insane and sleepy

hello anon! I happen to have speedpaints for the three d:bh fanarts i posted here! tumblr only allows me to attach one to the post, so i'll probably reblog with the other two.

generally, I start with a sketch to help me get my bearings and then I work from large to small, the same way traditional painting is approached. I like to start with a big brush and broad shapes to put shapes and values down, and then slowly work from large to small to get smaller details in and refine. it's very easy to over render, so learning when to stop and how to push through the 'ugly phase' is a skill that artists will pick up over time.

as far as colours go, even though I start in greyscale, I usually have a good idea of what mood I want to convey and use adjustment layers/overlays/hard light layers to get me somewhere close to where i want to be. sometimes I'll mess about with the tools in the art program to see what other cool lighting effects I can get though; the greeny-yellow shading in the third post i made was purely accidental and it was a nice way to push myself out of my comfort zone with colours. digital workflows are convenient like that, because i can just make a copy of my layers and try whatever i want without destroying the work. my favourite tools are the curve tools, gradient maps and brushes with colour jitter to get some interesting hue and saturation variations that i wouldn't necessarily think to try manually.

because a lot of the lovely feedback on my work has been to do with the textures, I'll address the brushes too (although every artist will tell you it's not about the tools, but how you use them). these were all mostly painted with the 'Moriarty' brush from the procreate brush library, and i really enjoy how it feels compared to real paint and brushes. some of these paint-like brushes can feel super difficult to control at first (even if you come from an art background as i have), but the spontaneity of them can be quite freeing once you learn to put down the eraser and undo tools. lots of new artists are tempted to use 57683 different brushes, but honestly sticking to one or two can be a lot easier and make everything less complicated. go with the flow ✨

i approached all three of these as themed studies rather than fanart, with a goal of trying a new tool (the new brush library) and to practice conveying light and form in colour, rather than in black and white (the stage i usually stop at). having a goal in mind when you draw is always helpful when you're drawing to develop skills: focus on practicing light, or colour, or anatomy, or combining these things. staying open minded about what you end up achieving helps you focus on the skill development since you're not worrying about the outcome. for all three of these paintings i shared online, there are twice as many sitting on my hard drive that will never see the light of day. not everything has to be perfect! other exercises i recommend are gesture drawings - particularly timed gesture drawings, with both short and long intervals - and learning to photobash and make your own references out of groups of pictures, if you can't find something that exactly matches what you're trying to draw

this was longer than i thought it was going to be and i'm too lazy to proofread, but i hope this helps you somewhat! thank you for reaching out!

Finally, preorders for the zine are open! The shop will be open for a month, from February 16th to March 16th. All orders will be sent after preorders close through email.

Here is the link:

Here is our cover reveal for the zine! Hope you like it as much as us!

Thanks to @/nachtem ! Our amazing COVER ARTIST! 🙌