This is actually going on my IG sometime later this week (you can see my handle on there - ArborMakesArt), but I decided I might as well just post this here too since it’s relevant and already has the right formatting. And I can make a lot more commentary! Under a cut. Its the step by step of how I made the art of My Son the other day and kinda what happened during the process
1 - Extreme Rough - This is a pretty small thumbnail that I scanned and worked on digitally. This was a huge challenge since its been a long time since I colored more than one character in a drawing. If it were the same species it would be one thing but I needed to play around digitally for a while to get the scale of the dragon figured out. By the way I fount it was lot easier to just block out a shape for him than to do thinner lines, not sure why that is (maybe easier to process the volume?) but I thought that was interesting
2 - Sketch pass 1 - Entirely digital, still rough but now it’s looking like something
3 - Sketch pass 2 - Pencil. I printed out #2, stuck it on a lightbox, and refined the lines. I’ve never worked this way (digital to traditional) but it turned out way better than expected. He looks so cute :D
4 - Ink Lines - Printed out a copy of #3, inked using lightbox. Normally I’d spend forever going over lines trying to thicken them up but I was trying to refrain from overworking them and did this all in one pass. I was very proud of myself |D
5 - Flat Color - Yeah so actually for the most part it went really well, it just took forever getting the blending and this is also a large piece of paper. I’ve never tried coloring a glowing orb traditionally so that required a lot of pondering, but it was fun. However. After the flat colors were done was when the problems started.
FR colors don’t exist in markers, so I had to layer them a lot in order to get an approximation. So when I started trying to shade this, instead of layering some more, the paper reached it’s saturation point sooner than I guessed and just started pushing the colors around into a gross mess instead. For example the whole back of the dragon’s neck that would be in shadow smeared itself together. I didn’t get a scan of this because it was very upsetting, but thankfully stopped trying to marker shade before it did too much more damage.
6 - Shading Attempt and other stuff - Now I had to try to hide the color-smeared parts and shade more than I wanted to with colored pencils; I had planned to use them mostly just for highlights. And then...this next part was my fault. 8) I have an old set of pencils that younger me had a Big Fumble Day with and dropped, several times, in a row. I’ve dubiously microwaved them multiple times since then, figured they were all still shattered, decided to use them here anyway, lo and behold, they are all in fact, still shattered. Every time I thought about sharpening, immediate breakage. Tips falling out left and right. Barely got enough usable pieces out of the colors I needed to get this to a ‘close enough’ kind of state. I held onto them for a long time because they cost so much originally but obviously I just need to throw what’s left away and get a new set.
So that’s how this went! The ending was a struggle and so frustrating, an exclamation point to a generally terrible last week I was having. Although its not originally what I was hoping for I don’t think this is a bad piece or anything. Sometimes you know....stuff just happens. There is a lot I do like and I learned a lot of misc little things throughout the process. The colors are really pretty! And I love the lines a lot. He’s adorable and he’s one of my favorite characters anyway so I’m always so pleased every time he turns out nice. |Da The pencil pass lives on its own piece of paper from the finished one so I can still pull it out and enjoy that version whenever I want too.