#i love screentones. i suck at applying them.

[astralcamellia]

Day 2: Vampire AU

[freakypumpkin]

hello there !!! i have a few questions about your art, if you don't mind; first of all, i'd like to tell you how much i love your art style !! it is absolutely incredible and so unique and soft at the same time, i find that so gorgeous i could look at your drawings for hours !! so, i was wondering. how did you find your style ? i've been struggling with that recently, and feeling like i can only draw things if i have a reference to copy (for portraits mostly), and basically not using my (1)

(2) imagination much- that probably is because i’ve gotten used to copying, and therefore i feel more satisfied doing that because the results look better. however, it’s really became frustrating to see that i can’t exactly use those capacities that i have when i’m copying stuff and apply them to drawings for which i don’t use ref. how do you deal with this, and how do you manage to visualize things enough before drawing them? i’m guessing you’ve been drawing for quite a while ? i feel like -

(3) your sketches have such a natural good line, if you see what i mean ? if that’s not too invasive or whatever, can i ask you how long they usually take you to make ? and finally, what type of markers do you use to color in your art ? it looks so pretty, on some of your pieces it looks almost like digital art and that’s really mesmerizing i’m just !!!! wow. hope you’re having a good day !! lots of love for you

So, first of: I love you. It means so much, that you enjoy my art that much. 

Sorry for taking a bit with my answer, but I wanted to have some time to give a proper one. Also, never be afraid to ask questions. I’m constantly fascinated, that people are actually interested in my art. 

Your art style is something, that’s always evolving. I had at least three times already, when I thought, i had found my style and it changed again. Drawing means constant learning. You’re never completely done and there’s nothing wrong with that. I also believe, that in a way, you always have a certain style of your own because no person is like the other. You might not realize it, but in a way your drawings already are unique just because you drew them and nobody else.

About the markers I use: I have copic ciao markers. Haven’t really used them in a long time, but they didn’t dry out. They are quite an investment, but if you can afford it, they are really worth it and also make great birthday presents. (;3) I don’t know much about cheaper alternatives, but I hear, that they are pretty good, too. Basically they are alcohol-based markers, that are refillable. Now, you usually get specific marker paper for it, which is made to not suck up the ink and stop it from bleeding, but I don’t like the texture of that kind of paper, at least the one I have, so I use thicker paper, which sucks up the ink, but also allows it to bleed into each other, an effect I love to work with. (They get empty this way quite fast, but I have refill ink for the colors I use most and you can refill them quite often with one bottle of ink.) It also depends wether or not you like the brush tip.

I have been drawing for a while now, I dreamt of going professional when I was in middle and high school. Then I had a scarring conflict with my art teacher in the AP art course, which made me drift towards writing because I had it in my head, that my art would never be good enough to get anywhere, so I stopped taking it seriously myself for about 5 years. Only recently, after finishing my final paper for my literature studies, I got back into drawing, probably because I was so sick of writing after these months of working on the paper. And basically I only now get back to the level of accepting my own art as something good, something that is worth investing time in.

My influence and basically the reason I started drawing, was reading Mangas and wanting to draw them. I loved the art style of certain series, the character design choices and just generally the way this type style can be so unbelievably expressive and dynamic, how they work with blanks, with black and white  contrast, the expressions of the eyes, the use of panels, the use of chibis and screentones, etc.  And I guess, that over time, from seeing different art styles I just took the things, that I liked and combined them. (Like drawing hair in bigger strands and always somehow curly and never completely short, or narrow hands with long fingers and also mostly women, I think Magnus and Alec are my exception of drawing guys …) 

Going from drawing with reference to drawing without is a challenge, I know that. I’ve been drawing without references for the most time (also due to a ‘you can’t do portraits at all’-comment I got in highschool), then I did it to give drawing portraits a shot again, then I tried doing it without and couldn’t come up with anything. And if you have trouble coming up with your own ideas, then maybe don’t just use photographs as reference, but also other people’s art, that you like (of course, never post it without credit, ask the artist if it’s okay if you want to post something, etc.), but maybe  this way, it would be easier for you to get away from clean photographs and to the path of developing your own ideas.For me it’s also always important to look through other people’s artwork, I follow a bunch of artists I like on instagram, on twitter etc. just so I can keep a certain visual impulse going and at some point, I’ll think, ‘Hey, that composition is pretty cool’ or ‘I could try that angle’ and stuff like that. Find your different sources of inspiration and use them. Photographs are not the only choice you have. :) Also, drawing from reference is not inferior to drawing without. It’s different, not easier. You only draw portraits based on pictures? You’re still a legitimate artist. You are good and you’re doing a good job. (Not to mention, that those that can copy photographs have my highest respect, that stuff is difficult as hell.)

About visualizing the drawings … I don’t know, I mostly just tend to visualize everything, remembering notes with the help of mental pictures, drawing cartoons to learn dates for a history exam. But I think, I got a lot of different imagery from my time of reading mangas and now I’m just using them like an archive of ideas.This also tends to lead to me staring at a blank page not being able to decide on just one picture I want to draw. But usually I wait until I have the base structure of the picture, then I put down the general shape of the bodies of characters and then I decide if I want to go with the details I had planned or change them, but I have the basic idea, that acts like an anchor.(Though I would also like to add, that there are artists, who work with very clear concepts and there’s no ‘right’ approach.)

The time I need is different, because sometimes I spend like half an hour just to get the hands right, but I would say, maybe about half an hour for a messy one, depending on size and details, one hour for a clean one, around an additional hour for lineart and color (on small drawings) and two additional hours for bigger ones … I’m not sure, what you mean by ‘natural good line’, because I’m not always that impressed with them, but I’m glad you like it :) What I’m also very thankful for in terms of my art, is owning a lightbox, to which I lately found the power cable again. And with that I started sketching with color pencils and then go over them with a regular pencil, this way you get a form of ‘erasable lineart’, which is super nice to copy via a lightbox or another way of tracing the picture. 

(It’s also quite a fun effect in itself …) But this way, you can trace your drawing as often as you wanted and if you want to try three different color combinations? Go ahead. You’re scared of messing up lineart? Just go for it, if it doesn’t work, you can always go again. Tracing your own artwork is perfectly acceptable. 

I don’t know if this was helpful in any way, I hope it was, but I feel like I just end up rambling a lot and not giving proper answers. If that’s the case, feel free to ask again, if you have the nerves for that. And again, thank you for letting me know, that you enjoy my art, it means a lot to me. :) And really, never be afraid to ask question, I’m weird, but mostly harmless.

I wish you a great day! :3 Lots of love to you, too!