my art gallery

jokes aside lol, i think my speedpaints are kind of deceptive because they compress all the “what the fuck am i doing” parts in the beginning, so it can look way more confident than it is?

i’m also deeply, spiritually opposed to do linework. i’m a chronic anxious perfectionist with linework and can spend hours on it. my stuff usually looks better the looser i stay. so i force myself to start every piece with just sketching out the form and the values with the hard airbrush in procreate.

if you are interested in the brushes i use check out this post (there is no secret sauce, it's just 5 basic free procreate brushes): link

i am possibly the worst teacher in the history of people who have tried to explain things. but if i had to say what has helped me most in the beginning, it’s just practising form!

form is the only fundamental!!

(i don’t know where i heard that quote)

what i mean is: learning to see things as forms helped me way more than trying to memorise every little detail. first you try to understand the big 3d shapes and the perspective. then you “dress” those forms in anatomy/details. then you worry about values and rendering. at least that’s how it works in my head.

my biggest tip is just: squint.

if you’re drawing from a reference, squint at it so the details blur and you can see the big light and dark shapes instead. (or do what i do if and just take off my glasses so the world becomes naturally low-resolution.)

proko has this really useful value tool that shows the way i try to look at references:

let’s say you want to draw something using this image as a reference. instead of starting by trying to capture every tiny feature, you look for the biggest shapes first. putting the image through pronko's tool with just two values gives you this:

where is the light? where is the shadow? what are the main blocks? if you simplify the image down to just two values, black and white, it should still kind of resemble the reference. then you can slowly increase it to three values, four values, five values, etc.

i start by blocking the general placement on the canvas, then i block in the main light sources and illuminated areas. i think that’s partly why i find it easier to draw on a black background instead of a white one. it feels like i’m pulling the light out of the dark instead of trying to cover up a blank white void, which i find much harder to do.

if squinting doesn’t work, blur or lower the opacity so you can’t get distracted by all the tiny details. making it black and white can also help, even if the final piece is going to be in colour, because it lets you focus on value first. but also: this is how i accidentally moved into greyscale permanently. i am colourblind though, so colour was already on thin ice.