dorndraws

Deep Magic WIP & Tips

Added 2024-06-14 15:03:25 +0000 UTC

Hi friends!

With this WIP I wanna show you a underrated method to use to lay down some values.

Step 1:

Have your sketch ready. You can indicate where you have your main shadows at (most important ones) Use references if possible.

Step 2:

I always lay down a base first. Even in greyscale. It just helps me to see the shape better and it feels better when it's just "filled" lol. It takes away the anxiety a bit of coloring it all out plus we use this layer as a base, literally.

Step 3:

I create a new layer and attach it with a clipping mask. I do this in nearly 90% of my illustrations. Every layer on top and as you can see you can't paint over the base borders. Now to the interesting part. Add your values while you're squinting your eyes. Make it really rough. I even used an airbrush here cause I don't care about edges yet. Use a charcoal brush, airbrush, whatever, but squint your eyes and just fill them bishes in till you feel like that the blurry image looks good enough with enough "data".

Here's an example. By squinting your eyes you should see your work like this (right side).. Blurry, undefined but still you see everything you need to move on from this stage, right?

When you're using a reference you can squint your eyes & focus on those very simplified shapes. Just try to catch the right position and shape and you should be good.after laying down all of them you can move on with another layer on top.

Here I don't squint anymore, I have all the "data" I need to proceed. Now I just add more depth where it's needed, add more details and define it. That's it :) I hope it helps and that I explained it good enough lol. If you have questions, let me know :)