and writers, this zine explores the sibling relationships of the Vessels, Hornet, and the several other Void creatures we see in-game, like the Collector or Kingsmoulds.

You can find the zine on Google Drive.

[bluequillss]

YAY ITS OUT

[bluequillss]

Hellooo!!!! I'm back!!!!

I wanted to ask something a bit more personal- NOTHING WEIRD I PROMISE. It's for research purposes.

But at some point in your passion (or career idk how much you like making art lol) have you gone through a phase of feeling inferior?

Say, you felt like you'd never continue improving or get recognition,

Or you felt you'd never even have the money/time to focus on your passion,

Or you felt envy or jealousy for artists, either because your art compared to theirs yet you got no recognition, or because you felt like you'd never reach their level in expertise,

Or you felt as though practice was a lie, and anyone telling you to "just practice" was just a lazy answer.

Etc.

And if so, at what point in your life and for how long? Had it been that way for decades or only a few years, and were you already an expert or were you just starting?

And if you're currently going through it I'm so sorry sorry sorry this comes off as so blunt!!!!

hello! i wrote a response out super long and then accidentally refreshed the tab T-T so I’ll try to be concise this time

I absolutely love this ask btw every artist I’ve ever talked to has felt like this & many of them are incredible artists i look up to

first - yes, absolutely, all the time. I think we al do to some degree. comparison is the fastest way to improve but also the fastest way to get discouraged lmao

what really helped me is to focus on what’s important. if growing your socials is really appealing and important to you, then focus more more on it! look for strategies, try different things, take it seriously. for me, i found partaking in fun projects was the more rewarding side of doing art, so i started seeking out more zines and other neat stuff to do with my art. i think that helps a lot.

it’s not a perfect fix of course but you can’t compare with everyone about everything so doesn’t hurt to pick and choose. it’s different for everyone so i hope you find the answer you’re looking for

[bluequillss]

a commission :)) love pinstress hehe <3

[bluequillss]

how long does it take for you to fully finish an artwork???

it takes me 3-5 hours on average, and my art is FAR less detailed.

hello! it really depends on the piece and how comfortable i am with the subject ,, the hornet & knight pieces took just over 3 hours and just over 4 hours, respectively. usually my pieces fall somewhere in that range, although going more detailed/rendered can increase the time :3

i totally lose track of time when drawing especially when it takes me multiple sessions to finish a piece lmao so thank the heavens for procreates automatic time tracking

also just checked out your profile & your art is super lovely! your lineart and shape language is so clean & crisp so i imagine thats a pretty big time sink for you. i do not have the willpower for lineart so i just start rendering directly on top of my sketches which saves a bunch of time haha

[bluequillss]

is there any chance you would sell your hollow knight/silksong art as prints? i’d love to buy the portraits of hornet and little ghost

hello !! unfortunately i only have plans to attend some very small local conventions at the moment. ill definitely announce it in the future if i open an online shop or attend any larger cons ! thank you for asking though, im super flattered & happy you like my art :D

[bluequillss]

Hello! I wanted to ask what art program you use? Your drawings are so beautiful! I absolutely love how you render them!

hi!! i use procreate :D

[bluequillss]

Oughhh how did you go about making the composition and rendering of the Hornet piece you just made, given that you mentioned it’s a new art and rendering style

I know people ask you this a lot it’s just so so yummy-

hello !! i'm happy you like my art!

theres a lot of great guidelines and rules for composition & i really wish i could cite one of them now to feel smart but i kind of just drew blobs until i liked where it was at :sob:

thinking on it, a general rule i subconsciously follow is to either make things even/symmetrical, or entirely off. in this case, hornet is significantly offset to the bottom of the piece & shifted to the left. if her pose was more symmetrical, placing her in the center might have looked better.

for rendering - i layer a lot !! kind of like painting, but digitally :D i just keep slapping colours on until i think it looks good. almost the entire background + hornet + wings are done on a singular layer since it lets me blend stuff better, as atrocious as the idea may seem.

apologies for the lengthy rambling! i dont get to nerd about my process very often. thank you for the ask :DD

[bluequillss]

silksong !! trying out a new artstyle (again) lmao

[bluequillss]

oughhhhghgh can I perchance mayhaps ask about your colouring/shading process

it's so lovely and I'd like to know how to get beyond flats and janky cel shading lmao

hello!! i have a very wonky process but this is usually how it goes

flat colour/vague colour scheme. lots of airbrushing . depending on the piece ill either do proper flat colours or go more 'painterly' and splat colours everywhere

often using an airbrush & overlay layers, start adding in lighting. multiply layers work great for carving out shadows. lighting at this point usually is just fuzzy blobs. typically at this point ill combine a lot of my layers to paint over them more easily, although it helps to have background remain separate

actually going in and adding shapes in the lighting lmao. by this point in the piece other than for small details/accent colours, im usually colourpicking from the canvas or colourpicking & making very subtle adjustments. adding too many new colours at this point can make the piece less cohesive

details :thumbsup:

its not a perfectly defined process, and i dont follow this exactly when im drawing,, i kinda just... go for it . so this is more like trying to break down how i draw in hindsight

an example of a fairly recent piece:

the biggest thing that helped me get past cell shading was overcoming my fear of combining layers, and flattening things to paint over them (if its scary you can always make a copy of ur layers before you do this!). its very freeing and i always look forward to combining everything down after im done flat colours :D

hope that at least helped a little bit! ^-^