OKAY so thank you stupid Windows for CRASHING WHILE I WAS TYPING you dumb lump-
*ahem*
So yeah I did another drawing of my character Iris today, with a different focus:
So, the focus here was on her expression... previously I'd drawn her looking sorta just happy, content, but I thought I'd try a different expression this time. Though, I dont really use a cartoony or anime style, with exaggerated features and shapes and movements, so I needed to go subtle here. The exact shape of the eyes, the tilt of the eyebrows, and the curve/shape of the mouth and such, that's what this one was all about. Give her an irritated expression without "big" effects, if that makes sense.
Well... not just that. I'll admit, I'm very darned insecure about things I make, about skills I have (or feel that I DONT have), and that first drawing of her... that was the best thing I'd ever made, and I kept wondering... would I ever be able to do that again? What if it was just a one-off sort of thing? A sort of "lucky" creation that I'd never be able to match again? In game-dev terms (since that's a main interest of mine) it's like when someone makes this game that's like this big hit, everyone loves it, but... they then try to make more games, different ones, but those just... they dont match up to what they did before. They never capture that magic a second time. Kinda like that, I wondered if it was going to be like that, but for art instead of game development. So that was the other major reason for making this.
I think I learned a bit more about confidence and such, while doing this. I'd been... too hard on myself all the bloody time, thinking I cant push past a certain point, cant reach the levels I wanted to hit. But what happened this time is that I basically just went "heck with it", sat down, and... just freaking did it. Would it come out well? Bah, I dont know. Gonna do it anyway. It occurs to me too, that I do that with other things. Video games for instance... I'm often like, "gee whiz this boss looks impossible... everyone else gets destroyed at it, I dont know if I can do it myself... ya know what, heck with it, I'm gonna just do it anyway, it hasnt even started and I'm declaring a victory." And that's exactly what I do. And yes, it works. Kinda stupid, really, that I never thought to REALLY apply it to art until now. Maybe that's an important lesson there.
I'm also trying to nail down an overall style here, in a way. I've realized that the way I draw things is kinda... scratchy. I often see artists doing like, big flowing lines and curves, all at once, quick movements (well, quick compared to how I do it), with the sketching phase of the drawing, but that never works for me. When I draw, say, the shape of her face, and I use my sketching pencil, there's no flowing lines or big smooth movements... instead it's a series of about 5 squillion tiny little individual scratches that form the lines/curves/shapes, and then once I'm satisfied with that, I'll trace a heavier line over it. But not TOO heavy, as I need to be able to have it so the original sketch stuff doesnt show through the colored pencils. The "scratch" process is... slow. It's slow. Not a fast way to do things. And as I go, often I'll make some scratches, see that a line or shape is just SLIGHTLY off, quick erase of that small bit, redo. It's interesting though, this is what makes the more subtle aspects of this, like her eyes, doable for me. I cant do that with quicker flowing movements during the sketching process. And then once it's time for color and shade, that's a bit more "normal" in how I do it... sorta. It never quite gets filled, not completely, there's always white space. It's erratic.
But... I decided to just sorta lean into all of this, rather than go mad trying to fight it. I realized something, which is that this is most fun when I'm not just trying to mimic someone else's style that I saw somewhere, or trying to do like a perfect traditional technique that you see in tutorials and classes and such. I do best when I just do it MY way. Whatever the heck that is exactly. Ya know, it occurs to me, the guy who inspired me to even do ANY of this, Martin Walls (creator of my absolute favorite Youtube series, which is where my name "Sophie" comes from), does exactly the same thing: heck with the usual ways, he always does it HIS way, and it's definitely rather screwy. And everyone just loves his stuff that much more for that uniqueness. There isnt really anything else quite like it. And I love that.
There is also perhaps a bit of a childish quality to my own style here, but... honestly maybe that's fine too. And I'll evolve this over time, I think.
Also if you're wondering why the hair always looks like that, kinda ragged with lots of strands sticking out, it's because *my* hair tends to look like that. Ragged, strands going in random directions. A lot of people draw like, super smooth hair on every character all the time, so I figured... yeah, gonna just try it like how mine is. Real hair is like that sometimes, after all.
So... yeah, that's that. If anyone's got any feedback on it, that'd be absolutely lovely, that helps a lot.
*ahem*
So yeah I did another drawing of my character Iris today, with a different focus:
So, the focus here was on her expression... previously I'd drawn her looking sorta just happy, content, but I thought I'd try a different expression this time. Though, I dont really use a cartoony or anime style, with exaggerated features and shapes and movements, so I needed to go subtle here. The exact shape of the eyes, the tilt of the eyebrows, and the curve/shape of the mouth and such, that's what this one was all about. Give her an irritated expression without "big" effects, if that makes sense.
Well... not just that. I'll admit, I'm very darned insecure about things I make, about skills I have (or feel that I DONT have), and that first drawing of her... that was the best thing I'd ever made, and I kept wondering... would I ever be able to do that again? What if it was just a one-off sort of thing? A sort of "lucky" creation that I'd never be able to match again? In game-dev terms (since that's a main interest of mine) it's like when someone makes this game that's like this big hit, everyone loves it, but... they then try to make more games, different ones, but those just... they dont match up to what they did before. They never capture that magic a second time. Kinda like that, I wondered if it was going to be like that, but for art instead of game development. So that was the other major reason for making this.
I think I learned a bit more about confidence and such, while doing this. I'd been... too hard on myself all the bloody time, thinking I cant push past a certain point, cant reach the levels I wanted to hit. But what happened this time is that I basically just went "heck with it", sat down, and... just freaking did it. Would it come out well? Bah, I dont know. Gonna do it anyway. It occurs to me too, that I do that with other things. Video games for instance... I'm often like, "gee whiz this boss looks impossible... everyone else gets destroyed at it, I dont know if I can do it myself... ya know what, heck with it, I'm gonna just do it anyway, it hasnt even started and I'm declaring a victory." And that's exactly what I do. And yes, it works. Kinda stupid, really, that I never thought to REALLY apply it to art until now. Maybe that's an important lesson there.
I'm also trying to nail down an overall style here, in a way. I've realized that the way I draw things is kinda... scratchy. I often see artists doing like, big flowing lines and curves, all at once, quick movements (well, quick compared to how I do it), with the sketching phase of the drawing, but that never works for me. When I draw, say, the shape of her face, and I use my sketching pencil, there's no flowing lines or big smooth movements... instead it's a series of about 5 squillion tiny little individual scratches that form the lines/curves/shapes, and then once I'm satisfied with that, I'll trace a heavier line over it. But not TOO heavy, as I need to be able to have it so the original sketch stuff doesnt show through the colored pencils. The "scratch" process is... slow. It's slow. Not a fast way to do things. And as I go, often I'll make some scratches, see that a line or shape is just SLIGHTLY off, quick erase of that small bit, redo. It's interesting though, this is what makes the more subtle aspects of this, like her eyes, doable for me. I cant do that with quicker flowing movements during the sketching process. And then once it's time for color and shade, that's a bit more "normal" in how I do it... sorta. It never quite gets filled, not completely, there's always white space. It's erratic.
But... I decided to just sorta lean into all of this, rather than go mad trying to fight it. I realized something, which is that this is most fun when I'm not just trying to mimic someone else's style that I saw somewhere, or trying to do like a perfect traditional technique that you see in tutorials and classes and such. I do best when I just do it MY way. Whatever the heck that is exactly. Ya know, it occurs to me, the guy who inspired me to even do ANY of this, Martin Walls (creator of my absolute favorite Youtube series, which is where my name "Sophie" comes from), does exactly the same thing: heck with the usual ways, he always does it HIS way, and it's definitely rather screwy. And everyone just loves his stuff that much more for that uniqueness. There isnt really anything else quite like it. And I love that.
There is also perhaps a bit of a childish quality to my own style here, but... honestly maybe that's fine too. And I'll evolve this over time, I think.
Also if you're wondering why the hair always looks like that, kinda ragged with lots of strands sticking out, it's because *my* hair tends to look like that. Ragged, strands going in random directions. A lot of people draw like, super smooth hair on every character all the time, so I figured... yeah, gonna just try it like how mine is. Real hair is like that sometimes, after all.
So... yeah, that's that. If anyone's got any feedback on it, that'd be absolutely lovely, that helps a lot.