As I've been accumulating more and more art supplies, I was starting to realize that things had gotten a bit disorganized and it was becoming more of a hassle to find the things I was looking for, so I started thinking about how I wanted to organize my drawing tools. In this blog post, I'll go over what my goals were in organizing my supplies, what I've settled on, and why it works for me. I'll also go into a bit of detail about the specific tools I use in case anyone's curious, but I'd like to remind anyone who's looking for advice about what to use for your own artmaking that I am very much an amateur at this, so you probably shouldn't listen to anything I say. Also, this is what I've found works for me, and you might find other things work better for you. That said, let's get to it.
Colored Pencil
Colored pencil sketches
ArtworkCommentI've started experimenting with using colored pencils for sketching, so I can layer the sketch with different colors. In this case, by drawing the person in blue and layering on their clothes/armor in purple.
One of these is my WoW Paladin, Katilyn. The other two are fashion/clothing drawing practice sketches that I pieced together from several different references for the clothing. I created the pose references for all of these in DesignDoll.
Queen Padme Amidala pencil drawing
ArtworkCommentI haven't been slacking on my Draw Every Day 2016 project, I promise! I've just been spending the last five days working on one drawing. As I said in my previous blog post, I recently re-watched the Star Wars Prequels, so I drew Queen Amidala in graphite and a bit of colored pencil.
This started out as a simple quick sketch, and quickly grew into something more detailed and complex than I'd initially planned. I'm mostly happy with how it turned out, though I didn't notice that the eyes weren't quite lined up until it was too late to fix it. I'm just taking it as a lesson learned: Even if you think your sketch is lined up correctly, quadruple check before you start drawing dark lines!
If you want to see the progress photos, they're in my Work-In-Progress gallery.
Draw Every Day project for 2016
ArtworkCommentSo, I've been really inconsistent in how often I draw lately. Some days I'm just not feeling it, so I don't draw anything, which makes me feel bad, which makes me not want to draw the next day, which makes me feel bad again, etc. It's a brutal cycle that's holding me back as an artist. I have been doing a lot of practice drawing that I haven't been uploading, but even so, I haven't been doing as much as I'd like.
One of the artists I follow just successfully completed a "draw every day" project last year, and it's inspired me to try the same thing this year. So, here's what's going to happen: I am going to put pen/pencil to paper, or stylus to tablet, or whatever, and draw something at least once per day, every day during 2016. No exceptions, no excuses. Even if I'm super busy, or tired, or not feeling well, I can find the time and strength to at least draw a little doodle. There's no rule about what I have to draw, or how complex it has to be, I just have to draw something.
To kick this off, I drew a silly colored pencil doodle of Pepe wearing a BB-8 hat.
Assault Android Peanut
ArtworkCommentI drew another assault android from Assault Android Cactus: Peanut.
No scanned version this time, because my scanner was blowing out the lighter colors too much, so you just get a photo taken with my phone. I bought some fancy new artist pens (Amazon link), and they're way better than drawing with a Sharpie. Having different size tips for doing bold lines and fine details is really nice, and the pens put down really dark ink that doesn't smudge or bleed through the paper, even in spots where I put down a lot of ink, like around the eyes and midsection. The colors are colored pencil.
I noticed when it was too late to change it that the hand holding the drill is facing the wrong way. Whoops, oh well. Who knows how an android's wrists work, anyway.
As always, you can find the work in progress shots in my Sketches / WIP gallery.
I drew a Cactus
ArtworkComment(From Assault Android Cactus, one of my favorite games to come out this year.)
I started the sketch with a pencil, and in recognition of Inktober, I did the line work with a fine point Sharpie, then finished off the coloring with colored pencils. I used the character select screen in the game as a reference.
I'm not quite as psyched with how this turned out as I am with my Inkling drawing, probably because this was done on paper where I couldn't keep hitting undo over and over to fix every little mistake, but this is probably more representative of where my actual drawing ability is at right now. I definitely need to work on my confidence in my line art, because drawing with a marker on real paper where I can't hit the undo key if I make a mistake makes me incredibly nervous.
You can find the in-progress photos in my sketches/WIP gallery.
I bought a sketchbook that I'm filling with practice sketches, but most of them are very practice sketchy and aren't worth even putting in my sketches gallery. I'll be sure to keep posting the ones that aren't completely terrible, though.