PROCESS PACK: Cuddle session // nsfw

here's the process pack for my latest painting of julian and andreas - download the attached .zip to access 18 pngs and 1 gif.

honestly, i feel more inclined to talking about how i felt painting this than how i painted it, but i'll try to cover both.

you see, drawing this piece was like therapy. as you may know i'm currently not doing super well mentally, so in terms of art i'm trying to draw things that makes me feel good and happy and that don't stress me out. i'm sort of allowing myself to stay in my comfort zone for a bit--to draw characters i'm well familiar with, scenes that feel cozy and warm and comforting, colours i find lovely to look at, and colouring methods i find soothing. 

normally i love to challenge myself but right now i'm not in the mood to try drawing new interesting perspectives, adventurous poses, or nifty new colouring techniques. i want to focus on drawing stuff i love, to sort of get a break from my own anxious brain by getting lost in a drawing. trying something new and succeeding is incredibly rewarding--but let's be honest, trying something new and struggling or even failing can be so discouraging, frustrating, and anxiety-inducing. i don't need that in my life right now, so i'm choosing to stick to what i know. don't get me wrong, i do believe that regularly trying to push yourself through the struggle and frustration of going outside your comfort zone is a great way to grow as an artist. but you definitely don't have to do that all the damn time. the whole point of this monologue is that it's super fine to sometimes just take it easy and simply create art that makes you happy, without feeling any pressure. a happy artist is a good artist.

and so, every aspect of this painting was tailored to instil me (and hopefully, the viewer) with a sense of peaceful joy, from the choice of characters and their poses to the soft look of the colouring and the earthy hues.

if you've read the OC spotlight about andreas, you'll know that his and julian's story contains a fair bit of angst and struggle. but at the same time they're some of our most wholesome characters. they're both genuinely goodhearted and unselfish people, and as a pairing they embody a feeling of unconditional love, acceptance, and warmth. their story has a happy ending, too, so they were a good choice for my 'therapy art.' as for the pose i really, really felt like drawing some cozy, comforting cuddles, and you can't go wrong with some good ol' spooning. 

i made a rough sketch and refined it into a rough lineart, keeping the lines rather thick and imprecise, because i didn't want to feel confined by a lineart that was "too detailed." i filled the lines in with a muted brown hue, set the layer to 'multiply' and lowered the transparency. after adding the basic flats i used one of my favourite brushes--a square, textured, chalk-like brush--to start colouring andreas' fur. i approached it in a rather painterly fashion where, bit by bit, i added the shifting hues of his coat. his colouration is based on a standard timber wolf or grey wolf, without any fantastical twists, and i think that 'natural' look adds to the soothing vibe of the piece, along with julian's sunkissed skin and multitude of freckles. i made julian look smooth and soft, while blending the colours of andreas' fur together in a more 'chunky' way. i really, really love painting fur--i find it incredibly therapeutic.

i added more and more details as i went, but i made sure to not overdo it. i've done past process packs about my love for 'crisp and clean' linearts and colouring styles, but by now you probably know that i like to switch things up and lately i have been gravitating towards more painterly styles. this piece is all about texture and a soft, soothing impression, rather than crisp detail and polished precision. aside from the aforementioned square brush i also used a round, textured one for the smallest details and for refining it a bit towards the end, but i still kept many parts of the piece kind of rough and unpolished. i added some simple shading to give their bodies more form, but again i wanted to keep the texture in the spotlight so i was content to have it looking kind of flat, in a stylised way that i personally find very calming and nice to look at.

again, both characters are warm in both personality and colour scheme, so to enhance that i added a warm overlay to the parts of their bodies that are closest to the viewer, and eventually i also played around with the levels, contrast, and brightness to make their colours pop a bit. i added a green-blue overlay to create a sense of depth, using a minty-turquoise hue that i associate with a peaceful mood and that went well with the pale green background. speaking of, i kept it simple, hinting at the texture of grass, adding pale little flowers, and blurring it around the edges, so it would come off as extra soft.

and that's it. i really do feel like i accomplished what i set out to do with this painting, and maybe my musings on using art as therapy can be helpful to some of you. <3

// art + andreas © me; julian © kubi.