CCreblogs

Other than in the short comics I draw, I normally color my lineart. Kalisamiii, however, does not, so neither did I and honestly? It was incredibly freeing. I also started adding extra lines to create visual noise because that was the biggest thing her style gave me after trying to dissect it. Add comic-like lines that build shadows without really being hatching. Sort of. Kinda. But not. Idk.

Also, hair isn’t painted. It’s drawn. Armor isn’t rendered. It’s designed through linework. “Can the drawing still look beautiful if I remove all shading?” That felt like the core question behind her style.

And yeah, she puts an absolutely ridiculous amount of detail into her lineart, and I tried to copy that as best as I could without going mental.

Then there are the silhouettes. Every character has an instantly recognizable shape, whether it’s the loose flowing hair, giant wings, dramatic fabrics, or elaborate accessories. Nothing sits still, which makes her art so alluring because not only the lineart, but also the shapes themselves create so much movement.

It is all about the hair.

Hair is rendered using large, simple shadow masses with lineart defining individual strands. The hair almost behaves like fabric. There is very little messy texture compared to my previous studied artists. It frames the face and really draws your eye exactly where she wants it to go. Tried that with Lysara and I absolutely love how she turned out.

But while I absolutely adore the overall hair shapes, I don’t know if drawing every individual strand is going to stick with me.

It was annoying lol.

The color palettes I used were surprisingly easy and limited, so in a way I got to return to my roots but with a completely different application, and dang, I loved it. It felt cozy.

She also uses soft value transitions, with black mostly reserved for backgrounds while still maintaining strong contrast. And as you all know, I have a serious commitment issue when it comes to contrast, but I tried to push it with stronger light sources and some Add layers. We’re slowly getting there.

As talked before there is a hell lot of Decorative elements, extra lines, and sparkles everywhere. Kalisamii uses a ton of ornamentation in her work and, ummm… I am very lazy.

Honestly, the hardest thing to imitate wasn’t the rendering. It was learning how to think like a fashion designer and an Art Nouveau illustrator at the same time.

And yeah… while I could make it work with relatively simple HL characters, drawing armor or weapons in this style? No thank you.

In conclusion: I’m too lazy for this art style, but dang, do I love it. Maybe a few extra lines and sparkles will stick. We’ll see.