✨✏️ (making of) november speedpaints + tools + thumbnail sketches

hello! (⌒ω⌒)ﾉ

I have more fun bts process stuff to show you this month since I used some traditional tools this time around. for those who are also nerds about process, this one's for you. 🫰 since I did the sticker sketch traditionally, I didn't record it, so the video for the sticker only features the flatting + coloring portion of the process.

songs used:

• francesa - hozier

• motionless ft. tiffi - city girl

gathering references

this part's a lot of fun! for those who enjoy making pinterest boards or tumblr blogs, you'll understand. it's the equivalent of gathering and oggling a bunch of pretty pictures, a personal favorite past time of mine. I take this time to consider the overall theme I want to focus on as well as the mood and feeling I want to communicate. this includes things like setting/environment, color palettes, character design, and symbols/objects. I use pureref to put all my images into one place so I can easily see everything together.

thumbnails

to get the brainstorming process in motion, I'll sometimes write down a list of words to think of a theme(s) I could explore. generally, my process has a lot to do with giving myself parameters to work within, because I have a tendency to get swept away in possibilities. limiting the bounds helps me focus and come up with ideas that are relevant. I also like using a marker (I used a pentel sign pen for these thumbnails; I also like using tombows) to sketch, because it places additional limitations on how many details I can cram in (tools with finer tips like pencils and ballpoint pens are too precise).

once I have a thumbnail that I like and want to flesh out further, I'll take notes to remind myself of key points that I want to include in the finished pieces. I started doing this, because there's no legible way for me to draw all those details into a small, messy thumbnail (these pages are A7 so there's not a lot of space to work with; I go into further detail about why I prefer this size for thumbnails in this vlog). so I try to help future Vicki stay organized by taking some notes and reminding her of what's going on. xD

these are only a handful of the thumbnails I did that are directly related to the final pieces. there are 17 other pages I filled with thumbnails that I didn't include in this post. it's all about getting closer and closer to what I see in my mind/what feels right. it's not about finding the 'perfect' idea, but rather one that I feel excited about working on more. I'm very purposeful in this early stage, because I want to make sure I really like the idea before moving forward and spending a lot of time on things like rendering.

value breakdown/color passes

these are the value and color tests I did. this stage is really important for me, because it helps me quickly visualize the overall balance of values and decide where to direct the piece's focus. especially for highly detailed pieces like this one where it's easy to get lost in/overwhelmed by all the different parts, I find ways to help redirect myself to what's important. for example, I thought the version with white hair looked really cool, but I didn't end up going with it, because I wanted the focus to be on the glowing sword and felt that the hair being white would compete with where I really wanted to draw attention to.

🌟

the rest of the process is spent painting and rendering, which you can watch in the speedpaint. there's nothing specific about this part, since the bulk of the load-bearing decisions were done in these earlier stages.

I hope it was interesting or useful to see more of my process this time around! I know not everyone is into this kinda stuff, but for those that like it, enjoy~ ^.^

🤎 vicki