GREAT MILENKO

OMG thank you so much!! :D thats so flattering!! im honestly quite erratic when it comes to my methods,( and i still have A LOT to learn myself,) but I’ll do my best! I wrote down everything i could think of that might help. (and soz you’ll need to zoom in to read some stuff, but i added alt text!)

i guess i’ll start off with the main brushes i use! My fav qualities in a brush are square/blunt shapes, stroke color jitter, and oil-painting properties. Color jitter seriously does wonders to add texture to your paintings. i CANNOT live without it

I think drawing loosely with minimal concern for proportion or perfectionism is a core aspect of my style! the way i sketch is the same way. when i draft figures i don’t often construct them from 3d shapes, i rather focus on the flow or rhythms of the subject. sometimes i’ll doodle the skull, ribcage, shoulder blades & pelvis to help me envision the pose. I’ll add boxes over things near the end if i really need help envisioning the angle!

If that seems kind of confusing, though, i really can’t recommend Mathew Matessi’s book on “FORCE” enough. ( like seriously i put off reading it for so long and it ended up being so much more comprehensible than i thought!!)

speaking of boxes, i usually need one to get the head quite right! it especially helps with knowing where to set the jawline on those difficult angles.

i usually sketch the head first and then draw a box over it to adjust as needed! i find relying some on my intuition yields the nicest results : )

Its kind of hard to explain how i stylize characters, but i tried to jot down some essentials. Chell is a bit more stiff & toned so i often draw her with more sharp shoulders while Wheatley is more relaxed & rounded! I also keep the eyes fairly small and rarely put much detail into them, such as eye color or shine. I think you can convey a great amount of emotion by leaving them slightly obscured.

Now here are my best coloring tips!! umm generally i keep the color variation simple and prefer harsh shadows over diffused ones. I think a good way to learn is just looking off other works of art. You can learn a lot about color by doing little studies, guessing a shade and then color picking it off the reference to see if you got it right. I used to recreate a lot of classical paintings with my own characters inserted to make it a little fun.

One of the most useful things i've learned is that shadows are naturally pitch black. What gives them color and allows us to see the thing in shadow is reflections from their environment or fill light. The sky is fill light, but its so weak you can only see it in darkness, that's why some shadows look blue outside!

Like everything else, I paint messy! never hide ur strokes, blend shadows a lil on rounded surfaces if u must.

otherwise i really recommend Marco Bucci’s videos on the subject!! hes amazing!!

finally, here's a bit of a process rundown of my latest piece i made for the lovely Shrimp.

🧸✨ Trauma Regressor flag for those who regress to cope with personal trauma of all kinds (please reblog if you save)! ✨🧸

we’re the same PERSON 💜