Towel, the Girl Who Loves Sweets

I found this sketch while cleaning out a couple of sketchbooks, drawing tablets and portfolios.  There, tucked underneath a couple of bags from Hobby Lobby, lay this drawing.  I don't recall when I started it, or why I stopped.  I just looked at it and was suddenly inspired to create something sweet, using my favorite blond character, Towel (that's her nickname)!  The thing is that I fought the impulse to make changes to the sketch.  Instead, I wanted to act right away with the coloring process.  Didn't want to think too much.  Just wanted to grab the sketch and move.

As always, inking comes next.  My favorite Precise V5 pen did the grunt work.  Followed by a simple yellow Sharpie (yes, Sharpie) to outline her hair.  Last, I used a sand-colored Copic marker to outline and give a little shadow/shading.  I chose the skin-toned markers according to–you guessed it–skin tone.  And though she's blond, it doesn't mean she's a tanned blond.  Nevertheless, I always try to shadow lightly, throwing the whole concept of coloring "by light source" out the window.  I also used a flesh-colored Copic marker to guide her upper lip so I wouldn't lose the shape before I added a darker color.

Here, I water colored her hair a simple canary yellow.  And because her eyes are brown, I gathered my usual three-tones to give her eyes a gradient-like effect. Always more color!

X-acto knife ready, I carved away the negative space to get her ready for the felt, ice cream backdrop I decided to use.  I didn't glue her on right away because I knew that it would be a mess to do so first and then start using chalk pastels.  I also knew it would be a mess to add the chalk pastels and then use the x-acto knife to carve her off the negative space.  So for a while, I had me a cute paper doll tapped to my drawing board.

I normally use a dark toned pastel to match a character's hair, but here I used a matching yellow instead.  I coated her lips with a dark pink Prismacolor pencil.  These are my favorite pencils because of their soft, creamy tips.  As for the chalk pastel, used for her skin toned, I chose a shade of brown that I more or less liked when I first laid it down.  I managed to even it out by blending in a lighter flesh color, running a dry paper towel over the two to even her out.  Of course, I used a thin-tipped eraser to clean the edges.

Three Prismacolor pencils used to add layers and effect to her hair.  A very light canary yellow, golden rod yellow, and an almost sienna brown were used.  Once the streaks of pencil are in, I use another dry paper town to blend it all in with the chalk pastel.  Then I use a gummy eraser to add highlights in long streaks.  I retook the Precise V5 pencil to fill in her pupil and mark some effect lines on the edges of her iris.  Lastly, I glued her to the felt, seemingly as if she came out of a pocket of space.

The digital scan.  But first, I added the usual whiteout shimmer to her lips and eyes.  I also added the cutie 3D stickers in support of the theme (sweets and ice cream).  The cherries work as earrings; the watermelon (hopefully) as a ring.  As for the drawing, I did the usual reviving of color the second I scanned it.  That seems necessary when a drawing moves into digital format.  I also cleaned up around her arm.  When I found the original sketch there were marks I had to work over that I knew during the process were going to need retouching.  I have yet to retouch her left eyebrow by slimming it down and back some.  And while her arm is a little shapeless, I decided to leave it as it is.  As I mentioned earlier, I didn't want to get into making adjustments to the sketching part; instead I jumped right in. 

Hopefully I didn't miss anything.  Yeah well, I know I did somewhere.  Anyway, thanks everyone for allowing me to share this!

 

Another on the way!

The Girl Who Got Abandoned

There's a reason I terminated this drawing before I got into watercoloring it: it felt too unbalanced to finish!  Now, I've never claimed to be the best at drawing, but I can't lie to myself when sometimes a drawing feels wrong.  This would be one of the many occassions where I abandoned a drawing.  This one in particular kind of got wobbly during the sketching process.  I changed her hair, pose, angle, and background one too many times and got lost.  Still trying to push my way through to find that "gold"–I never really found it.  It's kind of like how in life when we push and push against something that we want, and it pushes back with resistance, we end up making a mess of everything.  It's better to just... go with the flow.  Nevertheless, considering this was going to be a series of images illustrating the drawing's progress (see Gold Fleur post), I managed to capture a few of its early moments and nothing more.  I felt it had so much promise in the sketched stages, though.

I really started to fumble when I couldn't figure out exactly what I wanted to do with the hands.  Those damn hands.  Always the hands!  I should've taken them out completely and left it simple, comical and as ethereal as possible.  But no... I wanted to try to push it.

Just... I don't know at this point.  I'm still confused about what hair color I was shooting for.  She was initially suppose to be my character Shi Shi (blue hair and all), but it just didn't seem to come together like I'd hoped.  Eh... oh well...

This wouldn't have bothered me so much had I got her pose right from the jump.  But like a slippery slope, I further got discouraged at the shape of her nose, while finding her lips too small for my liking.  I like big lips.  I also didn't get the full roundness and shape of her eyes.  So... I abandoned ship!  It just felt missing.

Anyway, I always said I would share my not-so-happy drawings as well as the ones I do think turned out as good as I could get them.  So what do you think?  Should I continue forward?  Or should I just regroup and start anew?  How do you handle a disappointing drawing project?  Do you fight the current or jump ship to start somewhere fresh?  Comment below.

The Gold Fleur

Hi, everyone.  Blogger has been acting a straight fool lately and I've been impatient with it.  I don't know what the issue is, but nothing’s loading properly--including this new blog post on my latest drawing.  Nonetheless, I think I'm there.  I think it’s doing its job, and now it’s time to share my process again through a series of images.

I've named this image Fleur.  The character’s name is still unavailable to me.

I sketched the actual drawing probably three months ago and just left it, for some reason. Therefore, I don’t have the penciled version. Nonetheless, as of recently, I went through the process of inking the drawing and adding all the particular areas that would require shading/shadows regarding the flesh (I use Copic markers for this). Besides using the usual colored pencils to add tones to the eyes, I also used a screen/pattern early within the process as the backdrop. Because the process only gets messier, I try to have this construction part out of the way as early as possible. Anyway, at first I meant to apply the screen/pattern as the shirt, and then realized there wasn’t enough paper. I like it better as a backdrop, though. So having carefully carved out the negative space, I added it on as needed.

Now on to the colors. Water coloring is always my base of choice because it’s light and covers space quick and easily. Because I decided his shirt would be yellow—in semi-accordance with the gold fleur de lis within the backdrop—I painted it a light yellow. Just as his hair would be brown, I gave it a light-brown color. However, as seen, I covered the hair with a dust of brown-toned chalk pastels before I applied the yellow chalk to his shirt. I’m all about layers. Get the base color, and then add more and more colors!

Because I like layers, I try to add the darkest color first when it comes to chalk pastels. Why? Because it can get messy. Adding the dark color first allows me to clean up the edges before applying lighter colors. As seen in this image, I added a yellow chalk pastel to his shirt as well as a flesh color to his skin tone. As for the hair, it was time for a layer of colored pencils toned and streaked through his hair to give it vibrancy (I eventually use a tissue to blend the three mediums that layers the hair). Furthermore, I used wooden beads and brown string to craft the drawstring area of his shirt. As for his undershirt, I applied a ragged piece of actual denim to give it form.

Almost finished. I streaked his hair with a gum eraser as a form of highlights, and then gave sparks (an actual whiteout pen) and further flourishes to his eyes and the glisten of his lips. On the crafting aspect, I used more string to construct him gently gripping a necklace consisting of bejeweling stickers, and a gold cross sticker. I went through several designs of the cross from what I had available before I decided to stick with a gold one. This cross, in particular, matches his earrings, which are also stickers taken from the same batch.

The final part. Immediately, after I scan a drawing, I revive its color in PhotoFiltre. Hey, it’s all I got. The reason I do so is because digital images come out differently than the original. So I found it best to give some digital brilliance to the colors. Nevertheless, because the image is further decreased to portrait size, I also made corrections and adjustments. One of those corrects were to brush a matching brown color over the wooden beads that makes up the drawstring of his shirt. This was to cover the dry crafts glue peeking out. Other adjustments called because certain aspects tugged at me. Like his lips. I brushed over the glisten I originally intended, deciding it looked best without. I also touched up the glisten in his eyes by applying a softer gray over them to bring down the brilliance. Sometimes you have to make little adjustments as the digital image always looks differently than the actual one. A little clean up in an otherwise never-perfect drawing.

I have about four other images I’ll be sending off before turning them into journals and other items on my Zazzle shop, this one included. Until then, let’s come up with a name for him.

I sometimes get message from people asking me what inspires me to draw in this style.  Then there are some who pinpoint it right away.  In any regard, I idolize Naoko Takeuchi (Sailor Moon) and Miwa Ueda (Peach Girl) and their shojo manga drawings.  I love the youthfulness, softness, and simplicity of shojo-themed drawings.

Drawing Cakes #1 Blog Post

Okay guys, here is a little more details into the pencils, pens and markers I use to draw with.  But first, you need a sweet container to carry all of them.  Such as this cool one I found...

 

Little drawers for erasers and pencil sharpers.

 

Slim, compact, and easy access.

 

You need paper to draw on, naturally.  Personally, I am enamored with Bristol paper.  Matter-of-fact, I'm kind of obsessed with it.  Before I used regular premium drawing paper.  Then I discovered that the stock of Bristol paper works better for me.  I like it because it works well with the crafting aspect of many of my drawings.  Plus, there's just something reliable about this type of paper.  Its hardness appeals to my drawing muse (^_^).  This particular pad is from recycled paper, which is always great to pick from to "do your part".

 

Nothing but gentle block style erasers work for me during the sketching process.  You definitely don't want to use anything super abrasive like Pink Pearl.  White, clean, and gentle is the way to go.  The same applies for the eraser pen that helps with small lines.  I have two pencil sharpeners.  One seems to work better with the color pencils I use while the other for regular drawing pencils.  Other than that, I lose sharpeners a lot.  Because I mix drawing with crafting, I also have an X-Acto Knife handy.  You'll soon see why.

 

The start of every sketch: pencils.  With the exception of the two blending pencils (those with the white tips), I use the lightness of H and 2H pencils.  Something like 2B or beyond 2H is entirely too harsh for me.  The difference is the lead in the pencil.  The higher the number and letter combination, the stronger the lead is in the pencil.  So H and 2H has a softer lead material than something like a 9H drawing pencil.  You could say that I like to sketch almost invisibly, but I'm always mindful of possible lines dug into the paper because of hard sketching.  While I do have a mechanical pencil shown here, I rarely use it.  I love my wood and lead combo.  Therefore, H and 2H remain my favorite sketching pencils.

Time for ink.  But first I should share something you should be aware of before you move from the sketching stage: LOOK AT YOUR SKETCH THROUGH A MIRROR!  That's right.  Take your sketch and look at it through a mirror.  Through its reflection, you will see just about every uneven line, swoop, or curve that your eye doesn't catch otherwise.  I learned this a long time ago.  It works especially for someone like myself who loves to draw portraits of pretty manga-inspired characters.  Nevertheless, I wouldn't be so hard on myself should I miss something.  Sometimes you got to let mishaps be.  

This here is a small collection of the ink pens I use after a sketch.  I do have a calligraphy pen that holds speedball types A, B, C, D.  It's fun dipping into India ink, but I haven't used it in a while because I don't care too much for the grip.  It's not too necessary.  This set here is helpful because each tip provides a different gradient for what you want to achieve in your drawing.  If you want a really heavy line, you'll use a 1.0mm sized pen.  A little thicker?  Try the 0.6mm pen.  The Faber-Castell pen at the top uses India ink and its marked with B for Big or even Bold.  Because I bought this brand in a kit, there is also an M for Medium and S for Small and XS for Extra Small.

The funny thing about many of the pens here is that the smaller pens dry out to quickly.  Which is fine because the best--and absolute BEST--inking pen is...

 

 

...this one!  I got a close snapshot of the name and style.  You can take a note and buy it at Wal-Mart (that's right) in a two-pack deal.  This pen is amazing.  For someone who sketches neatly and inks just as neatly, this pen saved me a lot of headache because I don't color as neatly.  The tip is so fine, so precise (as the pen states), that it just makes your inked sketch look so delicate and clean for color.  I could go on and on about this pen, but I won't.  A funny observation I noticed is that it dries slower on paper than a lot of the other pens I mentioned.  Therefore, give yourself a second after inking to erase pencil lines.

 

Everybody who is inspired by manga art knows about Copic Sketch markers shipping over from Japan.  People use either Copic or Prismacolor.  I own a few of both, and yeah, Copic is probably my most preferred.  Why?  Mainly because they don't dry up nearly as fast as Prismacolor and they are superior for blending with my other coloring methods.  That's just my experience, though.  Needless to say, both brands are expensive--and rightfully so considering how amazing they are.  Thankfully, I don't use either to color my drawings (the next post will be dedicated to my coloring methods), and that's not because I am too cheap.  I'm simply not a fan of using markers to color entire drawings.  I don't like the back-and-forth of markers over wide spaces, if that makes sense.

With all that said, I own only flesh-tone Copic markers that I use for shadowing and outlining characters.  I'll be sharing this in the next video.

Thanks to those who read all of this and please feel free to share any ideas, methods or drawing tools.

The next post and series of videos on coloring can be found here: http://www.comictowel.com/2013/11/drawing-cakes-2-4-blog-post.html