Hello, everyone! Here we go for another edition of the Drawings of the Week.
I did a study in graphite and white pencils on kraft paper, in addition to two others, one in ink pens and the other completely in pastel pencils.
I'm really enjoying working on kraft paper. You can explore many points that, on white paper, we can't explore as much - or in this case you can even explore some colored lighting (hmm, an idea for a drawing in the future for sure).
I started the week with this sketch of a warrior orc who just found an amulet. The amulet in question is inspired by the Amulet of Kings, an artifact that exists in the Elder Scrolls universe, hehe. As I said before, I love the game's lore and I love being inspired by the medieval theme and incredible world seen in the franchise.
In this drawing I wanted to work on more expression, anatomy and environment to create a composition that would bring a story within itself, so that the viewer could truly see that she is happy and excited to have found the amulet that is so special. In addition, an excitement that comes to the surface after an incessant battle - hence her cuts, bruises.
At first, I would only work with white and black pens, but I decided to add red as well to reinforce the cuts and marks, in addition to the amulet (which is also red). A way to emphasize the action as a whole.
Finished drawing:)
Before moving on to the next cartoon, let's go to one of the topics I mentioned that I would comment on in this post: the lack of inspiration.
Lack of inspiration comes to anyone, at any time and without warning. Preparing for this moment in advance is always good. When I'm like this — even at work too, when I need to make a logo or website and the inspiration doesn't come — I just stop everything and draw what comes to mind. It's a way to clear your mind to prepare for something better.
Don't despair, just be prepared.
Plus, stopping everything and doing anything else other than what you're used to helps a lot too — walking in the park, watching something, reading something. I generally like to draw. Then I make several loose mini sketches without a fixed idea, or I simply work deeper into something that may come to mind and that I found interesting, as in the case of the next sketch:
The sketch I started when I was uninspired.
I like to work on sketches little by little. When I feel like I don't have all the details yet, I stop and come back later when a new idea comes up to add that sketch.
When I finally feel like I already have everything I need, I move on. In that case, I decided to paint with pastel pencils. NOTE: In previous posts you can check out more tips on how to do the paintings.
I love working with gold tones. It requires a little patience because it is a mixture of several pencils, several layers of colors to arrive at the desired tones and I love the fact that I can use the white pencil to reinforce the sparkles in the drawing.
No previous postI even comment more about an interesting way I found to blend pastel pencil tones using an old brush.
Finished drawing. In fact, the idea of this drawing is precisely to be loose, meaningless. As I said above, drawing what comes to mind is a way to clear the mind. It causes purposeful weirdness because of this. After all, she's a woman without hands and one of her severed hands floating on her head. Her look is cold, expressionless, as if it were a broken doll. Yes, really, it's supposed to make no sense at all, hahaha;)
And last but not least, a horse study I did - since I hadn't drawn horses in a while, haha.
This one was made with graphite, white pencil and some small simple details with white pen. I even kept some areas of the horse unpainted so that the color of the paper itself would give the characteristic light projected to the drawing.
Before finishing the post, I wanted to make a quick comparison of this horse with another horse sketch I did in 2013:
Notice what years of practice can do to your drawings. In 2013 I did a super meticulous sketch, afraid of not being “perfect”. In 2018, I simply let go of my concern and just did it. That's another tip, including: let go. Let yourself be carried away. Your drawings will be all the more vivid and full of movement once you stop wanting to be perfect and embrace the idea that imperfection is also part of nature, both human and of the world itself.
And that's it for today, guys :)
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