Sketch WIP! 🖤 + my thought process for planning a drawing ✏️✨ (Patreon)

Happy Monday everyone! 🥰 I hope you all had a lovely weekend:)

Here’s a new sketch I’ve been working on! I wanted to show you guys some thought process/ideation behind this drawing and how I’ve been using references to gather inspiration :)

Sometimes inspiration hits me just by coming across some really cool art while scrolling on Pinterest, and lately I’ve been really loving these dark, moody drawings of male characters 🖤 This is a screenshot of my concept art Pinterest board where I save all the art that inspires me! I think one of the best ways to figure out what to draw is by studying art you love and making your own version of something, so that’s what I’m gonna do with my piece :)

So after getting a basic visual idea of what I want to draw, it’s time to find some actual model references! I try to search for references that already kind of capture the vibe I’m looking for. So I saved all these photos that look visually interesting :)

It was hard to choose only one since they all looked cool, but I ended up choosing this one because I like the way the pose fits within the parameters of the “rectangle”; and this is something to always consider when planning a composition for a drawing. Photos are all captured in rectangles (or squares), and so you want to make sure that the subject feels balanced within that rectangle, and that there aren’t any weird empty/unbalanced spaces.

After choosing my main model reference for the pose, I like to save multiple images of various artwork that have qualities that I feel inspired by for my drawing :) I try to choose artwork from multiple artists to study different aesthetics. And from each of these images, I’m getting inspiration for things like lighting, colors, hair styles, and more! I want to try incorporating some blurry people behind my character (something I’ve never done before AHHHH) so I saved multiple drawings that have people in the background so that I can study them :)

Now that my line art is done, the next step is to start coloring! I’m thinking of using some different brushes for it, maybe some gouache 👀 And I’ll be recording the full painting process for you guys so you can watch it in real-time! 🖤

Love you all 🥰 We’ve been driving 13 hours across the country to spend some time in a different state and get a change of scenery, so I’ve been drawing in the car LOL I hope you’re all doing well:)

Love,

Lydia 💌