Omigod this took about 5 bazillion years.
But here it is:
Which is based on this:
Her name is Bethany. She is from The Binding of Isaac, AKA my favorite game of all time and also the one that gave me the inspiration and knowledge needed to finally do real game development awhile ago.
After reading some of the responses in my other thread, I figured there were a couple of things I needed to do:
Find an artist / artstyle that I wanted to emulate. The artist as well as the designer of Isaac and everything in it is Edmund McMillen, someone I really look up to and who is the main inspiration for me wanting to draw anything in the first place. I dont know why I didnt just try his style before.
Then, after all of that, get a reference image, but not one that I could just directly copy line by line. This one works perfectly because it's a blocky pixelated in-game sprite. I cant just 1 for 1 that. I had to actually, really do it myself, and allow changes to be made as I saw fit (primarily the hair). Previously I'd been drawing characters by looking at a full drawing someone else made and copying it *exactly* with no changes (and I dont like doing that).
Next step, change the way I handle lines/curves. Previously what I did with the character "sketch replicas" that I've shown elsewhere was to handle curves and straight lines by doing lots of tiny little individual movements with a pencil. Why? Because I couldnt draw lines or flowing curves. Turns out this is because I was trying to do it purely with wrist movements. I'm pretty sure someone in the other thread mentioned using full arm movements, and that's what finally made this work. It was all large, smooth, flowing movements instead of aggravating tiny dashes, I was super pleased with this.
Also I drew the main outline in light pencil BEFORE then using a solid marker on it (very, very slowly).
Next step, lots of angry words I cant repeat here as I realize that the ONE color missing from my giant brush marker set is a light neutral skin tone. Seriously, it has EVERY other color in many shades. But not that one. I wanted to do the entire thing in marker (since it's on marker paper and markers are what I am most familiar with), so the skin coloring had to be done in colored pencil.
And then the final step was to just about go totally mad trying to color it all in. My markers are brush pens (double tipped, fortunately) which arent actually meant for coloring anything in, they're very specifically meant for lettering (the primary focus for me, as art goes, and the thing I know how to do best). Trying to color anything in with the brush part looks all streaky and weird, so... mega-thin tip it is. At least this gave the hair texture.
I wanted to add more to the scene beyond just that... specifically the blue wisps that are usually orbiting around her... but you know what, I can add that part later.
So there. That's that. Freaking finally.
I want to thank everyone who left ideas and encouraging words in my previous topic.
I also want to thank the high quality tools I have. Particularly the precision eraser and the big gum eraser, no way I could have pulled this off without those two things. And cheap stuff wouldnt have done it.
Now stuff hurts. Time for a break.
But here it is:
Which is based on this:
Her name is Bethany. She is from The Binding of Isaac, AKA my favorite game of all time and also the one that gave me the inspiration and knowledge needed to finally do real game development awhile ago.
After reading some of the responses in my other thread, I figured there were a couple of things I needed to do:
Find an artist / artstyle that I wanted to emulate. The artist as well as the designer of Isaac and everything in it is Edmund McMillen, someone I really look up to and who is the main inspiration for me wanting to draw anything in the first place. I dont know why I didnt just try his style before.
Then, after all of that, get a reference image, but not one that I could just directly copy line by line. This one works perfectly because it's a blocky pixelated in-game sprite. I cant just 1 for 1 that. I had to actually, really do it myself, and allow changes to be made as I saw fit (primarily the hair). Previously I'd been drawing characters by looking at a full drawing someone else made and copying it *exactly* with no changes (and I dont like doing that).
Next step, change the way I handle lines/curves. Previously what I did with the character "sketch replicas" that I've shown elsewhere was to handle curves and straight lines by doing lots of tiny little individual movements with a pencil. Why? Because I couldnt draw lines or flowing curves. Turns out this is because I was trying to do it purely with wrist movements. I'm pretty sure someone in the other thread mentioned using full arm movements, and that's what finally made this work. It was all large, smooth, flowing movements instead of aggravating tiny dashes, I was super pleased with this.
Also I drew the main outline in light pencil BEFORE then using a solid marker on it (very, very slowly).
Next step, lots of angry words I cant repeat here as I realize that the ONE color missing from my giant brush marker set is a light neutral skin tone. Seriously, it has EVERY other color in many shades. But not that one. I wanted to do the entire thing in marker (since it's on marker paper and markers are what I am most familiar with), so the skin coloring had to be done in colored pencil.
And then the final step was to just about go totally mad trying to color it all in. My markers are brush pens (double tipped, fortunately) which arent actually meant for coloring anything in, they're very specifically meant for lettering (the primary focus for me, as art goes, and the thing I know how to do best). Trying to color anything in with the brush part looks all streaky and weird, so... mega-thin tip it is. At least this gave the hair texture.
I wanted to add more to the scene beyond just that... specifically the blue wisps that are usually orbiting around her... but you know what, I can add that part later.
So there. That's that. Freaking finally.
I want to thank everyone who left ideas and encouraging words in my previous topic.
I also want to thank the high quality tools I have. Particularly the precision eraser and the big gum eraser, no way I could have pulled this off without those two things. And cheap stuff wouldnt have done it.
Now stuff hurts. Time for a break.