Princes' Game Art: End of the Road (Cuddlepile)

I wanted to do something relaxing the other day (and also push through my lingering art block), so I found the wireframe for this one and decided to develop it. Jahir, Vasiht'h, Sediryl, Lisinthir, the Queen, and the Emperor, at the end of the series. SO MANY HANDS. So much clothes. So many happy expressions. <3

(This is probably one of my favorite pictures of Jahir. That looks just like him! I even got his lips right. *bounces*)

Since I was photographing this one frequently to share on the Discord server, I have lots of pictures, so process people, rejoice!

I was just starting here, with Sediryl... you can see the figures around her are what it looked like when I decided to work on it. I always start with a "sketching pencil" that uses a hard, light line, and there are a lot of lines... I practically scribble my way around the paper, looking for what I want. My art advisor used to call it a discovery process, and that's what it really feels like.

I'm only a little way into that process in this photo. I always start with the faces, because if I can't get the faces right, I don't care about the rest of it. The faces have to be right, especially the eyes. (Or if there's a weird angle, I spend a lot of time staring at it, like I did with Sediryl's jaw there.)

Hands? Bodies? Clothes? Meh! FACES

Once I'm happy with the general feel of things, I switch from the sketching pencil to the "finishing" pencil, which is loaded with a darker, softer lead. From that point, I'm choosing the lines I want to keep, and erasing the ones I've decided are superfluous. The darker lead helps me keep track of the new lines. Here I started with Sediryl's clothes in the finishing lead.

At this point, it's all making decisions. I've set up a billion choices with the sketching, and now I have to commit, over and over, to all those answers, like knocking down a row of dominoes. This ends up being really good practice for making decisions in general. It doesn't matter if you're making decisions about lines or about meals or about mortgages, it's all the same type of energy. Does that make sense? You become your smallest actions, and your smallest actions become your larger ones. I figure best do them with intent.

But back to drawing! Interestingly, if I'm going to ink a piece, I do the 'finishing stage' with the pen. Which is why there are often errors in my inked pieces: I'm technically still flying by the seat of my pants when I start laying down the ink. But I prefer that to tracing something I've already finished, which is, in the end, kind of dull. I like to have a little fun while I'm working, or it's not much pleasure to keep on.

I threw in this one so you can see how "dirty" the page gets when I'm working. Soft leads smear! And I erase, and erase, and erase....

Eventually if I decide to keep going, we end up with what's up at the topmost top there. At which point, it either stays a finished sketch, or I transfer it so I can paint or color it.

On the chat, someone asked about my pencils and erasers, so here they are:

With the caveat that this is the set-up today, and it switches out depending on the surface of the paper I'm working on. Given that, I'll talk general principles instead of specific brands. 

For the pencils, it doesn't really matter what they are as long as one's got a hard lead and one a soft. I tend to prefer two sets of soft leads for finishing, a 5 mm and a 3 mm for details, and I can get by with just one "sketching" pencil. It's usually a mechanical, but sometimes I use a lead-holder like the one up there at the top. Mostly because I really, really love using the sharpener for lead-holders. They're so much fun. <3

I've made some marks next to each pencil so you can see the relative darkness/lightness of each!

For erasers my standby is the clic eraser (the one in the middle), and the tombow mono for erasing tiny areas. But buying a kneaded eraser for my daughter reintroduced me to those after a long hiatus (like twenty years!), so now I use one of those too, for large areas. I also like it because I can stick it to my sketching pencil, which makes it easier to fish out of my bag-of-pens when I'm trying to dig through it for the pencil I want.

Finally, bonus photo... my pencil leads!

I'd call it 'my collection,' but that implies they get stuck somewhere and looked at. I actually use them a lot!

Anyway, so there you go. Peltedverse art, and some process musings. I really like this drawing, so this particular post is public. Share as you wish! Hi, visitors! Enjoy the art! And as always, questions welcome. <3