drawing trouble

Drawing: Night probe

This is riffing on Chris Silverman’s work, which you can see here: notes.art

I tried to decide if the probe thingie should be drifting over:

  • Mountains
  • Trees
  • Water
  • Urban scenery

I went with my original pick (trees), but I struggled to get the trees looking like they fit the rest of the drawing. I also futzed with the probe a lot. Overall, I think it’s not bad. If I keep doing these, my own style will eventually emerge. Probably with Gum Gum People.

For reference, the brushes I used in Procreate were:

  • Artistic Crayon (mainly the probe)
  • 6B pencil (mostly for the highlights)
  • Dry Ink (fill)
  • Technical pen (fill, some outlines)

Bonus! Here’s a second version, with tweaks to the moon and with the starry backdrop greatly simplified. I think the ideal might be a cross between the two, but I’ll probably leave this for now and move onto something else.

Inktober 2024, yay or nay? Or neigh?

HORSE is not one of the prompts, but for the sake of my headline, pretend it is.

As I pondered whether to take part in Inktober 2024, I looked over the list of prompts (they reveal them all in advance now) and whoever came up with the list really likes exploring/camping and the like, because almost the entire list fits these themes. It’s actually easier to list the prompts that don’t fit:

  • Grungy (though an argument could be made for it)
  • Scarecrow
  • Jumbo
  • Violin

Here’s the full list:

Looking over the official blog, the list was unveiled on August 26 with no additional description or anything, but ain’t no way words like expedition, hike, roam, trek, uncharted and backpack are a coincidence. A lot of these words would even inspire the same sketches, which is kind of weird. Maybe the idea is to inspire some “outside the box” thinking by including so many similarly themed words.

In any case, the first prompt, BACKPACK, is not inspiring me, so I probably won’t bother this year. But that’s OK–I’m still drawing! In fact, I’ll post something later today.

Bird art: Brown creeper

Based on a photo I took at Burnaby Lake this summer.

This is the first time the background1I’m still not sure I’m entirely happy with it, either, but it’s pretty close. I may tweak it, I may not. took longer to do than the actual bird. Much longer!

A quick purple onion

I started about three different drawings, and they were getting too complex, so I started again with the idea of keeping it super simple. I drew a swoopy line and it turned into a purple onion thing. It took less than five minutes Ta-da!

I drew a thing last night

It’s incomplete and may never be finished, so I’m not posting it, but I was inspired to finally doodle something after being inspired by Chris Silverman, who makes drawings in Apple Notes, which is just as weird as it sounds. He also draws weird things, which I love.

You can see his work at notes art.

I did not use Apple Notes, I used Procreate on my iPad Pro, but I mimicked the look and feel by using the same 3″ x 5″ canvas and using a combo of pencil and charcoal brushes. It was fun, and I’ll be doing more, which I will actually post. I’ll also mix things up as I progress, so the work becomes less homage and more my own. (I drew a night scene showing a cliffside beach against a gray and foreboding sky.)

Here’s a piece of one of Chris’s recent drawings to give a taste. I highly recommend visiting the site, checking out his work and his process.

Trying to draw a cartoon hummingbird

It’s harder than I thought it would be!

I started using my usual bird-drawing style, and that turned out too realistic, so I tried to simplify it further by:

  • Removing all shading (pretty much), making all colours flat
  • Removing all the detail lines, except for the actual outline of the bird
  • Removed its itty bitty footsies
  • Going over the outline with a thicker stroke to make it more cartoonish

In the end it definitely looks better, but the proportions are still those of an actual hummingbird, so I may try exaggerating those next. Cartooning is tricky!

The current result:

Gum Gum Person sleeping: Coloured remaster

The original version of this sketch was for a prompt called SLEEP, and it’s one of the few featuring a Gum Gum Person where I was happy with the result, probably because most of the GGP is hidden inside a sleeping bag. And yes, I forgot to actually contour the body in the original, and decided to leave it for the colour version.

The colour version only refines a few lines, so it’s mostly unchanged. After colouring it, I had the idea to have the campfire projecting light, though perhaps unrealistically, since it’s just glowing embers. I call it art. Yeah.

Here’s the colour version:

And side-by-side:

Gum Gum Slingshot 2.0

Again trying to rework the original drawing prompt sketch, this time the prompt was SLING.

The original:

And the reworked version:

The biggest changes are pretty obvious:

  • Much cleaner line work throughout
  • The band on the sling has been changed from a simple black line to an actual band and coloured to highlight it better
  • I shortened the right leg on the swingin’ Gum Gum Person
  • I fixed the left arm and adjusted the proportions of the one holding the sling
  • The blue is now more of a sky blue and the black line separating the blue and green is no longer perfectly straight, more strongly suggesting an outdoor scene
  • Shading has been added, though I’m still not entirely happy with the shadows