Goodbye February!
I finished an illustration! FINALLY! It took forever… But it was fun to work on during little breaks from other projects. Plus, I had to practice drawing simple cartoons (carousels are super intricate!), and draw lots of four-legged horse-ish animals, which can be kinda difficult?!? Also, I had kept trying over and over the figure out the best way to color the piece. Color theory is not my strength — like I get it, but I don’t know how I want to use it. But it turns out the handy coloring tips I’d learned a while ago from the artist Loish (on her Patreon) is STILL my favorite way to color my work. It’s very not color-theory and very much intuitive, but it consistently produces my favorite results… Sooo, maybe next time I’ll just try it that way first and save myself some headaches, yeah? Hmmm??
Anyway, for all the wait, I’m still super pleased with how it turned out!
The Carousel
I also did a whole lot of sketching in February! I kept working on the anime-style I figured out for myself in January. But I also worked on cartooning too because they’re different enough and I want to be sure to improve at both!
I have a hard time deciding how I want to draw cartoon characters still. Every time I start collecting reference to study and practice from, I always end up back at the same sets of artists again and again… And you’d think I’d learn by now and just stick with it!
But, the actual problem is those sets of artists are very different! Do I want to draw more like Skottie Young or like Adventure Time? They are very different! Left to my own devices, I default more to the former, because I’ve practiced it more. But I think I still want to get better at little doodly-noodle-arm cartoons too…
A page of Conan the Barbarian as drawn by Skottie Young. The one on the right is a redraw trying to keep it more doodle-y and cute. I can’t decide which I like more??? Both???
So yeah, lots of sketching! And lots of progress… I think? I think that still counts as progress??? Even though I’m pretty sure I’ve written this newsletter update like a dozen times before…
A couple pages from my sketchbook. Scribbly studies of limbs and faces, a study of a character by Carles Dalmau and a study of Trudi Castle’s Spiderman drawing. As well as a lil’ Beast Boy because Beast Boy is dope.
Lastly I worked on my graphic novel. I’ve still got about 40 or so pages to do layouts and re-writes/editing on. I feel like I’m getting closer to the next steps. I’m almost thinking about thinking about the next steps. Ha. (but also still have 40+ pages to work through…)
And I didn’t do a comic strip. Because I just didn’t want to.
Now, hello March!
I’m hoping I can make some big progress on my graphic novel. I’d love to start actually figuring out next steps. (It’s probably character designs, but also learning like best practices for drawing software and setting up files and stuff like that).
I can’t decide if I should just keep focusing on sketching… or maybe start a new illustration now? A third option would be doing more finished pieces in my sketchbook, like the Conan study. Use ink and alcohol markers (maybe even paint markers???) to make some nicer drawings, but keep it chill and in my sketchbook. That’s probably what will happen. But I’m looking forward to really like leveling up my drawings. I really want to start drawing like fantasy and scifi characters again, and eventually put them into cool illustrated scenes. I think it will be fun but it’s a bit intimidating still! But also I still want to do cute fun anime style stuff too! (And then there’s the silly stuff I still love to draw like donuts and giraffes on carousels…)
At least I have figured out what kind of art I want to make, and seem pretty set on it now. So I know which direction I’m headed, it’s just getting better at it and being patient heading that way! (Maybe I’m supposed to pretend to be an expert here, but like, that ship has sailed, yeah? And also it’s not like I think my art stinks, I’m just really excited to be working on getting better, you know??). Anyway, sketching stuff! Cartoons and anime! Cool scifi and fantasy stuff! And probably not any horse-type creatures again for a while! But who knows?!
And maybe I’ll make a comic. 😉
Time to get to work!
Thanks for reading!
P.S. – Don’t forget! You can support my work (and get cool stuff!) by shopping prints, shirts and more at INPRNT and TeePublic!
Bee Sauls Art 