Rite – Making Tips (Patreon)

Details of the making of this painting in a suggested order.

1. Gestural work: Laying out the general idea in a way that subsequent shapes drawn over it follow or align to the direction of these "guides". The less lines and the more loose feeling they project at quick glance the better. Preferably a main flow is needed and the other lines should sprout from it.

2. Volumes construction: Some simplified geometrical shapes that I usually use while constructing bodies are shown here (the ones I used for this character). These are just tools for helping me see volume and direction so not need to use them always, I use them to various degree and sometimes simply having them in mind is enough while sketching.

3. Focus points: It helps to have at least two or maximum three points of interest in the piece so the eye can alternate between them. More useful if you can guide the eye to cycle them in a continuos loop helped by gesture and other elements in a subtle way. These point of interest can also help to crop or center the composition: in relation to the edges of the canvas, eyes ideally have to move around the center or in and out of the center and viceversa (without going away from the piece!).