🦇💖 Draculaura sketch and process vid + thank you! ❤ (ɔˆз(ˆ⌣ˆc) (Patreon)

Hello! (⌒▽⌒)♡

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟI wanted to say a quick thank you to y'all for joining my Patreon! (≧◡≦) ♡ I'm really excited to be here together and share lotsa art and fun things with you moving forward. Since I can't bake a cake and give you each a slice (as I'm want to do), please accept this drawing of my OC carrying out the celebration in my stead. *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ

It's true, I don't know a lick about Monster High, but I am not immune to cute doll designs. Or a pink and black color scheme. Barbies, Bratz, and MyScene dolls were my obsession growing up, but there have been so many franchises that have come out since then! I think the Monster High dolls are particularly cute (Draculaura being my favorite), so I redesigned her a bit based on my current fashion tastes. ☆⋆

I've been practicing a digital sketching technique that I recently learned from this video. I've long felt that my traditional sketches done with pen and paper have more life/beauty/interest compared to their digital counterparts and could never quite pin down the reason until I tried out the technique Asia L. explained. To summarize, keep your canvas zoomed out while laying down a gesture sketch with a large brush and do a first pass rough sketch on top, focusing on forms and shapes. It's important to stay zoomed out, sketch quickly, and start general, leaving details until after the foundation is established. 

I've developed the habit over time of gratuitously using the zoom and undo/redo tools to sketch and it sucks out a lot of energy and flow from my drawings. My tendency to jump straight into drawing small details took away from the overall impact of sketches and made them feel unbalanced and stiff. I long believed that precision and control are the hallmarks of good drawing, but a lot of art-making comes from intuition and energy, which can get lost when the process is highly combed over. It's easier to avoid this habit drawing traditionally because there's no infinite zoom or undo, the process is slower and more intentional, which can make for stronger sketches. When the groundwork is solid, the details are extra dressing on top, nice to have but not necessary.

Prioritizing the general foundation/keeping it simple before diving into details has also made sketching easier. My process often felt all over the place due to the shaky foundation, meaning I often had to redo and guess at parts of a sketch because I couldn't visualize the actual form of the object. There's a lot to extrapolate on with this topic that I'd like to explore in future posts. It's a lot to learn, but it's one of those art basics (basic as in important not necessarily easy) like values or composition that affect all areas of art-making and has the most impact on improvement.

I've attached the sped up process vid, which you can download at the bottom of this post and watch on your computer. ^^ You can see the technique in action and what I mean by starting VERY simple/general before progressing onto detail. There's so much to keep track of while drawing, especially with characters that have complicated designs. This general process helps you better keep track of what to draw and how to draw it!

See you on Friday with a weekly planner download I designed! (ﾉ´ з `)ノ

As always,

Vicki ❤