Only music matters - Original Character (with process)

in #art5 years ago (edited)

thumbnail.jpg

Hey, everyone :)

I completed this new piece just yesterday!
This drawing sure took me quite some time to finish. I took some unexpected decisions while making it and I will explain it all while sharing the progress of the drawing. The general idea I had when I started drawing it was to try and picture a girl, who is in her own bubble and doesn't pay attention to anything else apart from her music XD (by the way this is not a healthy behavior and in no shape, way or form am I promoting it xd!!)

Initially I wanted to draw the whole painting with only watercolors, but due to my poor choice in paper (being lightweight 200 gsm), I could not overdo it with the water and in the end had to finish it with pencils.


Step by step process:


I will give brief explanation for each step, what I did exactly. Hopefully it will help out someone struggling and trying to improve their art :)

Step 1: Lineart
lineart.jpg

Step 2: Skin
Before starting to color with watercolor I always lighten my sketch almost completely gone with kneaded eraser, just so the sketch will not show in the finished piece, due to the fact that watercolors are quite transparent. When painting with watercolors you always have to start with the lightest colors and moving to the darkest. In my case the lightest being my character's skin, so that is what I started with. I always use the wet-on-wet technique. You can see that I applied color only where the shadows fall, because we will go with second layer after this one dries.

step1.jpg

Step 3: Skin Shadows and Highlights
After the paint has dried we can re-wet the surface with water and deepen our shadows.

step2.jpg

Step 4: Hair - Flat color
After thinking some time on what color to make my OC's hair I settled for making it pinkish xd
So again using wet-on-wet I laid my flat pastel pink base color. Also here you can see that my poor choice in paper finally is visible :( My paper buckled only after one wash of paint.

step4.jpg

Step 5: Outfit + Eyes + Music Notes Flat Color
Same as the hair I laid the flat colors for the rest of the painting, being careful to let all the colors dry in between, so they will not bleed into each other.

image5.jpg

Step 6: Background
Aaaaand here is where my struggle started. As dumb as it sounds, at the beginning I didn't put much thought in the background, but after coloring in the music notes I didn't want to leave the background white, because it will just make the picture dull and the colors won't stand out. So I took the very dramatic decision to make my background black... YES, BLACK! By now it could go both ways - It would either be the worst decision I took or it will turn out great and how I imagined it. I will share one thing with you people - watercolor black is never fully black, it can never turn out like ink, because it is transparent and always the paper will show a bit underneath. So this is how it turned out at this stage and I thought I ruined my whole painting... but I continued none the less, because I am stubborn :P only the struggle to lay a flat color to match almost all over was such a hassle, took me almost 1h.

step6.jpg

Step 7: Adding glow to the music notes
At this point I didn't want to work on the character if I could not fix my background, so I tried to add a glowing effect to the music notes and see if I can salvage it. I did this by mixing some white gouache paint with some watercolor for hue. It turned so-so and gave me hope to push on.

step7.jpg

Step 8: Adding details to the skin
So here is where I started adding details with the pencils, because I didn't want to damage anymore the paper with water. I started with the skin.

step8.jpg

Step 9: Adding details to the hair
Again with pencils adding details to the hair and outlining the strands.

step9.jpg

Step 10: Adding details to the outfit

step10.jpg

Step 11: Deepening the shadows of the hair and the outfit

step11.jpg

Step 12: Finalizing the image digitally
Due to the fact that always the scanner washes out the image's colors, I had to readjust the contrasts and hues accordingly. In the end I made the dark background black, accentuated the glow of the music notes and added reflection onto the character.

finalstep.jpg


Animated Process:


There you go, a drawing of my original character’s rocking out to music! This post sure turned out long, but I hope you liked it and found it informative :)
Until next time!

If you like my art, please support me by upvoting and following me not to miss out on future content :) Comments are always welcomed and I do accept constructive criticism!

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I love this sweet lady. and the dark background has made the drawing standout. Wondering what music she listen right now. She seems happy and enjoyed very much.

Thank you for the detail explanation on how to color with water color ie from lightest to darkest. Water color need patience because you need to wait for it dried before apply another layer.

It took you how long to complete this beautiful lady?

Thank you for the sweet comment, @oliviackl :)
Yes, the choice of background made me sweat a bit, but I think the end result worked out :3

Happy to hear that you found the explanations helpful! There are a lot of things to keep in mind when painting with water colors and what I wrote just scratches the surface, but hope it will help encourage more people to try out this medium :)

In total with the drying time I would say it took me around 7-8h from start to finish.

I did water color in my high school day. I almost forget how to paint with water color. After read your post, it brought back the memory eg must wet the paper in the base first in order for the water color disperse evenly and mix of different color.
Although your is basic, but it really helpful. With the basic knowledge, we can deepen our skill slowly.

Yes, if you want to have a smooth paint coverage without edges, you always need to use wet on wet technique :)
For the future I will continue to share watercolor tips

yay happy to hear that @hentikage. I need more tips to continue my watercolor drawing.

I guess your drawing reflects your character as well?
Its very nice and beautiful like you!

You've done a great job in your painting.
Congratulations and the @curie upvote!

Keep it up!
Have a great day girl!

Thank you so much ^_^

You're very much welcome!

By the way, I 'd seen your profile. You're known as ZeeneyArt.
What does it mean?
I'm just curious about it.

Well there is no specific meaning to it :P
Just my name starts with Z and I wanted to have a nickname that starts with the same letter as well, so I sat down and was brainstorming ideas and I liked how this one sounds Xd

Oh I see.
That nickname is beautiful indeed, kinda futuristic name I guess.
Thanks for the explanation and reply on my comments spending your precious time and make me appreciate much.

Hi hentikage,

This post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Have a great day :)

Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.

I like the flow of this artwork and all the colours that you used to paint this one. You did a great job explaining your creation process as well :).
                       
Congratulations for your curie vote! ^_^

Thank you, scrawly. :))
Yes, I decided to try and make more step-by-step and explaining my thoughts and process.


This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here

Sooooo pretty

Posted using Partiko Android

Thank you, Tia :)

Sooooo pretty

Posted using Partiko Android

To get an upvote from @artzone the post needs to have at least two links(pictures or website link) in the post and at least 108 characters.

Wow. I loved the finished image at first sight but after going through the process of it's making, I now adore it much more. I love the passion, the zeal and the attention you gave to the work.
The animated process makes each step even more obvious. It shows an expertly done job. Good one @hentikage

Thank you so much for the lovely comment, @tolustx.
Glad you found the explanation of the art process entertaining. I will stick to making more posts as step-by-step and explaining my technique and thoughts behind it. :)

Very nice drawing, @hentikage :D Cool original chara ! I love her design, specially her pink hair ! Very pretty~

Nice step by step, also <3 <3 <3

Thank you so much, spidey <3
Glad you like it

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