#digitally coloured a sketchbook thing

[r7inyz]

happy anniversary to one of my fav moviesssss have this

[aulerean]

gem's angler fish? pretty cool.

[emily-mooon]

Happy holidays! Here’s Jonathan in the most devastating au you can put him in: It’s A Wonderful Life au

Colour version↓

[beastsovrevelation]

Fem!Crowley, how she looks in my fics. 🐍

Reference: Teresa Palmer

[catboy-a-day]

catboy 174... moe moe kyun...

[sandcatart]

[nightmare8-420]

to whatever demon thats entered me; thank you for making me work in drawing bc holy fucking shit i feel so good

[cuteniaarts]

@katkastrofa: *writes a single throwaway line in one chapter of Lost and Found that is never referenced again*

Me, completely randomly and with no prompting: Alright, bet–

[keeps-ache]

my HOUSE.png

[ravene]

V Flower sketch

[jupiter-reimagined]

ive reached a funny number in my sketchbook collection: number 34. i have something really funny i could do in this one

[emthelibra]

I’m honestly shocked getting back into traditional art has completely consumed me the way it has. I just hope I don’t burn myself out and get art block

[k0libra]

Hank feels older after the accident. He feels older, not in a "more mature" way, but more geriatric instead. Yet he just looks like a man of his age, he looks like before. He feels a deep disconnect — his appearance doesn't match his perception of time. The world goes around him as normal, his body goes on as normal. Grief doesn't leave any imprint on him, and he gets angrier and angrier at himself and more despaired.

And so, when his roots finally begin to turn grey, in a fit of inverted thinking, he cuts off his hair, leaving only grey hair. Is this proof of his grief? A punishment? A manifestation of guilt? It doesn't matter, and it does not get better. This becomes clear halfway through the process. Although now he has a shitty haircut, here goes the rest of his hair, even if he seemed to like it long. He is ruining everything in his life again.

 art process under the cut

This one was a doozy. Some of you might've noticed that this piece is done traditionally. To be more precise, the format is A3, and the mediums include: watercolours, gouache paints, coloured pencils, oil and soft pastels.

I haven't done traditional art in a while, especially on bigger formats, so my approach had to be more calculated than it usually is.

For the first time in ages, I had to pick up my sketchbook to come up with composition because sketching directly on A3 wasn't working out. After that was done, and I got the idea of how I wanted the things to be placed on the piece of paper, it was time to transfer the sketch.

It went well. I decided to follow the same pipeline I use for my digital paintings, so I did watercolour underpaint.

I wish I had determination to make the paint more saturated, but I was feeling quite anxious.

Then I refreshed the sketch with coloured pencils, which was a smart call on my part because otherwise, I would've definitely lost it when I put down gouache. I also applied masking fluid in some places.

Historically, painting with colour is my weakest skill, I tend to struggle with the feeling of depth especially. That's why I decided to figure out my colours digitally first, so I wouldn't loose my progress irl. I really wasn't in the mood of redoing the sketch and repainting.

You see, I really locked with this one lol

The next step was painting with gouache, I think I was the most impatient with this. I wish I would've taken more time, but alas. In general, it was pretty ordinary - applying colour and then adding definition to objects. But not too much because most of my detailing is achieved with pencils.

After that was done, I redefined the sketch following the photo I took (I was missing conveniences of digital painting here), and it was time for the dry materials. It was just a lot of work, but I had fun with it.

I'm satisfied with the end result. Of course, there are things that I don't like how they came out, but for the first illustration done traditionally in a while, I'll let it pass, hah.

Thank you for reading all of that!!!💖 Here's your cookie 🍪

[porschas-palette]

Shadow and Maria Collage/painting

Inspired by the amazing Dark Beginnings series on YouTube

(I tried scanning this on my printer, mixed results though, it's not as vibrant as I hoped it be)

Sketchbook version:

Process and pointing out details bellow :D

I started with a little cute idea of shadow watching the Aroura Borialis in a field of lilies, seemingly alone but the ghost of Maria is watching with him aww (similar to the dark beginnings episodes). I didn't really know what to do with this drawing after I finished it though...

And then it hit me...boom...a collage idea. So I made a digital sketch in ibis paint

First draft vs final idea ^^

Sketch (into the A5 collage book)

Fun fact: I added pages from Gerald Robotnik's journal, specifically entry #589 (which is about Maria) and entry #620 (which is about how Maria gave the name Project Shadow a new meaning "A shadow can show you where to find the light"). Both entries reflect the characters very nicely and I love that detail 😌✨️

Painting (I frickin love the Aroura Borialis, also THE MOON peak, I loved every second of painting this whole thing!)

Added darker blue shading to the pencil drawing and added the lilies on top. I drew some lilies on paper then traced over them in coloured pencil with a light box

Then I cut up the drawing to look like shattard glass...or a broken record...MUHAHAHAHHA SONIC MOVIE 3 REF PERHAPS? Anyways that was also done with a sketch and the lightbox to help as a guide (I don't have photos of the process but I took photos of the guide sketches)

Thats all, thanks for looking and reading the whole thing :D

Inspo:

I'm very normal about this 3 episode short series on YouTube and the SxS Generations game in general RAAAAAAA

Edit: turns out this is my 50th post, lmao that seems fitting

Anyways, I'm gonna listen to this on repeat (BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR THE SONIC COMMUNITY EVER WAS RELEASING THIS SONG IN FULL)

[beastsovrevelation]

The Lord of Flies is such a doll~ 👑🪰 Not that she won't kill you.

(I needed a reference picture of Beel with long hair. Should I try and colour her?..)

[reallyhardydraws]

2023.

i hope any of you reading this will forgive the essay. i started posting to this art blog ten years ago in 2013 when i was just at the very end of high school, uploading short animations i'd made for one of my final projects, preparing myself for art school where i was gearing up to become an illustration/animation student.

i went into my art foundation course in 2014, still thinking i was going to be going into storybook illustration or with faint hopes of becoming like a concept artist for game/animation, although even then i'd started thinking about patterns...

and then in 2015 i did go into my BA, going in for that illustration with animation degree that... usually when i talk about it in real life, i say didn't really feel like the best place for me. if i think back, the best things i got out of it were two of my best friends, one of whom is now my partner. looking back on my BA era, there's some bits of sketchbook stuff...

and while i was at university my main fandoms were thunderbirds are go and x-men for a bit... these are from the end of 2015 into the beginning of 2016...

then for a little while i was doing this still sort of pastel-ish lineless situation:

and i alternated between that and this thin fineliner type work (pretty sure all of the linearted pieces were done on paper and scanned, and all the lineless were graphics-tablet-only) - it was in this style that i started to offer commissions for the first time too.

and i also had fineliner-lined work in sketchbooks that i coloured with marker and posca pens, the colours of which were generally a bit more intense just based on not being able to slide the hue/saturation around on paper:

also 2016 was when i discovered the spongebob musical just after it's trial run in chicago (which ended in july of 2016) and i started making fanart at that point... which would have the biggest effect on the way i drew (and i did end up handing in a piece of spongebob musical fanart as one of my art school homeworks lmao)

from summer 2016 until early 2017 things were still quite soft and pastelly in my digital art, colour-wise:

and then suddenly everything got whacked up to 100% on saturation. also i was using the binary tool to give everything really thin pixel lineart for some reason.

then i went on vacation in summer 2017 and didn't draw for maybe a month? just short of? and when i came back i decided to change everything up again... giving characters blobbier, more ugly-cute faces with large squinting eyes and big nostrils and i was worrying a lot less about making anything look smooth, lineart-wise. i turned off the pen stabiliser in SAI and let it wiggle.

then... the spongebob musical opened on broadway in late 2017, i went to see it live in person for the first time... and my whole brain was ENTIRELY consumed by my love of it. i was putting that david zinn inspired pattern explosion into everything, even if it wasn't sbm fanart.

as we go into 2018, i started colouring my lineart. my biggest interest was still broadway musicals (with spongebob at the top of the list)

i think summer 2017 - early 2018 is probably my favourite art era, i was at my most bright and colourful and exciting... although i know in my actual real life i was struggling a lot with my home situation and i had been for some time. art was definitely my escapism back then, and i think a lot of the time i drew really bright, joyful stuff to try and inject that feeling into myself.

as for my university work, i was putting my focus into 3D paper-mache puppets:

and i was also starting to do more repeat patterns, mostly inspired by things around me. i'd learned how to make patterns actually tile and repeat in 2017, so made a few during my time at uni just to accompany some of my projects, but never as the focus of them. one of my university tutors told me that maybe i should put more focus on doing surface pattern, and maybe applying it to textiles, but i said i wasn't interested.

i graduated from my BA in the summer of 2018, and immediately began volunteering at the whitworth art gallery doing anything i could - stewarding, helping with arts and crafts, dancing with families...

in 2019 i was still very colourful... i was trying out more chunky colouring on characters skintones that i think was def inspired by tumblr artist jadenvargen:

but the blobbyness and ugly-cute style of drawing faces was gone by here, and i think... the way i drew characters probably had better *anatomy*, proportions were maybe a bit more realistic...

in 2020 i started adding the black shading to under the chins and some other places on characters' bodies because i started watching the anime my hero academia with my brother, lmao (and i was starting to pastelise colours a bit again, these are the most pastel-ish examples) my lineart has really smoothed back out too, though i never turned my pen stabiliser back on in SAI. i think my hand just adjusted. probably seems a bit insane to miss that, but i do.

by the end of 2020, the almost-year of lockdown over cobid had... made me a bit insane, i think, and i moved out of my mother's house and into a flat with a friend from university.

in 2021 i think things were much the same... i think from this point on is where things have sort of settled. i don't want to say stagnated, but i do think things have been very... like this for a while.

2022 - got the most exciting examples out...

also i was very into these little frames in 2022.

and then on to 2023! in 2022, i did begin trying to shift gears a bit -- hoping to put more energy into sewing and making products (like my tutor has suggested back in uni, even though i'd really resisted the idea.) i sold at a few in-person markets during winter of 2022, but got disheartened by the amount of money i had to sink in up front to sign up for a spot...

which has made me VERY grateful for the people who have supported me via online sales. it has really helped me stay afloat in 2023 - AND it has felt more wonderful than i can describe that there have been people interested in my work... especially when a lot of it has been my original designs, rather than the fanart that i expect a lot of people initially followed me for.

i've also... in the past 2 years... branched out a bit more when it comes to 'being an artist' - and have had the opportunity to deliver arts & crafts workshops with local refugee & asylum seeker support charity, afrocats. it's taken me to their home base in a church to hotels across the city where asylum seekers were temporarily placed while waiting on their new homes, and of course to my beloved whitworth art gallery, where we welcomed visitors from all backgrounds: from the typical white middle class visitors the gallery usually expects, to all the refugee visitors coming into the space for the first time.

and through my volunteering at the whitworth, i showed up so often they decided they might as well pay me. so i've also become a facilitator of... creative play sessions, my favourites of which have been outdoors. monthly, year-round, we have 'outdoor art club', where i get to paint with mud and make potions from leaves with kids & families - here you can see me tell you a little bit about it in this video below with 'crempog' a puppet character that makes videos about activities for kids and families around manchester (my bit starts at 01:10 although i am in the intro and thumbnail haha)

and then of course the summer 'PLAYTIME' activities we've had the past two years: scrap studio in 2022, and play market in 2023. it's the best freelance gig ever -- just to hang out and encourage families to be creative and have fun.

in working more in these new avenues... outside of being - as i've called myself for a long time - "an internet artist"... i've found myself more interested in this sort of thing. in being a "real world artist" too. in doing surface pattern design, and being a workshop facilitator, i find myself wanting to put more energy into these sorts of projects.

in 2023 i've also dabbled a little bit more in youtube videos! i have had a channel for a while and have made videos in previous years, but 2023 has been the year i've done the most in. admittedly most of them haven't been about my art, and more just like... random things that interest me (the spongebob musical in particular) but i've really been enjoying video editing. that's kind of an art form too, so i'm including it here!

moving forward, want to keep putting even more of my energy into other things. my shop, with a bigger range of products to offer. workshops in real life, where i can make a difference.

as for my art blog... i feel like i've done the least drawing in many years in 2023, and... well, things have been weird and complicated for a bit in my real life. i hope to draw for fun a bit more again very soon, and to return to doing things in more of a wild and crazy way, to be more creative and exciting with the way i draw things. still, here's some of my favourites from 2023:

thank you so much to everyone who has borne witness to my art journey this past decade!!! i hope you will stick with me, who knows, maybe for another 10 years if tumblr holds out. especially a big thank you to everyone who has ever commissioned me, or bought anything from my store, you literally keep me able to make art at all and i cannot, cannot, cannot overstate how much it means to me.

i'm moving homes soon, possibly into very cramped temporary conditions for a little while before HOPEFULLY starting my real life with my partner. if i can take one more moment to plug my work, then [here is a link to my online shop] and [here is my ko-fi page too.]

cheers, cheers, cheers!

- LOREN 🌈🍍🎉