I didn't draw much this week, I confess. A lot of hustle and bustle and things to solve, you know? But at least I was able to dedicate myself a lot to two drawings that made me very happy, especially Lucy/Nyuu's fan art, which I currently consider to be one of my best digital paintings, hahaha.
Other than that, I had/have a profile on ArtStation and I had been wanting to add my works there for some time. I started adding a few this week! I really like the social network and it's a good place to look for opportunities in the Concept Art area, for sure.
Initial sketch by Lucy/Nyuu. My desire to make this drawing was to compare with a doodle I made in 2013, to see the evolution in my art — I will show the 2013 drawing below.
From the sketch to the beginning of the painting. I cover the entire character with a base skin color and, just like I did in my painting of Mermaid, as the sketch was very cool, I took the opportunity to merge my lines with this base color. The only difference here is that I painted over using a texture brush afterward—to reinforce shadows and details that get a bit lost when you blend the colors/lines from the initial sketch. It was a way of merging something I liked to do in the past and it worked (merging lines from the sketch) + what I'm doing now (painting with a texture brush).
Here I went into more detail about the helmet - blending and painting on top as well, the whole art in this - in addition to using the Color Balance tool to make the lines redder (if you compare above, you will see that they were more drawn to brown, which is my way of painting). When I'm going to color, I tend to work better directly on the color (generally working in brown tones when I'm going to make characters) than if I worked in shades of gray. Not that I don't work well in shades of gray, I do too, but in this case, since I wanted to paint, I preferred to go straight to the color because I work better that way. I don't really like the effect that comes with using colors over sketches in shades of gray. The desired effect is not always achieved.
For the background, I opted for a layer effect that would add sparkle to the art. First, a layer with orange and yellow brushstrokes and another layer of shine to reinforce the glows of light reflected on her skin to create a more natural effect. This helps to give more value to art, as it is a way for you to incorporate your character into an environment (or an idea of environment that reflects on the character).
Here's the final result. Below, time-lapse, as always:)
NOTE: If you liked art, it is now available for sale in the form of art prints and other products at my stores in Colab55 (Brazilian) and Society6 (international).
That sketch was totally unreferenced and headlong. An idea that simply “came”, you know? Hahaha. I'll comment more about it here after exploring the idea further, since I'm thinking of creating a story and characters based on it:)
Finished drawing. Made with a pencil holder for the initial sketch, 6B pencils for the shadows and white pastel pencils for the lighting.
Here, just to finish the post: the comparison between my 2013 drawing and this new one.
I know I hit the button a lot about the importance of practicing, but it's because of that, you know. It's comparisons like this that remind me of how much I practiced to get where I arrived and that make me excited about “where I'll go” in a few years' time. Make no mistake: without practice, you can't do it. It really doesn't work.
And that's it for today! There will be more next week ^__^
