PROCESS VIDEO // red robin (Patreon)

Here’s the process for the Red Robin drawing that I made earlier this month! It was a fairly short process (less than 2 hours of drawing time in total)  so I made the video in real-time, but you can speed it up or down using the gear button on the player bar.

Early in the process you’ll see me drawing a bunch of different poses. This something I do a lot: searching for the right pose and movement, and at the same time warming up and getting into the flow of drawing. I wait until I’ve found something that ‘clicks’ in my head, and only then will I further finalize the drawing. This happens around 4 minutes in.

Another thing I do during this process is draw the pose first and then arrange all the other elements around that. After adding the red background, I felt like there was some empty space where I needed more interest, so I drew the birds. For me it’s a lot easier to start with the pose and then re-assess what the image ‘needs’ after that’s been set down, so that it’s easier for the different elements of the drawing to be in harmony with one another.

After that it’s just a question of using the colors already on the canvas to further add detail and render the image to a finished level! That’s why it’s important for me to get the colors down at an early stage. The process of detailing the image feels much more intuitive when all the colors are already on the canvas. That’s the basic philosophy behind my ‘sculpting with color’ technique, which I further elaborate on in my sculpting with color tutorial.

Hope you enjoy this one!