Oh what an interestingly long break I took from actually drawing a cartoon. Ridiculously long, rather. Actually, chalk my inactivity up to laziness. But I’m back in form. Spurred by my new found freedom to do what I want to do with my immediate time. (We’ll save that story for another day.) I’ve been sitting on this no-body character for months, before I lit a fire to do something with it. Lots of sketching, erasing, playing around with different poses took place. Soon I got to this selfie-taking, disco-spinning point. My original inspiration was this picture of singer Laura Branigan. I’m a huge fan of this long-gone and underappreciated singer from the 80s and early 90s. So, spinning through her records (well MP3 files), I searched for a picture of her to embody in my own cartoons. And I liked this one. So I got started, took that long no-drawing break I mentioned, and never actually broke through to my inspired thought. Except for sketching the tousled hair, I abandoned the drawing. I had a hard time getting her body down. Then again, I’m not great at bodies. But I gave it a good go...
The pencil and sketching part is where I usually spend most of my time–and expelling frustrations. As mentioned, lots of erasing, redrawing, and standing before a mirror to calculate proportions. Which is beyond my skill as far as I’m concerned. But I love a good challenge. Good or bad, sometimes I just brush my frustrations aside and just go for it. I’ve long stopped battling drawing insecurities. Really, you have to close the lid on it after a point. Or you’ll never get anything done while stuck in the process. I’ve mentioned this before, but your love for the craft will always be inside searching for another opportunity. Another burst of inspiration to express. So if you find yourself battling with insecurities about your skills, ignore it. Draw anyway. Go for it. And give your next effort your best. And the one after that. And after that. And so forth and so on.
I never really have a direction once I get pass the sketching phase–color and material wise. I don’t know which character speaks to me. Meaning, what hair/eye color I’ll need. As well as who fits what I kinda-sorta have in mind to convey the drawing (as well as which personality fits). I love combining crafting materials with drawings–with is apparent to those familiar with this blog. But something about this glittery sheet called me. I bought it two years ago, and I suppose for a occasion such as this. Seeing how the imagine draws inspiration by Brangian, it makes a fantastic 80’s disco-jammy top. The tousled hair from performing and the endorphin-heavy selfie to boot!
Notice I gave her bottom eyelids some sharpness ala Diana Ross's album cover for Surrender. Not too much, but just a touch. (Hair was a bright, canary yellow watercolor. Shading done with "Baked Clay" Copic Marker.)
Speaking of Diana Ross, before I get into the next step I decided the character would be my girl, Towel. (My original baby.) They’re cartoons, so I give them any kind of name. With that said, a lot of people who’ve asked me about her thinks she’s a tanned white girl. The truth is actually the opposite. She’s black, having dyed her hair (her cousin Brooklyn’s idea.) I’m not into conventions and traditions when it regards appearances. I love individuality and differences. Things that aren't suppose to fit. Besides, Beyonce and Tamar has done the same with their heads. Now I'll proceed forward speaking on the usual, triple-layer gradient effect for her brown eyes. I didn’t use a blending pencil this time.
Per normal, I kind of struggled with chalk pastels when it came to nailing her complexion. I used a clay and a peachy blend–which is the safest balance for her tone. Balance is necessary; the darker the complexion, the less you can get away with blotchiness. And my drawings come LOADED with missteps. As seen. I would later have to go over her complexion with another round of pastels to even everything out.
I did her hair different this time. Instead of using a chalk pastel one tone up from the yellow base coating, I used a tan. (Carved the simple shirt outline out.)
I’ve had one bottle of craft’s glue since 2001! And when I went to glue the glittery sheet behind the board, nothing came out the bottle. No more glue. Which was a good thing because it would’ve been a pain. So I just taped the sheet down, which was a pain as well because my tape is so old it breaks as I peel. And to think, I left Michael’s last Saturday knowing I needed more than what I left with.
I added the third layer to her hair through a blend of three color pencils. Well, four counting the black I used to fill her roots. But I had concerns during the process. One: her hair was tousled and uneven. I didn’t know whether to regret it or fix it by adding more to her right side. Eventually, I said forget it. Perfection sucks and the story is she just left a performance where she was serving all kinds of vocal tease. Two: I couldn’t find its movement and flow as I added more streaks. So I did what I could. As for her cell phone: black marker for the back and a silver color pencil for the boarder. I knew I would embellish it later. A nice shade a pink filled her nails and lips.
Now, I got to remember what I added to this part of the process. OH! The background. I thought about a black background with a light effect via chalk pastels. I thought about adding another scrapbook sheet. Then, which happens often, I thought about how much I wanted to keep working on her instead. So I just painted it canary yellow and used pink chalk pastels to give her a iridescence that’s not so. To give her outfit form, I used a black marker to show the curve and folds. Then realize another round of disproportions and said “F” it and kept going. Telling you guys, you gotta just keep going.
The embellishing part is my favorite. I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but I once had an art teacher tell me to stop adding stuff to any of my drawings. I told him I’ll do what I please. I'll make mistakes and change my mind accordingly. If possible. In this case, I pulled those black chalk stickers off. It just… didn’t really work. I wanted to use them, but found it unnecessary for this particular drawing. Yet, I left the bejeweled necklace and earrings (all my girls have to wear jewelry). Of course, I added some to the back of her phone as well.
Okay. Okay. Okay. The not-so final product. Or almost. There’s so much I have to say about how I got here. Changes and all. So I’ll bullet point them for my own organization of thought.
1. My scanner only scans so much. That’s right. This was as much as I could capture. I’ve had the scanner for years and just never upgraded. You know, money and all. But, fact is, I like it. I’m all about face in the drawings, so I served. I had to choose between showing her hair or the cell phone more. Obviously I picked hair! As I live for a girl with locks and flow.
Now I tried to take the image on my phone (like the ones I shown of the process) and work from there. Yet, it didn’t turn out how I liked so I stuck with the scanned image. Until I can upgrade, I just have to use this. I lost a lot of the story, but still gave face.
2. As always, I revived its color in its digital format. Also, as mentioned, I went back and added more to her complexion. My first blending wasn’t that great in the original digital image.
3. I darkened her outline on the computer. I kept looking at the image knowing something was getting lost in digital translation. It was her outline for sure. I may continue to add this step to the process of future drawings. Add digital gloss to lips/nail/phone and brightened up the eyes more. Computer work is out of my field, but I use it for the smaller things. Convenience.
4. I didn’t clean up the areas where I removed the stickers. We’ll claim "added style" as the results.
I believe that’s it. What do you guys think? I was up and down about it for various reasons. Part of it consisting of insecurities speaking. But then I looked. And looked. And realized I loved the pronounced dark outline and the way I blended her hair. She looks like a Barbie doll. And her shirt makes me want a strawberry crisp popsicle. Later down the line I'll look into making changes.
THE INSPIRATION!
