Patience is a virtue. In fact, patience was something I didn't have in the past, hahaha, and it was more because I was going through a thousand problems. Last year, as I said here a few times before, I drew very little because of this. This year, when I finally got some peace of mind and I have a freer head, I am able to feel the taste of patience and dedicate myself as much as possible to the drawings.
This week, I was able to explore some things more calmly and drew more. I took the opportunity to participate in a contest of Sketchbook Heroes (They are two sensational artists who command an even more sensational podcast that I even highly recommend. Check out their Instagram by clicking here). The contest consists of creating a redesign of some fairytale character, fantastic, etc. As those days I was working at Calypso, I took the opportunity to take her concept deeper with a concept study and it was a lot of fun. Those interested, in fact, the contest will run until 24/12! I also did a really cool pose study and took the nankin to an even more laborious level than I already do, hahaha. Check it all out below!
Here is the Calipso concept that I mentioned. Any day I do it digitally too... in recent years, I wanted to give a Pause in digital and stay only in the traditional to improve even more, you know? As you can see in my portfolio, I also tend to do digital art — generally starting with a sketch on paper before I then scan and paint in Photoshop — but at the time I stopped because I felt the need to improve my techniques in traditional art even more so that I could then go deeper into digital. Next year I even think about returning, we'll see:)
That was a really quick and loose sketch, hehe. From time to time I like to let go of my hand making any drawing XD
I did this one straight with the ink pen, without a pencil sketch. It was a lot of fun and that has helped me a lot to let go too, to trust my lines more, even if they come out messy.
In fact, something I've learned in recent months is: don't strive for perfection too much. Take advantage of what you already do and build on that. Embrace your lines, your traits, however imperfect they may be. They're perfect because they're yours and they're your unique way of expressing yourself:)
This was a sketch using as a reference for the pose the Star Wars poster (Rey's pose on the poster, hahaha). As it was a complicated pose and I'm still developing and learning anatomy, it wasn't perfect, but I really liked the result.
Since I have been working a lot with the Nankin on my last drawings, I decided to continue. From time to time I also like to do a sketch and then use the pencil and paint on top without lines, but it's really fun to use ink together with colored pencils, hehe:)
I used it as a reference for lighting The same poster and I took the opportunity to adapt it according to my own drawing. I marked with the white pastel pencil the areas where the light would fall the most. I used beige, brown, and pink pencils to make the skin (as usual, hehe). I use smudge to blend colors.
The tiara was also an interesting thing to do. I had never tried to do something very golden in pencil. I used about two shades of light yellow, orange and then I even used dark brown for the shadows (the same brown I used for the skin shadows).
The hair is a mix of dark red with orange and white.
In the clothes and cover, I used about 3 shades of green and 1 dark blue for the sword handle (inspired by a katana that I ended up making smaller because there was no more space on the sheet, hahaha) and details of Corset.
Here you can see better the use of brown in the golden areas. The mixture of light yellows with orange and brown on kraft paper creates a very interesting effect, it seems to reinforce gold more. It looks really cool:) on the sword, I used 2 cold shades of gray.
The “gloves” on the arm inspired Rey's outfit, haha. I used one of the same shades of green that I used for the cover and clothing. I was even going to use the white pen to outline the entire drawing as usual, but I didn't like how it was looking, so I decided to create a light glow in the drawing using white pencils and the white pen only for the white dots/sparkles.
Finished drawing.
This was also one of the drawings that I liked to have done the most during the week, both because of how it turned out and because of the concept itself:)
The idea is a wolf sleeping in a dreamcatcher that, inside, forms a half moon — hence the name I gave to this art, Wolf Moon Catcher (if translated literally, it would be something like Moonwolf Catcher... in English it looks better, hahaha).
To reinforce the brightness of the moon, I made the catcher all with white pen, but I kept the line in the all-white drawing too, but only the wolf has black features.
That created a really cool lighting effect. Inside, to reinforce the half-moon and the brightness, I made the contours thicker and created these internal lines (right on the pen, even hahaha), using dots that made the drawing even brighter.
Finished drawing:)
Last sketch of the week:)
This design was inspired by Egyptian patterns. It was made without reference to the drawing itself, but only for some details, such as those wings you see in the photo. At this point in the sketch, I was already thinking about creating more patterns all over my hair to create a better effect.
Here, the finished sketch, already with the new details.
In Nanking, I used Pigma Micron 005, 01 and 03. On those thinner lines I used 005. I like to use 01 when I want to make a thicker line, but not so much and 03 to fill in areas of pure black. In some cases, when the area I want to fill in black is very large, I use 08.
I also used the white UniPosca to create the sparkles in the drawing.
I made some details right on the pen too:)
That part of the drawing alone, based on my calculations, took me about 2 hours to do, hahaha, but I knew it would be worth it.
I like to do several areas at the same time sometimes, to maintain the pattern of the drawing in general, especially if I notice that a little more shade is missing in some area (such as the face, which needed more contrast).
It's a very time-consuming job and, as I said above, it's a great challenge for patience, because it's all line (and very fine!) , hahaha. Those who like to draw don't see a problem, it's actually a lot of fun. I loved doing it:)
I used 005 and 01 for some shadows. That bunch of lines (or rather, hatches) that you see in the drawing helps create contrast and depth. Some people like to work with pointillism (creating the contraste/shadows from several points instead of lines), I haven't done it yet... to be honest, I like hatches more, hehe, but any day I'll try pointillism too.
To give a final finish, I made the white outline around it as usual and the shiny dots:)
Finished drawing.
And that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed it!
In fact, for those who are interested: at my stores in Colab55 and Society6 you can find art prints and other products (bags, cushions, etc.) of these arts that I posted for sale today, except the last one... the last one I'll add next week ;)
