August 2023: Forcing Myself to Try Digital Art

Not gonna lie, since I ran out of Inktober prompts, I've been difficult about finding subjects to draw. That list gave me a feeling that I was effectively front-loading. Since then I've been thinking about ways to recover that drive, while keeping the more efficient study techniques intact. One of those considerations led me to thinking about checking out digital art. I've taken a few shots at it in the past, but I've always had a couple of issues whenever I tried. Most of it were really about the tech not doing what I wanted the way a pencil did so easily, but I also have to admit that my tries haven't been particularly principled, something that I've learned does make a few very striking differences in trying out new skills.

Aforementioned issues were really more about the hardware than the software, so I'll spare myself the trouble of finding new software. There's a nice portfolio online showcasing what some artists can do using Krita and if it's good enough for them, it'll be good enough for me. Starting out, I have a general sense of how digital art works from watching people being really good at it. In contrast, I know myself as neither having the basics down well enough, nor as having the patience to get into the minute detailing a lot of the frankly jaw-dropping pieces by artists like Guweiz or InHyuk Lee, so I'm not expecting that this will be a game-changer for me quite yet.

When trying out drawing implements, I tend toward figure studies. This is because I can just get to sketching without having to think too much about the subject, and because I can be as messy as I want with it. In this case, it turns out that I'm a lot messier than I am with a pencil. This is partially because I'm drawing on glass, effectively. I also have similar line quality as I do on whiteboards. I also had to fudge with the stabilizer setting a bit until it felt good under my hand. It's not quite the same as using a pencil, obviously, but at first it felt like the line curve was actively fighting what I was going for. In the sketching phase, I just need to be able to make short, scratchy shapes, so stabilizing curves into hyperbolas weren't going to be a good fit. If I had one question to the designers here, it'd be why the default stabilizer is the way it is. Ultimately though, it works for sketching. I've also clearly taken to using different colours already, which I just think is fun and helps keep things clear, where they overlap. Time to start using some of this tool's strengths.

I noticed very quickly into this piece, large shapes are a lot more comfortable to draw than they are in mediums where zooming isn't an option. I thought I'd aim for something with a moderate amount of detail, not shoot for the moon yet. There's something to be said about the shortcuts - or the lack thereof in my setup. The undersketch in pencils tend to be far less messy, just because there's no undo button in my pen and I don't yet have a good grip on connecting and retracing lines. I once heard the advice to use non-standard colours when sketching to not fall too much into familiar visual patterns. To me, non-standard patterns are anything not grayscale, so this will do.

I didn't really know where I was going with this, but I think as a concept it comes together. Filling out details is hugely helped by zooming and being able to work on a separate layer. I can understand how some can tend towards details. I'm not usually one to put too much time into clothing and armor, which I wanted to get better about anyways. I also chose to use a new colour for every layer for visibility reasons. Having the messy undersketch and never removing it completely will have its drawbacks, after all. In the end, it'll have the benefit of being easily hidden.

The last thing I wanted to try here was the skew tool. Okay, I'd love to be able to do this without a computer, but I currently can't. It worked pretty well, too. I did need a few attempts to get the pattern to look like it was actually on the head-cloth, and then I had to trace it anyways, so it'd look clear.

This might make me try my hand at something that includes more detail than I usually manage to do. Technically I might as well look through a bunch of the brushes to leverage whatever they can add to the steam effects. As is, it's just a quick first sketch of an effect, but in my experience, it's little use to get lost in the myriad of tools before having gotten used to the primary ones.

Obviously having different layers is a huge help so I can scratch in details. I've also been trying to get into anatomy studies - the next step after figure studies. This piece will lean a little into that, and it's also gone slightly into the more chaotic side of my process. It starts with the bolder pose. The ability to redo small details and make corrections is pretty helpful. Here I've had to revise the face a few times, because of the angle that I'm not quite used to.

An amalgamation of all layers probably shows the most what I spent the time thinking while working on the piece. I don't usually need action lines, but this time I wasn't always sure which way each limb was supposed to be rotated (and tubed). Looking closely at the head area will reveal that I also had to shrink the head a bit - again. This has been a recurring problem, which I'm not so sure how to fix. Being able to shrink it digitally is of course an easy fix, which only needs a few manual adjustments, but of course it'd be better if it wasn't something I had to do.

I'm usually less bold about trying things with the motif. That's arguably because of the ability to draw and redraw parts without worrying that the paper will give out. It's currently a bit of a production to get this digital drawing setup up and running, but I can see myself using it anyways. In this, I did the final linework and the shading on the same layer, which by all rights I shouldn't have done, but having to make the corrections as pixel-close as I had will hopefully teach me not to make that mistake too often.