My Recent Art

        Today in this blog I'll be showing you all my art I've done these past few months. All these pieces I'm going to be showing you are finished artwork of either requested artwork or fanart of things I'm interested in. So, if you are interested then you came to the right place. All these artworks are digitally drawn on an art app on my 11-inch iPad pro called Procreate. 

        The first art piece was requested by my boyfriend. He wanted me to draw his persona and make him in a 50's style. He wanted him to be holding a 50's microphone and make him sing into it. I think I did pretty well with how my boyfriend described it to me. 

        This is the same artwork, but I wanted to show you that I did something new. I made the artwork more vibrant by changing the hues, saturation, and brightness of the colors. My boyfriend really liked it, and I was super happy how it turned out, so in future artworks I will definitely be using this trick.

       

Here's a speed paint of it.

        Next artwork I'm showing is a surprise I did for my best friend Mari. It was for her twenty-first birthday, so I wanted to make it special. I asked her if she had any recent artwork of her favorite character she created and she had asked me why, but I kept it a secret. She sent me a picture of him, and I went to work. It didn't take me long but in the speed paint you can see that I almost forgot the wings on his head. I always loved her character designs, and I really had fun drawing this for her. 

        Once I was finished with it, I sent it to her on her birthday, she loved it so much she kept it as a wallpaper on her tablet. And to this day she still has it as her wallpaper.

 Here's the artwork and the speed paint.

        Next, I am showing you fanart I did. This character is off of the game Deltarune, if you don't know what that is then here is a link all about it (Deltarune). His name is Tenna, and he's basically a tv host in the game, and the people you play as has to fight him. He was all over my internet feed due to the new game chapter released a few months ago, so I decided to draw him. 

        I really like how I drew him in my style. I feel like I caught his silly emotes he does as he speaks in the game. I also like how I did the refection of the light on his pants. On the other hand, I was having a hard time trying to draw out a good background for him, but I think I nailed it. 

Here's the artwork and a speed paint.

              

CONCLUSION

        All of these pieces I did are some of my favorites, and I hope to show you more later on. Don't forget that I do commissions. You can find my commission sheet somewhere on my blog or you can dm me @kittys_a_dragon on Instagram. Thank you for taking a peek at my art and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. 

Shout Out and Critique

         Hey everyone! This blog is going to be a lot different than my other informational blogs. Today I'm going to be talking about my close friend's artwork! Her name is Mari, and she is very talented. You can find her on Instagram (puddin_._cup) and her TikTok is (emptypuddin.cup).

        Here is some of her recent art works that she adores. Also, I'll give you some information about the pieces and give a little critique on them. 

        This is Mari's persona. Personas are a created public identity or a "mask" an artist uses. Personas can be any distinct character, a better version of oneself, or a specific voice for their work. She uses her when we draw together, I do the same thing. Her persona is an African American ghost girl, usually with pink translucent locks and her hands and feet can also become translucent. She wears a pink pastel sweater like dress and a cross necklace. This is her when she was younger.

        I really like this drawing Mari did of her persona because of her hair style. I also like her little chibi face emotions on the side. I think the shading is also well done but I personally would add some shading on her face. 

        Here is one of Mari's ocs(Original Characters). Ocs are characters that are made up by artist. Sometimes these characters can be used in a story or be drawn. She has a lot more ocs then this, most artist do. 

        I like the highlights of cyan in their hair. It makes the characters pink hair pop more. I also like how Mari draws hands. She really likes to add sharp fingernails. I also like the colors. She always picks the best colors for her characters in my opinion. But something I see that I would change is their eye. The white of the eye blends in if you look at the piece far away. I would probably not use as much shading for the eye next time.                                                  

              

        Here are some more of Mari's ocs(Original Characters). These are characters based off of a game she and I play. They are basically squid people. Their hair is basically tentacle like.

        I personally love how she colors her ocs that have skin conditions. They look so atheistically pleasing to look at. I also really like the anatomy study she did on the left, you can see the movement in his body. But I would make his choker a bit more curved to his neck so it will look more three-dimensional then just two-dimensional. Also, I'd add a bit more darkness to the girl's lip. It kind of blends into her skin.

CONCLUSTION

        I really like Mari's art a lot. I really enjoy how her characters look and I love how she colors them. It's almost like she painted them on a canvas. Very atheistically appealing so good job to her. I'll probably show you some artwork of mine tomorrow. But anyways thank you for reading, I will share more artwork with you in the future. 

Vanishing Points and Horizon Lines

         Have you been struggling with perspective? You can't seem to get the right angle of this character or your having trouble making this background landscape feel more 3d. Well, let's talk about some basics of perspective to help you understand better. 

HORIZON LINES

        Horizon lines are basically your eye level. Horizon lines are an imaginary line that separates the sky from the ground. It helps viewers get a since of depth and makes your artwork seem to pop more. Let's use horizon lines to get a perspective of an object. 

        For example, let's say we had three people on different platforms looking at a cube. They would see the cube in different perspectives. Red would see the bottom of the cube, yellow would see the middle of the cube, and blue would see the top of the cube. But where would the horizon line be?

        For red their eyesight is looking up at the cube making the horizon line be below because their eye level is below.

        For yellow their eyesight is straight forward at the cube making the horizon line across the center because their eye level is in the center.

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        And for blue their eyesight is looking down on the cube making the horizon line be above because their eyelevel is above. 

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        And for blue their eyesight is looking down on the cube making the horizon line be above because their eyelevel is above. 

        As artist we are trying to create an image of something by using our eyes to represent it. That's why your eye level could also be called the horizon line. Some people also call this the camera level. Think about it this way, your eyes are like a camera and what you draw is what you see. Using this as a strategy could help you understand horizon lines a lot better.

VANISHING POINTS

        Now let's get into this a little deeper and talk about vanishing points. Vanishing points are parallel lines that seem to converge as they recede into the distance on a point on the horizon line. An example would be you looking down a hallway at school or looking down a straight road on a highway. (the example below)

(https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1dtd1z/eli5_drawing_the_concept_of_vanishing_points_and/)

        Do understand that all lines that are parallel to each other will converge at the same vanishing point. Knowing this we can look at other examples of vanishing points. Look at all three of these images. All these parallel lines converge into a vanishing point giving the image more depth. 

                                  

        These are just the basics of head on perspectives. There is a lot more to unpack so here is a more detailed YouTube video of horizon lines and vanishing points. In the video he talks about other angles of perspectives and gives you visuals of what that looks like. 

CONCLUSION

        Perspective is not all that hard unless you have guided lines like vanishing points and you find a horizon line. After a couple of art studies with these techniques it should be super easy to make your artwork come to life. 

Art Block

         Have you ever wanted to draw something and just couldn't put your pencil to the blank white paper. Well, looks like you have something called art block. Art block is when artist struggle to find inspiration or motivation to create new work. It can make you stop and stare at a blank canvas or paper for hours which would make you stress out, but don't worry it's not the end. Today I'll show you some ways to get more motivated and inspired to create new ideas.

TAKE A BREAK.

• Step away: Go for a walk, listen to music and rest your mind from the stress.
• Scenery: Maybe instead of being in your dark room try drawing in your living room or maybe at a park.
• Enjoy other Hobies: Try to do something else that interests you, maybe read a book, or play a video game. 
• Interact with others: Talk and spend time with family or friends. This will help your stress and maybe give you new perspectives. 

NEW STYLES AND IDEAS.

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• Try a new style: Try a new style like pop-art or maybe realism.  
• Try a new medium: If you are used to sketch with a pencil, then maybe try sketching with a pen, or maybe try paint. 
• Try a new subject matter: If you draw animals all the time, try drawing humans, or even nature. 
• Use prompts: Use prompt generators to help you come up with ideas or join a drawing contest online. 
• Classes: Taking art classes help your brain work by coming up with new techniques and perspectives.

GOOD ENVIRONMENT AND MINDSET.

• Tidy up: Clean up your area or maybe even do some chores around the house. 
• Healthy choices: Exercise, balanced diet, and sleep and reduce stress. 
• Find Inspiration: Look at other artists work, or listen to music, read a book, or watch a movie. 
• Don't take it personal: You can always come back to it so just focus on creating it without worrying about showing it to others.
• Fundamentals: Return to the basics and try art studies and maybe even do rough anatomy practices. 

MENTAL HEALTH

• Your health matters: Art block can lead to burnout, stress, or other mental or physical stress so please take care of yourself. You matter more.
• Seek support: Talk to your family or friends about it, or maybe another talented artist or even a therapist. 

CONCLUSION  

  

    Lots of artist struggle with art block. You are not alone. It's a challenge all artists have and to overcome this challenge is to focus on the root cause of it and to overcome it by using strategies to keep you from being stressed. It's important that you focus on you and be more kind to yourself. Creativity takes time and when you use your time it makes it ten times better at the end. 

How to Draw Animals

        Have you ever struggled with drawing an animal? Well first, you need to make sure you know about their anatomy. You know animals have two legs and two arms, but they all look different. While some animals are giant and some are tiny. For you beginners, I'll show you simple ways how I draw animals. Simplifying them into shapes and lines.

FIRST STEPS

        Whatever animal you are drawing, get some pictures of it then study it. Look at its body movement or how it is posing. Make sure you are looking at the form of the animal and not just outlining it. Let's look at a cat.

                            (Ginger Cat Images | Free Photos, PNG Stickers, Wallpapers & Backgrounds - rawpixel)

        See that the cats head and feet can be defined as circles, and the body can be an ovel. As for lines can be the legs and curved back down to the tail and points for ears. This shows the cats figure in its simpler form. Now let's add some more details to add more of a three-dimensional figure.

SECOND STEP

        Look at that, it's starting to look more like a 3D cat now! 

        Adding more lines, shapes, and a bit off erasing further detail your image. These steps also help with perspective, erasing some of the back leg shows that the cat's arm is in front giving off a more real 3D appearance. Also, using shapes for the eyes and nose gives the image more detail. We can further this image even more. 

THIRD STEP

        The cat is fully formed now! all we need is some finishing touches!

        Last but not least, erasing all of your simplified lines from the first step and adding some little details like the mouth, eyeballs, and paws makes our cat drawing look alive. Now you have a good cat figure with only three steps! 

FINAL STEP

    The last step would be to add some whiskers and some fur. You could also put a pattern on the cat or add whatever your creativity wants. 

        Once you get the hang of making figures simplified it will be easier to imagine how to draw it! You can do this trick with mostly anything like animals, people, and object! Here are some ways to use simple shapes and lines for other animals.

CONCLUSION

    Drawing anything is simple if you think of the basics, like shapes and lines. Try on your own to do studies like these with other animals for a bit, they will help you out when you are drawing! Thank you for reading and following along with this short lesson. Hope this lesson made it easier for you to draw animals.  

Heikk