pikmin!!!

the pikmin fanart... is finally finished!! hard to imagine I've been working on this one since march, but I took the reference picture in august 2023 so the idea has been sitting patiently in my head for even longer...

I really wanted to record some of the process for this one but I keep having trouble with that gooseneck phone holder I bought- if I clip it to my desk or the shelf next to it, it shakes too much just from me scribbling on my ipad (when I'm working in this style anyway, since I'm not using the fill bucket at all) and the video is not really watchable... might need to buy a tripod or just record the screen itself. instead I'll explain a bit about color jitter since I've been using it so much:

if we observe this noble dwarf bulborb, particularly the red part of its body, you can see that the hues are not uniform and seem to change for some strokes. that's the 'randomize per stroke' setting- with that on, the base color you're working with is tweaked each time you make a new stroke, giving it a look like you're using paint that's not completely mixed. that shimmery texture to the red is the 'change brush tip color' setting, which tweaks the color mid-stroke. I changed the settings a few times while working on this so it doesn't look the same throughout but the pictured settings are pretty close if you want to try it out! I think using this helps add a bit of spice and prevents that flat feeling that digital art can have.

despite this style being so time consuming I've been really enjoying working in it... I always thought I wasn't the kind of artist who enjoyed painting a billion details in a piece, but with this brush I can apparently do anything lol. I think the slow meditative process of it has been healing in the face of being bombarded with AI crap and quick consumption media too. as for my feelings on pikmin: pikmin 1 is actually my favorite because I played it as a kid and am still obsessed with how it feels like such a strong thematic story wrapped up perfectly in its gameplay, but I wanted to draw oatchi for this. I might try to draw another piece for pikmin 1 eventually but I think the next big piece will be more birds!