On this episode of "Let's try to be sensible for once and not spend hours on details that will be completely invisible considered the canvas size", we proudly present you:
the glove seam
Why am I like this? Like this is 67% zoom and that is my actual hand. I'm basically drawing them life-size at this point.
I love your art sm it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen!!!
awww thank you!! i’m too lazy to figure out how to make a timelapse so im doing a step by step thingy
step 1 : open pinterest and find a reference
this one gave me sayori and natsuki vibes so i chose it
step 2 : make a rough guide line sketch using the reference
i don’t usually worry about the first sketch being 100% accurate because the clothes will mostly hide the imperfections anyway, especially in this case where the clothes are so thick
step 3 : make the main sketch
the reference isn’t in the picture but i still use it if i can tell something is wrong, like a eye is too left ect
step 4 : colour
i usually skip the lineart because i don’t have the patience for it lmao, but honestly letting my art be more messy has helped me a lot since i don’t focus on every single detail and instead just have fun
step 5 : colour the “lineart”
i just like how it looks :)
now all that’s left is the background which i just kind of wing it and tadaaa
Here are some of process snapshots of this piece of Astarion in Baldur's Gate.
I am a messy painter and I often adjust and change the designs as I paint. (Mostly because I don't have the patience to do proper line art haha)
I start out with a rough sketch, I usually sketch ideas out on my ipad and move to my cintiq to work with colors.
Next I block in rough color thumbnail. I keep this part messy as I just want to figure out the value structure and the overall mood.
At this point, I have collected a myriad of screenshots and reference images from the game, pinterest, and also from artists work that inspires me.
With the references on one screen, I start to paint the details, I work from foreground to midground to background. (Sometimes I'll bounce between the depth when I get bored from painting one thing for too long)
Sometimes after I block in the colors I'll make adjustments. I didn't like how warped the perspective was getting on the building on the screen right side, so I adjusted the vanishing point and added more tiers to the design. I went back into the game and looked at more how the stairs were designed and figured it out more thoroughly with a sketch on on top.
I think sitting down and doing the details is the most time consuming part. I still want the focus to be on the character despite all the detail going on the background. At this point I'm toggling on black & white filters constantly to check the value, grouping everything in the background together, making sure the lighting frames the subject in focus. At this point I realized, I forgot to paint Astarion's hair LOL, and that the bg was getting a bit too detailed, so I used a more textured brush and painted away some of the edge details of bg buildings.
Last, I make final adjustments, and I make a overall lighting/fx adjustment folder. Adding in some noise, adjusting the contrast, color balance, and lighting over all and call it done!
I don't save stages of work that often, even here there are huge jumps in detail between pictures as you can see, but I genuinely enjoyed drawing the Sniper, so I saved the process more or less