So, in interest of the tumblr users that keep asking me this; I’ve decided to post the order in how my friend works for her art [this'll be handy if you're curious about the commissions and the stages that we offer your drawing to be in.].
This post will show you the three stages that she uses in order to create a lovely piece of art for one of her Original Characters. Hope you enjoy it :)
Stage 1 – The Drawing Process
1.) The Drawing Process
So first of she generally sketches out her designs in the form of anatomy (kind of like using those Human Mannequins you get to practice life drawing with.) before she adds in details like clothing and a bag. This is why in this drawing’s case you can see the outline of the legs through the bag and the outline of the torso section of her school uniform through her arms. This is normally rectified in the next step when it comes to inking the drawing.
Your drawing (If you’re following these steps) doesn’t have to be as complicated if you don’t want it to be. You could simply sketch out the pose and clothes you want without putting each strand of hair in or the shading of the dress in, just remember to put it in when you’re inking or colouring.
Stage 2 – The Inking Process
2.) The Inking Process
This is where you start to see just how much detail is truly put into these drawings that my friend does: when she inks them. As stated in the FAQ we normally use UniPen Fineliners as they come in a variety of widths (0.05mm, 0.1mm, 0.2mm, 0.3mm, 0.4mm, 0.5mm & 0.8mm) However my friends pens have ran out as of late so as a result this entire drawing was done in a standard pen for the all details before being rubbed out. This stage is were if the pupils (unless you’re using a pencil crayon for that) and if your character has any details that are black (such as hair or a strip of black on their clothing) are normally coloured in using a 0.8mm pen if it’s available.
Normally however we would work out what thickness we wanted each line to be such as clothing being a standard thickness of around 0.3/0.5mm depending on the scale of the drawing. If you’re unsure of what thickness just stick by the general rule of, if it’s a small intricate piece of detail, use a thinner brush size.
Stage 3 – Adding Colour
3.) Adding Colour (If You Want)
Again as previously stated in the FAQ, we don’t normally colour the drawings, and it is always optional as to whether you want to colour it. A good idea when colouring in outfits for your characters is to work out your colour scheme before you start and work out which colours go together if you do want to colour it.
This time however she has used WH Smiths Watercolour Pencils range as it’s a lot better at blending the colours in than their standard range (Also, this set includes a skin colour, which is incredibly helpful). Evidence of shading can be seen on the skirt and the bag of this character. Often just a light shading over the top can change a colour and give it the desired effect. (If you’re struggling to work out what colours you want to use or how the shading should look take a bit of scrap paper and use that before you apply it to your drawing, sometimes it’ll help more than you think) This stage is also were the shading you may have added will come in handy as you already know where it needs to be darker/lighter. Another thing to be conscious of when colouring is how the light hits the character – this can be seen in this characters hair, shoes and on some pieces of her clothing by the white spots that have been left deliberately white to show this.
Hopefully this helps all you budding artists, if you want share some of your drawing below if you’ve used this brief tutorial and happy drawing! :)