worlaix
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Progress update, art talk and art preview
🕑 Added 2022-12-13 23:20:39 +0000 UTCHey everyone,
initially I wanted to keep this (monthly+?!) progress update fairly short, but somehow it turned into an essay, so I will first give a brief update on how work is progressing for those who are short on time/patience and then delve into a little ART TALK for anyone who might want to read me ramble on about art - and then we'll end things off with a little art preview.
Lately, I've mostly been drawing - with the script outline completed, I can thankfully draw plenty of scenes without worrying that I won't find use for the artwork. That being said, the script outline also suggests that there is an alarming amount of art I have to make for the next episode and with my state exams approaching in January, I can say now with confidence that the next episode will not come out before February 2023. I'm going to jump back on a regular schedule of posting progress updates from now on - they won't always be walls of text this long, but at least something to show a little life. That said, weekly updates might be too frantic for me now, so we'll start with bi-weekly at least until my exams are done.
On another note, since I will not be delivering the next episode before Christmas, I will at least leave a small present for Patrons in the form of an art sneak peek of the next episode (similar to the preview below). I am not sure how many pieces exactly, but something between 5-10 artworks that range from sketches to completed pieces sounds like a good number. And on the topic of Patron stuff, I will post the Sunny vs. Anasteya content poll either around next progress update or in the first week of 2023. Based on the preliminary poll held in Discord, it does not look good for Sunny - but that might be a good thing since she does seem to have twice the scenes in the next episode.
Now, onto the topic of ART...
In the past, I've often talked about trying to find the right workflow/drawing process that lets me draw efficiently without sacrificing the quality of the art. Sadly, it can be challenging to find the right direction (especially for self-taught artists) because figuring out the right workflow is basically figuring out how to draw something. You may have a few artists whose work inspires you, but unless they consistently show videos of their drawing processes, finished artwork is essentially like staring at an already built house while trying to figure out how to build one yourself.
While this is fundamentally something that beginners tackle the most, it gradually transitions from blindly following in the footsteps of a much better artist into the pursuit of finding your own artistic voice - an art style. I personally see art style as the outcome of a certain workflow/drawing process (and the artist's own drawing skills; the ability to execute the drawing process). I don't mean to get overly technical about this - the reason why I bring it up is because I've spent a very long time trying to find a workflow that would suit my needs (and drawing skill). As a result, the art style would more often than not be very inconsistent because I always arrived at the result with slightly different methods.
But as time goes on, I think I am finally reaching a point where my workflow is becoming very reliable - and also fairly flexible. There might still be some inconsistencies in both style and quality - either because the scene is not too important and so I spent less time on it or simply because I'm still a little shit and couldn't figure out how to draw it better.
Anyhow, those are just some unsorted thoughts of mine. Here's a snippet of what I mean with "workflow" - or at least a portion of it.
The reason why I say "a portion" is because this first line art was preceded by a number of sketches, especially for the face; usually I have to sketch the face 10-20 times before I am at least somewhat happy with the result. It is not as time-consuming as it sounds, just a little tedious - and getting used to that tedium is just a part of "trusting the workflow". There's no reason to be frustrated if I can't sketch the face correctly the first time because I know I have to do it 10-20 times with incremental improvement. That being said, being able to perfectly nail the facial appearance of a character between scenes is still beyond me at this point.
After the line art, I block in the shapes - the colors here are arbitrary, just separating individual layers (skin/clothing/hair). I usually put the head on a separate layer so I have an easier time shading the outlines of the face.
And here are the real colors - sometimes I make the mistake of starting either too dark or too bright, but it's difficult for me to spot early on, which is why I tend to at least roughly figure out the background before painting the subject so I can see if the colors of one are harmonious with the colors of the other.
Then, fine-tuning the colors, blending them together and of course, painting the face. I would say that the piece is close to finished as it is, but I plan to make more adjustments another time with "fresh eyes", such as improving the face/feet a little + removing overlapping lineart and such. As you may have noticed, I am playing around with ideas for making elven ears a little more "expressive", but we'll see if I decide to keep that...
Sunny's boobs are looking pretty large (and they definitely are for her frame), but I think it looks exaggerated because I wanted her to be leaning forward slightly and the cloth is clinging too tightly to her body under her breasts to properly convey that - something to try and fix later on as well. Then again, anyone who's played Elvensang knows that small breasts are a rarity among named characters, so maybe I should just own it and stop making excuses...
On average, the entire process from start to finish can take anywhere between 4-8 hours at this point. With recent works, it actually tends to be backgrounds that slow me down the most, but it depends on how complex it is. A top-down picture of someone laying in a bed is understandably much easier than a picture of someone standing in the middle of a village.
It might sound pretty straightforward when I lay it out step-by-step, but there's a lot of trial and error even with a "reliable workflow".
On another note, I imagine you've noticed the recent advent of AI generated images. While I am excited by the prospect of using AI for neat background images, I will admit that I have no intention to use it for characters - though it would provide very appealing results, using AI to spruce up images I've drawn feels like a terrible crutch that would suddenly make it unnecessary to get better. However, AI generated images do work great for artistic inspiration, and after running a few experiments, I did get a few ideas on how to make existing art more appealing with surprisingly easy steps.
But anyway, that's enough of rambling about art! Let me know what you think about the plans for the near future, i.e. the patron art preview and the Sunny vs. Anasteya content poll after. I think in the next progress log we could discuss some options for the scenes in the poll; bear in mind that these will always be just lore-friendly scenes that share a bit of insight into the character + extra unique artwork.
And that's it for now! Another post as well as the patron art preview will be coming before Christmas.
Love you all,
Worlaix
Comments
Greasyllama
Cant wait for a new year
Anhel
Nice one, mate. Here's to a wonderful new year. Cheers!
