PROCESS PACK: impatient // nsfw

download the attached .zip to access the process pack for my new painting of andreas and julian - it contains 16 pngs and 1 gif. 

this painting started with the idea of a monster being so impatient they don't even bother to undress their partner, instead ripping their clothes apart to get to the goods asap. i decided to go with andreas and julian because it would pose a nice contrast to the last drawing i did of them, which was more cute and tender. 

i started out establishing the basic pose and once i was happy with the anatomy i went on to refine the sketch a bit. i tried to illustrate the aforementioned impatience in more than just pants that have been clawed open. i had andreas grab julian by the waist/hips to pull his ass closer, leaning in over him, shoulders tense, the fur of his neck and tail standing up, head bent and eyes closed in eagerness. julian meanwhile has ended up on his elbows, clearly loving it all, held up by andreas' grip and relying on his bae to keep him steady.

the somewhat polished sketch then turned into a lineart, drawn with quite fine lines but still looking pretty 'busy.' that's because there's a lot of lines that outline the shapes of musculature or other features--those lines will be helpful guidelines while colouring, but they won't be very visible on the final image. throughout the process i'm going to go back to the lineart layer and re-colour many of said lines with a hue that blends in better with the underlying colours. they might still be faintly visible and subtly help in creating a threedimensional impression, but they'll be much more understated. they already look a little bit more subtle after i coloured the lineart a dark brown, set that layer to 'multiply,' and lowered the transparency.

i coloured in the basic flats on a few different layers. there's only a single layer for andreas' fur, but julian's skin, hair, and pieces of clothing are each on a separate layer. locking the transparency of these layers makes it easy to colour each different part without risking 'painting outside the lines' and allows me to more easily tweak the colour, brightness, or temperature of a specific area.

before i started rendering the characters i had an idea for a simple background that would also help explain andreas' impatience; a faint full moon behind them. i then began working on the characters, and as you can see i ended up lowering the transparency of the lineart even more. for my own reference, i added my last painting of julian and andreas to the corner, so i could use the colour picker on andreas' fur. as previously discussed, his coat has the colours of a pretty normal-looking grey wolf or timber wolf, no strange markings or unique colouration. i was very happy with how it turned out on the last painting so i decided to make it easy for myself.

i often use my so-called lasso select + airbrush method when i start colouring a character's body. i select one area at a time and use a big airbrush to add basic gradients to it, which bit by bit adds colour variation and form to them (as shown in many other process packs). but again, i find that when colouring andreas' coat i favour a more painterly approach. his very natural-looking fur just comes out looking better when i 'manually' paint in each colour, using a big irregular brush to slather them on. it also makes him look softer; andreas is a very wholesome person, so a 'gentle' colouring style suits him better than the sharp and crisp result of the lasso select + airbrush method. i hope that makes sense lol.

anyway, i went from using big brushes to add the basic colours to using smaller and smaller ones as i kept working. i refined the different areas of grey, tan, and beige, rendered his musculature, and painted the fur texture in more and more detail. step by step i 'sculpted' his body, using both darker and lighter colours--and then in the middle of everything i started shading julian too. i began polishing things up and refining the outlines, emphasising some lines while rendering others more subtle. i didn't want to overwhelm the image with fur texture, since it would have looked messy, so i made sure to maintain a balance between areas where his fur is short and smooth (for example his arms), long and bristling (his neck and tail), and somewhere inbetween (shoulders, chest, thigh). 

i was happy with the colours of andreas' body but thought they looked a little bit dull and muted, so i applied some photoshop magic and increased the contrast. i also lowered the temperature of the hues a bit, which brought out the grey/blue tones of his fur. i still thought the tan hues were a bit 'too tan,' though, so i used an airbrush to quite simply add some more greyness to his arms and tail.

after finishing julian's clothes, i used a tiny brush to add some very fine detail and to go over parts of the lineart. i emphasised the characters' outlines against the pale background and where their bodyparts overlap. i have to be careful not to make the lines too dark and stark, but i find that this step usually makes a drawing look much more polished and finished. 

time for the final touches. i made the cream area of andreas' snout a bit more pale, while adding a subtle brown gradient to the pec underneath. similarly i added a subtle, warm, ochre overlay to andreas' lower arms, which makes them stand out more against the greys of his body. at first i added a pale blue hint to his thigh/side/tail, underneath his elbow, but i ended up changing it to a faint dark blue shadow instead. the result is that there's more of a contrast between arm/elbow and body, as well as between nose and chest; the difference in value and hue helps differentiate between overlapping bodyparts, and makes the pose easier to read. finally, i increased the overall contrast of the image a bit, and lowered the transparency of the full moon, since i wanted its presence to be kind of understated. 

i always enjoy painting andreas and julian because they're so wholesome and their natural, earthy colour scheme is such a soothing delight to work with.  last time i drew them i specifically wanted to do a feelgood piece, but even now that i've started feeling a bit better mentally i'm loving how this painterly colouring method feels like therapy.

 // art + andreas © me; julian © kubi.