#I'm a huge FireAlpaca fan btw which is free

[lemurblog]

Hello lémurblogs I have a question, how do you make your drawings? (๑'ᴗ')ゞ

Hello! It depends on each drawing. Generally, I sketch on paper and bring the scan into Clip Studio where I adjust the levels (make the whites brighter and blacks darker without losing too much detail) and redraw anything or adjust proportions with the transform tools. I apply color on top with layers set to Multiply, Overlay, and/or Soft Light.

An important step for me is taking at least a day to look at it with fresh eyes. If I'm stuck, it also helps to check how it looks on my phone. And lately adjusting the Color Balance has been my friend.

My process is pretty messy and I often don't have a plan; I just feel around to see what's good for a drawing and do it a little differently each time. For example I don't plan to color, shade, or add a background to 90% of my drawings, but they end up that way bc something will feel missing, so little by little stuff gets added.

I followed a strict pipeline as a teenager ("sketch this way, do line art that way, color like this") and ended up dreading digital art, so I took a step back. Now I give myself permission to be as messy, lazy, and improvised as I like. I'll draw or edit all on one layer even though that's not what people teach, bc it actually works for me.

I also find it useful to strike fast and finish as 'quick' as I can. Because it's natural for me to have drawings that become months or years-long WIPs. and that's fine! but it can't be everything I'm working on or I get discouraged.

Oh, and drawing on post-it notes really helped me complete those small illustrations for madaparty! It was such a life-hack when I realized it'll help me complete small ideas in one sitting. I love drawing compositions, but forget about them on a big sketchbook page where lots of little drawings have no borders, so the small post-its really helped. It also helped me think more with metaphor or staging, rather than getting lost in anatomy poses and being too literal.