Zil Draws

A girl who draws a whole bunch. Feel free to send me a requests or something, can't say I'll get to it but some nights I could use ideas for doodles~

[zildraws]

I'm in a group that had a fun little art challenge; "Design a Halloween-inspired adventurer". That reminded me of an old sketch where I roughed out some ideas for a black-furred Tabaxi as a college of Spirits Bard. I think I only ever got to use the character in one Adventure League session. I still loved the idea, so I decided to try and revisit it, trying to get back into digital-work and getting some practice on my new 2-in-1 hardware.

I got very into this and love how it came out. The biggest challenge was for sure trying to render out a character with black-fur nicely!

[zil-zeki]

I feel like I never really check back in here, but everytime I do, usually while considering closing this account or something, I get sucked into checking all the posts of people I can only really find here XD I'm such a lurker, geez.

Tumlr, why can't I quit you?

[zildraws]

The theme for March was "Fox & Rabbit", which was tricky to work with at first until I recalled a desire I once had to try out something a bit in the style of Beatrice Potter and her adorable story illustrations of little creatures doing human things. I felt like it'd be fun to put my own twist on it and somewhat modernize the setting, though given all the scenes I went with I'm not sure that's very apparent. I also couldn't resist going with a brighter color pallet to give it that more saturated 90s book feel.I think in the end I did get that storybook vibe and I just love the way the faces and posing on these little critters came out.

I made four for this set 'cause in the end I wanted to keep one for myself haha.

Dip pen and Kuretake manga ink for the linework, Watercolors for paint.

[zildraws]

Doodles and studies for some things I've been up to this quarter. Trying to make a habit of putting these things that don't feel worthy of their own deviation into little quarterly compilations and I feel it's starting to stick considering I've made a better habit of scanning and archiving my stuff as of later.

[zildraws]

This year I'm trying for completing a full year of participating in my ATC trade-group. I made this resolution in February, mind you, so my first entry is of the theme "Books". This set started with a series of fun cozy sketches and descended into worry and panic as I realized my paper was not well-suited to watercolor! In the end it worked out, as I brought out the colored pencils for the depth and texture I couldn't render with watercolor anymore. I kind of like the library-poster illustration vibe it left them. PS: if you are digging these, highly recommend checking out the other participant's work using the #ATCitUpwithFriends tag on Instagram and see if it pops up on other sites we're on too

[zildraws]

I've kept a journal for a few years now. This year, I moved into a small A6-Hobonichi Hon. I actually won it in a giveaway and was a bit nervous to move about it, it's been a while since I've been in a printed planner as I've typically kept to the Bullet Journal method for the last few years. So far it's gotten along well with my pens and pace of writing. It feels cute and I love it. Painted in Dr.P.H. Martin's concentrated watercolors and touched up with Crayola colored pencils. A smidge of Daniel Smith gold(, though that's more apparent in person.)

[zildraws]

A commission for Kelly Virens celebrating the one year anniversary of their book and the upcoming release of the second in the series! It was a blast working with her and getting to draw her characters again. I especially had lots of fun working on a set of siblings for this one. :D

Check out more from her book series here: linktr.ee/portfireflirt

Additionally I have a voice-over speed-paint of the process on this one over on YouTube. It's a bit rambly I'm sure, but I'm still getting the hang of trying to record and save my thoughts on my art progress.

[zildraws]

Text reads, "Skill that I'm very proud of, maybe more than I should be: I've gotten good at making home-made bread, but I'm most proud of how even I can cut the slices." Around a year or so ago I took up baking the bread for me and my husband. It was a little of a cost saving measure, and a little of something to do as I often had mornings stuck at home doing a variety of chores anyway. Buying pre-sliced bread would probably be much more convenient, but I had the privilege of this time and personally enjoyed the tasks. Not sure if life-changes will one day make me too busy to do this, bit for now it's nice to enjoy the simple sense of joy I get from taking my "baker's tax" after the job is done.

[zildraws]

An assortment of drawings and sketchy paintings from the second half of last year. It wasn't the most productive time, but there were some fun and nice experiments in there, some of which I still like.

[zildraws]

I'm very glad that by the last day I had an easy-going enough day that I could really render a nice piece for the last of day of the challenge. It was really fun to also go back to a brush and the ink-pot for this too as I really grew to love that as a technique for these and drawing in general. I've never completed all the days of Inktober before and while I started it a few days late and not all the entries were my favorite I'm really glad I could prove to myself that I still have a level of creativity that could be expressed everyday and that making many of these drawings was genuinely so fun.

Thanks to my lovely husband for keeping me on track and supporting my endeavors, my family for always being the sweetest, and all of you for sticking around for the silliness.

[zildraws]

Initially this was a tricky prompt to get into. I didn't feel much personal connection to it. After looking up some references, I recalled a certain spooky and sad game. This game has a lot of awesome music, so obviously I had to revisit the soundtrack as well. This was a blend of Pentel Pocket brush for the bolder lines and dark spots, Pilot Technica for the fine lines and details.

[zildraws]

I'm not sure how I went the entirety of Inktober without using one of my many fountain pens for a drawing, but it definitely needed rectifying. A compass-rose featuring a pen felt a little cliche, but nice, as it's my favorite tool for journal. I got really into journaling a few years back and it's been essential to processing my thoughts and figuring out my direction.

[zildraws]

This was another near-fluke of a drawing. I tried drawing this one in black and grey pen, which looked terrible. I broke out the watercolors in an attempt to save it, and it helped a little... but only if you squint a bit, lol. Good thing I like my marshmallows burnt a little.

[zildraws]

There's a big hill near the apartment I live at. It has awesome views of the city and I really like looking back on the steep road from the top feeling accomplished by the climb.

[zildraws]

Just an attempt at a detailed drawing of my reliable old camera. I realized recently that I've had a few cameras since I was a kid. I've always liked taking pictures, which is why I asked for one for my 12th birthday. I don't particularly feel like a good photographer, as I often forget to document things when I bring it along, but I really like having things to look back on when I remember to capture them.

[zildraws]

Simple one for this day. I was curious to try brushpens in my smaller lightweight sketchbook; the paper can barely hold it up, hah. I must have straw for brains 'cause I took the pen straight to the drawing without a swatch test... Lucky it doesn't look too bad considering the feathering.

[zildraws]

I haven't finished the game, but I love the addictive cycle of prep and expedition into the dungeons of Moonlighter. I'm finding the Brush-pen a little inconsistent in the sketchbook I used for this one. I thought it worked well before but the feathering was pretty bad on this page. Ah well.