When I returned to drawing in 2013, I never imagined that I would get to where I am today. The progress I made in such a short time - in this case about 2, 3 years - is truly incredible. It's okay that I had some advantages of taking art classes at school and the love of drawing is practically inherited, but at the time I didn't take advantage of it as it should have, not least because I never imagined that in the future I would think of becoming an illustrator. Drawing was just a mere pastime that made me a happy child.
I had no idea how to make a shadow in 2013. My drawings, until then, just leaves blown to the wind since I hadn't drawn in decades, were just some doodles inspired by manga. What encouraged me to return to drawings was my teacher from the first year of the Graphic Design course I took. His works were incredible and that simply awakened an absurd desire to start drawing again, as a reminder of a past in which art was the stage of my life.
He taught us light and shadow, perspective... and several other valuable tips and ideas. I was training non-stop all year long. Practically one new drawing a day. Within a few months, I could already see the growth and that the effort was paying off. I confess that the following year, 2014, I drew less because I dedicated myself more to other areas of the course (visual identity, editorial design, etc.) but whenever I could I would doodle a little. I would put what was in my head on the paper, use reference images, or simply draw something out of nothing just to keep me warm. Even when I finished some coursework and stood there in the classroom I decided to doodle something, haha. Seriously, anything really.
This somewhat poetic introduction is nostalgic not only because it comments on how it all began, but also because it reminds me of my days on my old blog, Vulnera, where I liked “philosophize” and write whatever came to mind. Good times! In fact, it's good to be able to write again and encourage people in some way again!
That image was not chosen for nothing to represent this post. It's an incredibly strong example of the change that heavy training has made to me. The first two torsos were made right at the beginning of the course. The third, at the end. That's because it was one of the few works that I left unfinished, so I had to do the third torso to be able to complete and put it in the portfolio for final evaluation. It was worth leaving it for later. Notice the difference — all the harshness of the traits in the former, the fear of doing wrong... and in the latter the softness achieved with effort and determination. That progress was one of my greatest prouds at the time.
The fear of making mistakes is what prevents us from achieving what is right.
When I finally understood that only by making mistakes could I get it right, that's when I achieved progress. So much with just 1 year of work! I was wondering what I could achieve with even more years of striving to improve. Of course, I was still afraid of some things at the time: using colors correctly, digital painting... there's still so much I need to learn. In 2013 I ventured into some digital paintings as well and I learned a lot of things:
Very first digital painting I did. I don't even know what to say about this drawing I made that was so beautiful. and which I then destroyed in Photoshop, hahaha. The biggest difficulty was creating the shadows (I believe I wasn't ready yet, so I trained/trained a lot so far in light and shade) and the background. The fund, in fact, I hadn't even planned it at the time, it was something I inserted later and I thought it was terrible, hahaha. To this day I have difficulties with digital painting actually, but I have improved a lot - still not enough, but I will succeed:)
That was one of my best works that year. It was highly praised not only for the digital illustration/painting itself, but for the concept as well. If you want to know more about, click hereto.
That ChunLi was cool too. At the time I was very happy with the result, as I had a better understanding of what to do and how to do it with regard to colors and shade as well. If you want to see the sketch of this painting, click hereto.
That Zelda took me about five hours to make. It didn't get any better than the drawing/sketch I had done (which you can check by clicking hereto), but it was still a pretty cool result!
I made this Zelda last year and it has a great story: it was made entirely on the iPad, in the Adobe Sketch app. Completely the same, using a very simple stylus, the kind of 20 reais. It was cool to play and train!
You have no idea how many drawings I made over the years. There were really a lot of them, I can't even post everything here, otherwise this post would become a Wikipedia: gigantic, hahaha. I will post the ones that made me see the evolution that I had the most. The rest you can check out in my Behance portfolio by clicking hereto. There are two projects there with several drawings I made in my sketchbooks (2013 and 2014), apart from other digital painting projects!
Speaking of drawings, I'll come back to them now. Below you will see some of my drawings from 2013 and 2014 and, in the end, some that I also made this year and that I ended up not posting on the blog.
This was one of my first drawings in 2013 where I saw that I had managed to improve the shade. Today I even use fume to soften some traces even more, but at the time I did it on my hand. In fact, tip: you always have to do it by hand, because the fume will only serve to improve what you have already created. It needs to be used very carefully so that the drawing does not look “blurry”:)
I made this Lara Croft in July/2013. Lucky that I took a photo at the time of the process to post on Instagram. Another example of the incredible evolution I had.
You are the one who controls the pencil, not the other way around.
Always remember that. And this is not only true for pencils, it also applies to pens, brushes, etc. At first you may feel insecure, which is totally normal. We always felt insecure at first, but when we overcome fear we control our art.
One of the first studies I did to train light and shade. One of my favorite drawings too. It was so quiet and loose, you know? It helps a lot in the beginning to study photos to understand light and shadow. Not just in the beginning, actually. It's something you can do whenever you want, as it helps a lot and makes the whole process up front easier, as it helps you get used to it. Over time, light and shadow become practically automatic.
Study of light and shadow using markers that we did at the beginning of the course. The teacher gave us some photos to choose from and we decaled them onto a light board. After that, we used the photos as a reference to recreate the light and shadow in the drawings using hatches (as you can see in the drawing on the right) and markers in shades of gray (drawing on the left).
This was a drawing I made in 2013 to play a bit with ink. I really like it because it's simple and it helped me to start getting used to the nankin. I did a pencil sketch before, of course, and then I outlined it with the ink.
Oh, how could I forget to show you the first Lara Croft I made when I started drawing again (left)? I decided to put it side by side with the Lara that I made in July/2013 and that I had posted the creation process above. And look, this change was a matter of about 4 or 5 months of training! I know, it sounds absurd, but when we have a specific focus and determination, growth is exponential. I am living proof of that.
You will never have any idea what you can achieve if you don't try and try as hard as you can. If you love something, strive to be the best. There's nothing more rewarding than becoming great at something you love and maybe working with it in the future!
How about we now go to this year's drawings that I haven't posted here yet and that I made before creating the blog? Just remembering: if you want to see more drawings from 2013 and 2014, take a look at my portfolio on Behance!
That year, I'm still using pencils and perfecting light and shadow, but I decided to take some time to train digital paints to focus on colored pencils, watercolors... even more manual colors and illustrations. Nothing better than starting with the traditional and then improving the digital one again. Remember that not all of them are here from this year because I have already posted some of them in the posts of Drawings of the Week!
Fanart I made of Mulan. The challenge was to create the best eyeshadow I could on the pencil to show the makeup difference (when she leaves the matchmaker, returns home, etc.). That's that scene where she sings the song Reflection, when she miraculously cleans half of her face to remove makeup (in fact, imagine how incredible it would be if makeup looked like that in real life? Hahaha). In addition, this year I'm trying to focus more on creating scenarios, so I created a really cool composition in this one — it's a mix of the place of the scene where she sings with the inscriptions on the tombs of her ancestors. I left the side of the face that is still with makeup with almost no shade to contrast with the side without makeup, which is a little more heavy in the shade.
A video here of the scene, not least because I love this song and the movie is one of my favorites, hahaha... so you can check out the references for the drawing as well.
Drawing I made of a woman to train shadow. The details of the clothes, such as lighter and darker parts, were more intuitive than referential, which was an interesting development for me.
Drawing I made inspired by my boyfriend. It was a Valentine's Day gift I made for him. In fact, if you are interested in hand lettering and marketing, I recommend reading his blog by clicking hereto. It's not because he's a boyfriend, it's because he's very fond of Paranaues. Hahaha.
Drawing inspired by that “kinda crazy” boy from The Returned series, hahaha. It didn't look like him, they told me, and I agree, but they also told me something interesting: That I was able to capture his expression.
Drawing of a girl that I made, without reference, to train.
That one was reasonable even considering that I ended up destroying her mouth, but that's fine. Hahaha. It was made with watercolor pencils from Faber Castell, the kind that we buy at any stationery store. I ended up liking it because of the colors, but it really hurt my mouth, a shame. One day I'll do it again:)
A drawing of Majora's mask (fanart from the game The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask) made first in pencil that I later decided to paint with ordinary colored pencils. It was great for training patience with details as much as it was painting.
A quick Yooka-Laylee fanart (which reminds me that I need to finish it, actually, hahaha), a game that I'm really excited to play! Too bad it will still take a while to release):
A sketch for studying dragons. I love dragons! I want to be able to make some more realistic ones one day! :)
Last but not least, a new Princess Zelda fanart that I'm preparing. On the left side, a comparison of a drawing I made in 2013 for training. Another example that if we want something, we can do it. This 2013 drawing was done more by study than by author, as was this new one. I realized how much I grew when I saw that in each reference I use lately I end up creating something “mine”.
And it is with this last drawing - that you will learn more in the next post of the series Drawings of the Week — that I close this post. I hope you enjoyed it and that, just as it was great for me to write it and see my own evolution, that you too can be inspired and evolve, discover your limitations and overcome them; make great illustrations and with each of them be able to create new concepts that will lead you to achieve even greater and more exciting things.
