COMPLETE - Venus 2024 Version

Happy Tuesday, my lil' clams!

You might remember this piece started, in a rather different form, back in January of this year. It's a remake of an older piece, a simple one that was originally a sticker and a design I've always really liked and wanted to plus with a new version.

Getting to this final version was...well, a STRUGGLE.

The first version of it was a pretty standard take, going for that slightly more classic pinup feel. I had envisioned it for the longest time as a digitally-painted piece.

After drafting the initial sketch, I went on to do a rough color comp. So far, so good! I actually still quite like this version.

It's here where things started to go a little nutso, though. I have, in the past, had some success with digitally-painted pieces, but every time I try to do it these days, it feels like such an intense struggle. I'm out of practice (which is definitely the biggest reason), and the version of Clip Studio Paint I'm working with right now doesn't really have the best options in terms of brush creation (believe me, I've tried). I guess I could have tried painting it in Procreate or even Photoshop, but I wanted to do it in CSP and I was being stubborn and...well...that's just very me.

I tried painting this goddamned thing 3 times. First in my more airbrushed style, and twice in that traditional digipaint style, and I lost steam on all three. The third one is the best, but none of them really came together in a way that felt up to my standards. Have a look!

Ultimately, I grew exhausted and frustrated so I went back to the drawing board. Between my lack of practice with digital painting and what must have been some dissatisfaction with the drawing from the get-go, I drafted up a new sketch. I wanted something with a little more motion to signify that underwater feel, and I feel like I achieved that. I also wanted the expression to feel more bespoke to the piece and less referential to famous pinup works.

And that leads to the final version you see at the very top of this post! I was originally going to ink it in Illustrator and color it in Clip Studio Paint, but I thought it'd be fun to do the whole thing in Illustrator. So what you have in the final version is all vector! It was probably a little slower to do it this way but it was fun and neat, so I don't regret it. I think it came out great!

I have a couple other things I want to finish before this Saturday's night market (details on that at the bottom of this post!), and this was the big one. Well, I say big, but I'm printing it at home as a small 8x8 print, so...big but small! A big thing in a small package, I suppose. Swing by on Saturday to meet me and get this print (or order it on Etsy probably next week)!

This piece was sketched in Clip Studio Paint, and inked and colored in Adobe Illustrator.

Thank you so much!

Drew