#characterbustup

The third and final Ella drawing I did last year. This was originally a digital sketch I really liked and was curious on re-doing it in watercolor and I LOVED WORKING ON THIS BUT THE FEAR OF FUCKING UP WAS REAL. 😫 I wanted to continue playing with the layering technique I tried in the first Ella illustration but keeping it lighter to feel more whimsical. I think some parts I was successful in but definitely room for improvement :0 I really enjoy working this way and want to explore it more. I also want to gush about the paper lol-- The paper I've been using was originally given to me by my wildlife art teacher. And now I can never go back to the watercolor paper I was using prior LOL;;; this paper is sooooo nice to work on but because it was given to me, I had no idea what I was using. When I was visiting my family back in November, I destroyed my room looking through all my old class-work and the rest of the scrap paper I had. I knew my art teacher bought large sheets of it to cut them up for the class, so I was hoping I'd find the embossed logo of the brand on one of the pieces and when I found it, i was flipping out LOL the paper is Strathmore Aquarius II series in case you ever want to try it!

I created this in may of last year, there are more pieces of Ella because she basically became my muse at the end of 2021 lol. This is the first piece that really helped me get out of my block. Creating this was so fun and re-introduced my love for watercolors / mixed media. Since most of my work is done digitally, this was a chance to step away from the screen and have art supplies sprawled out around me. The background was a layering technique I hadn’t done before so it was nice playing around and watching the watercolors do it’s own thing. This is also the first piece that started my love for adding gold foil and now I’m a sucker for that shit and will add it into my art at any possible moment LOL.

Second piece in what I’ve been calling the “Ella series” lmao. Working on this was a bit of a whiplash to when I used to draw super detailed anime eyes in my sketchbook which SCREW THAT ART TEACHER THAT TOLD ME I’D NEVER GET PAID DRAWING ANIME. LOOK 👏🏽 AT👏🏽 ME 👏🏽 NOWWWW👏🏽

I don’t really draw detailed eyes…..really detailed anything anymore, my style is quite…simple imo lol. So coming back to my roots of drawing pretty eyes was therapeutic for me. I tried to capture the gold accents but I don’t think I did it justice. This is a piece that is best seen in person, which.. I was really happy showing at conventions last year. I had this piece, along with a few others up as examples of my traditional work for commissions, I was surprised how well they were received as I’m a bit reluctant showing my characters / original work, but we left that self doubt shit in 2021 😡