#sweetenby

[ilovedirt]

I think the moth photo you reblogged might be AI, pretty sure it's not a real moth species. But if it is real it's for sure miscategorized. Utetheisa pulchella looks very different. :(

AUUGH I always wonder, thanks for letting me know! <3

[ink-the-artist]

Its a lot harder to do with traditional art but I'd love to see progress shots of your colored pencil stuff its so neat

I wanted to wait until I had progress shots to show before answering this and I took some as soon as I was starting a new colored pencil illustration, which was the Pepto Bismol one I just posted. Gonna put a keep reading cut here bc this’ll probably be a bit of a long post lol. 

I don’t have any kind of strict process I always follow, I just do whatever works best for each specific drawing, so I kind of just took a pic whenever I finished anything that felt like it could be it’s own “step.” Also keep in mind I worked on this during different days, different times of day, and different locations, so the lighting will be pretty different throughout the pics here which will affect how the colors look and the overall quality of the photos, I did the best I could with the changing lighting.

First step is the graphite sketch. Since I’m focusing on the colored pencil part of the process I didn’t document the process of sketching, just the final outcome

I go over the sketch with a colored pencil, I usually use a lighter color so that the lines you’ll see in the next step are lighter and not going to be noticeable when the drawing is all done, and I’ll go with a color that would be found in the illustration so that it doesn’t look unnatural wherever it may show through (I chose pink because, Pepto Bismol)

then I go over the whole thing with an eraser, only the graphite erases completely while the colored pencil stays, even though it dulls a bit. This is so I can still have a sort of outline to color in without having to worry about graphite mixing with the lighter color pencil colors and muddying everything up (it also just cleans up the sketch a lot which makes everything easier to work with)

then I start putting some of the colors down while also adding some basic detail that I’ll color and shade along later. I also go over the lines again just to make sure everything is shaped correctly, but I’m using the base colors of whatever the object is because I don’t actually want things to have outlines later on

I’m kind of mapping out the colors now as well as shadows

(also I finally found a use for this super bright neon pink colored pencil I have lol)

I’m basically just continuously layering on more color and detail, making sure to go light to dark. I mostly work on everything evenly rather than meticulously finishing one area after another but I was a bit more meticulous with the pepto bismol tablets just because they were the most detailed part of the illustration

I pretty much color the borzoi last because it’s the one white thing in this image and I want it to sort of “reflect” all the colors that will be around it and you can see I’m still adding new colors to the background as I go along

adding some green, Im basically trying to get a black without using black by layering opposing (is that the right word?) colors over each other, it makes it so that the black still looks like a natural part of the image because it’s made up of the colors in it, and it gradients toward the foreground better. I’m also doing the same for the nose and lips of the borzoi

finally putting some more color down on the borzoi, both giving it a base color and making the shading more defined

added the pepto splash before I layer any more color on the background. Also in just about every step here I’m continuously touching up the pepto bismol tablets, maybe a bit too obsessively

adding more colors from the background to the borzoi as well as shading it some more

adding more green (and some dark blue) to the background and floor to darken it some more, and again to the borzoi

I blend some of the lighter areas with orange-yellow, dunno if this is a real technique I just like the kind of glow effect it has and I do it a lot in my drawings (basically layering light colors over dark ones and sort of pressing harder with the strokes to blend/smooth everything together while giving it an almost glowing undertone of that light color)

still layering colors to darken everything up

Only at the very end I use a white colored pencil, I haven’t used it at all so far. I give the borzoi it’s fur texture + its whiskers, basically using the same method as earlier when I blended the yellow into darker colors by pressing harder with the strokes, here the strokes are just fur-shaped. I also add some highlights to the metal bowls, the splash of pepto bismol, and the nose and mouth of the borzoi with white colored pencil and a tiiiiny bit of white gel pen (a really tiny bit, basically a few little dots here and there)

oh and I added the “Pepto Bismol” writing to the pepto bismol tablets (or as close to writing as I could get)

also at some point in this step a mysterious black line appeared on the drawing that I couldn’t get rid of :( but its ok I just removed it in photoshop later lol

then I just take as good a pic as I can and touch it up in photoshop, this is for getting rid of flaws like that weird black line as well as to make the photo resemble what the drawing looks like irl as closely as possible, I’ll usually have the drawing next to me so I can reference it while editing the photo to make sure it looks like the real thing. 

also in this step I usually crop the image both to hide the messy edges and to give it a better composition.

you can see how different all these pics look from each other (in terms of lighting and quality) let alone from the final piece, which is why the editing step is important lol

hope this is helpful!

[loumandliker]

Callout: tumblr user transjon is into the following irredeemable media - posting about catboys

unfortunately this is true,

[idontactuallyeatflowers]

Your post about batman made me laugh bc batman is DC not at all part of the mcu and while DC isn't as fun as those texts posts I can say the animated DC shows are super good tbh. 10000% better than the marvel movies. Altho the DC live action movies are so bad. Also it is hard to watch a lot of DC stuff without a friend who actually knows stuff about the universe watching with you. Bc theres just. Too many characters tbh

I can't say I know anything about the mcu or the DC, but I can say that I've watched a bunch of episodes of the batman animated series and those were more fun than all the marvel movies I've seen combined!

[iraprince]

Hello! What did you use to color your villagesona? It looks really neat!

thanks! copic markers + gel pens

[nighttbound-a]

⏳

I’m feeling nostalgic so send ⌛ to meet an old muse of mine

Playtime Ennard--FNaF OC 

“No, okay, but I’m really super good at making balloon animals! Sometimes I do it when I’m bored, and then I get yelled at for wasting balloons, because, y’know, wasting money or whatever! But also? I’m kind of a robot so I really don’t grasp the machinations of human commerce. Ain’t in the programming!”

[logarto]

sweetenby replied to your post: i get almost everywhere right but nobody caares. i...

Its impressive how many countries you can place! I don’t even know where Poland is either lmao

you are my only friend and ally. i care for you deeply.

[worldbuildguild]

I also included the reference I was using to draw this picture in case it helps redlining at all! But I was focusing mostly on shading in this picture and somewhere in there I lost track of how faces actually work. Another issue I had was that I was using this actress as more of guidelines because it’s supposed to be a portrait of my oc so its not supposed to be a perfect copy ie my oc has gauges, has more body fat (thicker neck, softer face) a mole and smaller lips. Specially my oc is half Chinese so her eyelids aren’t supposed to show a crease but I’m not sure if it really shows up at all in my drawing and I’d really like it too as I don’t want to erase that part of her character. I couldn’t find the reference I used for the dress but the flowers around the edge are supposed to appear lacy and I’m not sure if it does at all. I hope you can help me figure out how to improve this, thank you in advance!

Hello! Thanks for your submission! First, when it comes to adding weight to a characters face, you have to think about the areas of the body that store fat,

(Original art by [email protected], Sorry I had to censor it for Tumblrs shitty algorithm - the original post got removed by it) When it comes to the neck, it generally doesn’t change much in width unless the character is more in the severe obesity range - The area however that does change is just under the chin. Rolls of fat as weight increases in the face appear in 3 main areas, the two cheeks and the section connecting the underside of the chin to the neck - these areas, however, are still relatively low in fat storage. When these areas gather fat, the cheeks become softer and more rounded - the neck first begins to appear shorter before blending into the chin. This happens by the chin appearing to be lower by having more fat gathered in it - hence the whole phrase of having ‘double chins’.

A Tip: You mentioned more body fat than the reference image you provided, however, you didn't specify how much more fat - I absolutely recommend providing a reference image of your character or an example of the body type you’re aiming for so we can help you more specifically. However, taking note of these areas where fat gathers can really help you in using this redline to make it match the shape you were aiming for!  Here I have made a quick gif to show you how to use these areas to add more slightly more weight to the redline if it’s not quite what you were aiming for. I have to say on the lace for the dress - I wouldn’t change a thing. The lace in your picture looks like it turned out really well! If there’s anything I would improve about it would be to make the lines a little lighter. Remember the best way to show a realistic object in a drawing is with its shading not with lineart! If you wanted to make it more unique you could perhaps add more holes in the lace or play with the transparency of the lace with shading or crosshatching.

On the eyes; generally, the typical monolid style eyes have more fat in the lids. This makes the top eyelid sit further away from the eye than with creased shaped eyes. This means that with monolid eyes the top eyelid sits OVER the eyeball rather than resting on and wrapping around it. The top eyelid also tends to appear to extend past the lower lid as well as form a smooth curve line - Comparatively western/White style eyes can often be simplified to be more angular and boxy.

This is why you cannot simply remove the crease and expect them to look Asian - the whole eyelid shape must be considered! Often with East-Asian eyelahes they tend to be shorter and less curled as well as having more sparce eyebrow hair - so depending on how much makeup you want your character to be wearing this is something to keep in mind. Finally, I absolutely recommend working with simpler reference images to learn the basics of facial anatomy before moving on to more complicated angles - and especially have a reference image of the bodytype and/or race/ethnicity you’re after on hand or as your main reference image. Good luck! - Mod Pixielart