Planning, Progress and Production
28/3/22
I’ve decided to start sketching out ideas for Lynne and Yaz. Yesterday I experimented with different hair styles for Lynne as I was struggling. My first scamp has notes around it so I could discuss my ideas with my client to see what she liked but she wanted to compare more hair styles in my style to see what she preferred. I had never drawn cornrows however, I had experience in braids so using my knowledge from that carried it onto the second drawing. Out of these two I prefer the afro but I hadn't considered how I would draw it digitally. On the right is a time lapse video of my trying out different afro brushes on Lynne to see what I preferred. I showed the video to my client and she agreed to change it from an afro.
We then agreed on dreadlocks/braids which I hadn't experimented with yet so I spent some time trying to find free brushes for ProCreate and when I got home, I decided to experiment with the brushes and I managed to narrow it down to 5 different curls/braids.
I then asked my client which she preferred and she liked 17 and 19 so after I had drawn a rough sketch of Lynne, I started drawing in the hair using brush 17. After some trial and error, I realised I didn't like that no matter what pressure/lack thereof the curls would never be the same size and I ended up getting very frustrated so switch to 19 which always stayed relatively the same size and opacity which I liked and they also had a nice layered effect to them. I showed my client both images of the hair (one with 17, one with 19) and she agreed that 19 had the nicest effect so we have decided to go ahead with that brush.
HALF TERM
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Over half term I wasn't sure how much work I would get done due to work and any free time I had I wanted to be out. But I managed to get quite a big portion of work done which shocked me.
I started my painting for Faekargen, with painting I have a bad habit of not planning and I just dive straight in. However, I decided to set up my ring light to show a time lapse of me painting.
I also did some work on my character drawing.
I was using a mixture of Oils, Acrylics and Water Colours for this canvas. I liked the way the colours blended together when I changed Techniques. If you watch the video on the left very carefully you can see that at first, I was mixing paints on a board however it was drying very quickly and I wasn't able to get much use of the paint as I only have a small number of paints. I didn't want to continue doing that encase I ran low on paint before I got to finish so then decided to just add paint drops to the canvas and create the wash. This way I got a slightly patchier blend to hopefully create a greenish sky. I also used water on the canvas to spread the paint further which sadly took it longer to dry but create a nice effect. I then continued with this technique with the purple. I originally was going to create purple grass to contrast the sky however after talking to my grandmother about it she said it looked more like a river which is why I decided to add some foliage around the purple river.
19/4/22
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When we came back to college, I decided to catch up on some work I had missed out on during half term. I managed to complete get most of my duo drawing. Below is a time lapse on how I did Lynne’s outfit and next to it is what I completed at the end of the college day. On the left is how I did Lynne’s outfit. I wanted to make the skirt look more realistic with some folds, I also used colour dodge and colour burn for shading and highlights.
After college I wanted to finish the drawing so I'd have more time to finish my painting. I managed to finish Yaz' outfit and add in the background which I was really pleased with. The reason I added the orange and pink in the background is a subtle hint at their relationship. They are a lesbian couple and there are oranges and pinks in the lesbian flag so I wanted to incorporate that into the drawing.
On the left is what I thought was the final drawing and on the right is a time lapse of the drawing. Although time lapses show the process really well it makes it look like this drawing took no time at all. This drawing took in total between 15-18 hours and the time lapse doesn't show this as I would've liked.
25/4/22
I remembered an original idea I had for Lynne and Yaz and decided to continue with them after finishing (or thought so) the drawing with both characters. On the left is a time lapse of the original design I had for Yaz. The reason I didn't continue with this look was because I wanted Yaz to have a softer approach. I used the same colour palette as the final drawing of Yaz. I then decided for the back ground to blend all the purples used and I was going to try and find the opposite colour and then after looking at the colour wheel for a while I realised that there was a word underlined under "Colours" so I clicked on it and saw that I could select different complimentary colours. I then used the complimentary Green as the background colour to make the purple detailing on the horns stand out.
This is an alternate version of Lynne; it had taken me a while to find the right look for Lynne but I decided to bring back the design I first made but altered it slightly as every time I used the afro brush sets, I never got the look I wanted. I used the symmetry tool to create the hair. I used the same tool to create the hair as I did in the final design of Lynne but made it longer as I wanted her to have a more effeminate look. While doing this drawing I remembered
some details I had missed from my client. Lynne didn't have her 'Translator Earrings' and 3 tattoos. One of the tattoos is her number at a blood camp which is where Lynne became a vampire. Another tattoo is a key meant to release her from literal metaphorical chains. The last tattoo is a ring on her left hand that her and Yaz tattooed on each other. As Lynne is not a trained tattooist Yaz' tattoo isn't done very well but she loves it even more because of this.
After I realised that I had missed the details listed above I went back to the drawing of both characters and added in the tattoos and jewellery to finalise the look of both characters. If you look at the alternative look for Lynne on her left hand is a black band which is her tattoo wedding ring. Below on all of Yaz' left hands you can see a really wonky white line which is her wedding tattoo with a black heart on it. Lynne's ring looks perfect whereas Yaz' was draw roughly to show its imperfection which she loves most.
2/5/22
I still hadn't finished the painting of Faekargen. So rather than spending hours waiting for the oil and acrylic to dry I switched to water colour, as it dries a lot quicker, and am going to add details with coloured pens. This way I'm still using mixed media but it will just be a concept rather than a final piece. My client has published the first book of "The Lies of the Dragon Lord" onto Wattpad now and I am going to also be using quotes from the book to inspire Faekargen.
9/5/22
After I completed the painting last week, I needed to add in some details so that the painting didn't look like just trees a pond and a field. In the book Faekargen hasn't got much detail other than "Houses made of hollowed out trees - remnants of stone archways - painted glass windows" I wasn't going to go into detail with the drawing as it is just a concept and not a final idea but i still wanted to add in some details from the book. I the first image (left) is the archway however rather than a remnant it is just the arch as i got carried away in the drawing. The middle is two concepts for houses. Stone made of the old houses that were broken and "houses made of hollow trees" on the last picture (right) is a remnant of what used to be Faekargen before the demon raids. There is also a small patch of fungi as is written in the book.
For the background I used watercolour paints and for the final details I used pens. I'd never used these pens before but I really like the way the colours on the stones blended together as I used the blending pen included in the pack.
