Let’s celebrate with some sketches shall we?
In this entry, I would like to discuss more about my process to completing the Fiona and Cake illustration.
Lately, a lot of my recent works have been done digitally. What I like about doing digital work is that I can take any size sketch and resize it in photoshop. I took this photo of my Fiona and Cake sketch and put my hand in for a size comparison.
Sketch size comparsion
This is the resized, cleaned up and ready to work image:
Fiona the Human and Cake the Cat
The next thing I do is I make a two new layers. One being a copy of the sketch and a blank new layer. I delete the image in the background layer and make it white. I then turn the opacity of the copied layer (the one with the original pencil sketch) to around 50% and I start making a cleaner and more detailed sketch in the once blank layer. This is what it looks like when I’m about done sketching:
Rough sketch
By doing another sketch over the penciled one, it gives me a better idea of how I want my image to look in the end and make any changes needed before going on the the final steps. If I had just started with the pencil sketch all the way through the inks, it would look rather sloppy and careless. Also, my skills with a tablet aren’t the best, so this is just a step that I give myself in order to achieve what I want.
Also, speaking of changes, I realized her pose wasn’t strong enough so I had my close friend look at what I did and he suggested make Fiona’s stance wider to give her a more heroic look. So what’s in red is a guide/suggestion of her new pose.
Fixing the pose
Once I fix Fiona’s stance, there are still a few tweaks to be made before I go to color. One of the most important things to think about is the character and his or her characteristics. Fiona is a very curvy character and since she’s a girl, she has soft, round shapes. So I wanted to emphasis those shapes and curves more. It also gives the character depth and liveliness. One of the things I’m constantly thinking to myself when I draw is making sure I round out my curves because the wrong kind of curve can easily make your work flat and lack energy. So while it looks like I’m being nit picky, in actuality, I’m just looking out for how I can better myself as an artist, like leveling up in a video game. For me, it’s important to be able to see what else that I can do give my work that extra boost it needs to look more appealing.
Fiona inked, she still curvy but let's pump up the volume!
Volume is PUMPED!
Now that the inks are down and solid, just a simple color job will do the trick to make this image complete. I hope you enjoyed this week’s entry! Happy Chinese New Year everyone!!
Fiona and Cat Colored
