Kurumi WIP (Patreon)

Hey guys just thought I'd update you with a WIP and some discussion with some art stuff,  I figured some of you might find it interesting! 

I recall talking about me trying to solve my dilemma with Lineart and I think I really am starting to figure it out (or at least figure my style out.) I talked about this a little on my twitter but I want to show you guys what I've been doing.

So basically, the solution to my Lineart dilemma is: Color my sketch and then trace my colored sketch.

I'm more confident with my coloring than my lining skills so instead of going straight to lines after sketch, throwing basic colors first and kind of "sculpt" my sketch really works wonders for me.

For one, I can quickly iterate on my composition and basically play around before committing to anything. One of the worst feelings is dedicating so much time making a pristine and clean lineart, only to throw it away because I have problems coloring it or I don't like the composition.

Bonus is that if I like the colored sketch, I can just grab the base colors and add on it (as seen in the last one which I picked for the final lewd Kurumi illustration) This doesn't necessarily reduce my workload. In fact, I would argue that it creates more work on most cases. But the return I get from iterating an idea and the comfort from the flexibility of this method is well worth the added work.

By the way, this isn't some major unique breakthrough at all. In fact, I've done this many times before. It's just I became too stubborn in the idea that it should be Sketch -> Lines -> Colors so I forced myself to follow that. Now I feel like a fool but hey, you learn from your mistakes and all that :P

You might be wondering what those boxes are for and they're for basic composition. Basically I try to fill each quadrant with my subject matter. Each quadrant doesn't necessarily have to be filled with content (some composition requires the image to be lopsided), but it serves as a guide to balance the image. I guess this works well for pin-ups/single character illustrations but it's not a one-size-fits-all technique.

TLDR; I'm just really happy that I kept trying this method because now I feel like I've surpassed a major roadblock and unlocked a new road to improvement. All the grinding is truly worth it and it's really exciting for me 😁 This should lead to better works and, in the long run, make me draw faster. Hopefully :P

I'll have the next poll ready tomorrow. Oh and also, all the final images/rewards will be sent after processing of pledges (basically, the old setup). Anyway, that's all for now guys.

Bonus, here's some more tests with this method: