#i might tweak her design a bit so it's more simplified and easier to draw

[bambiraptorx]

[I.D. A digital drawing of an adolescent version of Draxum from ROTTMNT with his mother, an oc. She holds him in her arms and leans her cheek against the top of his head, and he wraps an arm around her neck. Both of them are smiling and have their eyes closed. Draxum is wearing a short sleeve tunic under a brown himation, and has roughly shoulder length hair and jagged bangs. His legs hang over his mom's arm and his hooves stick out from the hem of his himation, showing lighter patches of fur above his hooves. His mother is a tall plus sized woman with deep blueish grey fur and goat horns growing from the top of her skull. She has several vitiligo-like patches of pale blue fur on her shoulders and the sides of her arms, and a large, roughly triangular patch of light fur on her face that reaches from her jawline to the bridge of her nose. One of her goat-like ears is half of the lighter color, while the other has a small light dot on the bottom edge. She has deep purple hair that reaches her shoulders, and slight facial hair on the sides of her cheek and above her lips. She is wearing a pale brown sleeveless dress. End I.D.]

Since I've finally broken out Draxum's teen design, I thought I might as well draw something with his mom. Would you believe I've never actually drawn her before because I haven't lmao

[catarinaoliveirastudio]

What do all of these projects have in common? – A Summer recap

It’s no secret that I use Art Challenges with prompts lists to create new work and content for my portfolio when commissions are slow, they give me ideas for my own briefings and help me keep a daily practice. For me, it’s important to have a goal behind this self-initiated work like to get better at poses, although it could be just for fun, or as a warm-up, in my case, is the way I procrastinate for the most part. But once in a while, there is a list that sparks my creativity, that’s exactly what happened with the drawings I’m sharing in this post.

Here are just some of the places where I find challenges: 

- Instagram and hashtags like “Draw this in your style”.

- Lisa Bardot and her awesome website Making Art Everyday; 

- the Portfolio Club Group (for Instagram) and Illostories Group (operates on Facebook), mostly Kid Lit Art oriented instructions, ideas, and tutorials; 

- They Draw And Cook has different topics for their submissions.

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Circus 

July’s theme for Portfolio Club (monthly Instagram challenge) was Circus and I wanted to draw some characters (with no animals) at the time. I started with the Fortune Teller which sounded more of a Carnival Show, so I went with a vintage look and incorporated my characters in a deck of cards. I decided to use limited colors from the beginning, and as usual, that made it so much easier to simplify the composition, but, because the drawings were made spread out over the month, I don’t find them very cohesive, except for the colors of course. In a way, this is very similar to what I am sketching right now (see Animals with jobs).

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Food Illustration

I made a lot of watermelon salads this Summer and I even drafted a recipe for TDAC but then I saw that the new TDAC HandPicked Design Challenge was perfect for it, so I finished the watermelon recipe and scribbled a couple more ideas for the topic (Food Geometry). I only managed to submit one more simple illustration but I am happy to report that my Citrus and “naturally spherical fruit” submission will be featured in the Uppercase magazine. 

Naturally, I would love to be commissioned to illustrate food for any type of project.

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Tiny Houses coloring pages

2 weeks ago it was Lisa’s week of drawing Objects as houses. I’ve always loved tiny houses and suddenly I couldn’t stop drawing them. I would like to make a coloring book one day, so I took this opportunity to draw in black & white and focus more on the details instead of adding color. These drawings took some time as I can get lost in little tweaks for hours (I love that) so eventually, I missed a couple of the 7 prompts and ended up coloring 2 of my drawings in bed, just for relaxation. It was a good exercise though, to draw more backgrounds and environments.

I plan to release these as PDFs you can download, print and color!

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Animals with jobs colored sketches 

And before I even finished my last draft for the teapot Tiny house, I came across with a prompts list for Sketchtember. I was hooked despite being already August 31. My first sketch was very loose and simple but that’s the whole idea of Sketchtember right? (some people use it to do the sketches that they will ink in October for Inktober, so smart).

Anyway, I was in the mood to switch gears again from those detailed drawings, and it is always a good idea to practice poses, besides I love drawing animals.

My goal with these is to push my composition and movement skills and ultimately experiment with colors. Too much pressure? 

I'm writing this as I finish my 5th sketch and honestly, it might be my last, not because of the lack of fun but of time! I am not very fast or good at setting time limits, it’s the perfectionist in me. 

1. Lion, pastry chef. 2. Bear, fitness trainer. 3. Sloth, officer (pilot). 4. Mouse, waitress.

Prompts list created by Mia Gillenkirch.

To wrap up this post I’m sharing a bit of my process and 2 of my top tips when it comes to Children’s Illustration (KidLit or YA) and these quick/simple sketches: 

I draft my idea without any references first (I draw very poorly as you can see in this time-lapse video), and then I look at photos of real animals to draw some realistic features. But things like bikes, yeah I need references. In terms of composition, I start with a very simple straight pose before starting to push it forward by playing with proportions (big/small) like a huge nose or long arms. The other thing I keep in mind is to decontextualize objects to create a more interesting story, like an unexpected color choice, or giving a different context to a situation. It helps to get pose ideas, for example, instead of thinking of a hairdresser you can approach the crocodile (the hairdresser) as an artist looking at his art. I ask questions like, is there an emotion showing or is it dynamic enough? I draw a lot of versions of the same thing until I am okay with it, then I pause it (if I can), come back with fresh eyes and that always helps me noticing improvements I can make. That’s it! A third tip would be Keep it simple! 

Let me know if this was helpful and if you would like more of these posts.

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All of these were done with an Ipad Pro & Apple Pencil, in the App Procreate. One brush used, called Dry Ink. 

There are Art Challenges all year round but this is my favorite season, starting with Setchtember, Inktober, anything Halloween, leading all the way to Christmas and its countdown. At the moment I don’t have anything planned but I never know when Procrastination kicks in and says, “You have to do this challenge!” :D And no, I haven’t discovered the magic secret to finishing a drawing challenge, but I tend not to take these things too seriously. Have you ever participated in one?

To see the complete projects and all of my sketches check my Instagram @catarinaoliveirastudio.