Being an artist is amazing and I love it with all of my heart. It’s theraputic and calming while simultaneously exciting and enthralling in a way I don’t think I could put properly into words.
While my passion for my craft remains supreme, it’s no secret that it comes with its challenges. With landscapes, the challenges could be; making sure that everything in the shot looks the right size when compared with other things in that piece. Drawing people also has its own set of challenges. Hands, body proportions and the other eye will always be the bane of any artist. Smooth and consistent lineart can be another one of those struggles.
It took me a while to come up with a method, but I use the same process for every one of the characters I draw.
I start out with a quick sketch of the pose I want the character to be in. This part doesn’t really need to be tidy as I go over it and change it a few times until I’m happy with it. This brush is usually always red, because I switch to black for the final lineart. When I’m eventually happy with the pose, I draw over the red in a maroon, detailing the features and clothes of the character. This usually takes more fiddling and adjustment until I’m happy with it. It does not matter how many times you need to go over the sketch with new layers. Just keep fiddling until you’re happy with it.
When I’m done with that, I can get rid of the sketch and move onto the final line art. This part is just about cleaning up the sketch so it’s easier to see what the drawing is. Seeing the first sketch and the final drawing is always a huge contrast. Sometimes I’ll be happy enough with a piece to leave it at that. Most of the time though, I do colour it. I really liked this drawing (below) as it was without any colour, but I thought it’d be better to finish it for the sake of this blog.
Next, the colouring. This peice was outlined in black, so I didn’t do any shading or highlights. If I were going to shade it however, I would try and not blend it too much. This drawing is rather cartoonish so I’d try to keep that style consistent. As a result, I only coloured it with solid colours. I like to add two or more tones to the hair though, to add a bit of depth.
One of the most important things to do when you’re drawing digitally, is to make sure you use layers. I start with the biggest things that need filling in and work down to the smallest. Her clothes, skin and hair are all on different layers. I usually put all small details on the same layer though. Her nails, eyes, frills on her dress, horns and lips are all on the same layer. It might not be a big deal to some people but I’m personally not too keen on having too many unnecesary layers. It’s all about personal preferance though.
To finish the character off, I like to add a background. I try and go with something that won’t clash with the colours I’ve chosen, or that won’t draw too much attention away from the person in focus. The purple, to me, makes sense as this character doesn’t seem to be in the best of moods. Other colours could have thrown off the entire artwork. Yellow for example, could have clashed with the hair or could have just been confusing to the mood this piece was trying to convey.
I like to play with colours and techniques to try and get something amazing and new. Don’t be scared to play with the palette.
Sometimes, I’ll only colour in a small section of the character to draw focus on a certain part. It’s a good way to make your lineart one of the main focuses of the art piece, instead of it only being a guide for a character.
It’s important to remember that lineart can in itself be a beautiful piece of art. It doesn’t have to simply be a guide to your later drawing, but a fundamental piece of the art you are trying to create. Your preferences will dictate how far you take a piece and what it looks like on completion.
Have fun!
Cerys