Adding details with multiliners

Coloring a Bug
A few weeks ago I had a chance to color a few projects, one of which was the Medusa which I already showed you. The other project I finished was this giant Green Nymph Stick Insect illustration I drew.

The real bug belongs to someone here in our offices, and as soon as he showed it to me, I told him I wanted to draw it. (This post is getting an advanced label because of all the colors and details I drew in.)

I started by looking at the original photo and drawing it in pencil, then inking over it with a 0.1 mm multiliner. Then I photocopied the outline onto our nice, Sketchbook paper (full sheets that are not bound in a book are from our new Art Paper Pack).


The photograph is pretty dull, and I figured  it wouldn't hurt to brighten up the colors a bit, so I chose to color it with a base of YG01. Then, I layered on YG03 and YG61, looking at the color placement on the photograph. However, the photo looks like a dry, dead bug, and I wanted this bug to look a bit more alive, so I rounded my blending a bit more to make it look less flat.

To dull the colors slightly I added whisks of YG91, and deepened shadows with G94, G17, and G28. To really darken shadow areas, I pulled in E49 in the darkest shadow areas.

You'll notice the bottom wings are a slightly different color. I colored those wings with a base of E70 and hints of E74.  I smoothed it out with E21, and added the lighter greens to the wingtips.


The darker, orange/browns you see in the veins and on the little spikey bits, I colored with YR27.To make the wings look a bit more transparent, I used the colorless blender to fade them out, and wash out the colors a bit.

Then, although it doesn't show up as well in the original photo, I wanted the wings to look even more transparent, so I lightly drew in where the legs would be, if they were visible. I kept these colors lighter than the greens I used on the legs, and I made the edges soft so it really looks like they are peeking through the wings.

At this point, I really like how the bug is coming along.  To keep my colors consistent on the legs, I colored each pair individually, instead of coloring all 6 legs at the same time.

In the photo, the two large back legs have a totally different tonal quality, but I chose to color them more balanced, just changing the lighting on each leg slightly. Then they match better.

Here is a photo of the stack of colors I used for coloring the bug. Because I drew the bug so large, I have plenty of room to use all these beautiful colors. I love having lots of room for tiny details!

Adding detail with a gray multiliner
The last detail that I really wanted to work in were the beautiful veins on each wing. I didn't want to draw them in with a black pen, as that would have overwhelmed the drawing. But, I also needed to draw them in something that wouldn't run, should I decide later to add more marker details. That ruled out colored pencils. So, I worked with one of our new Warm Gray multiliners.

You can see in this close up how detailed I can get with the 0.1mm Warm gray. I love it! It doesn't overwhelm the colors underneath, merely accents it. On the top wings, where I colored it the lightest, I added fewer veins, I more gave it the suggestion of veins. This heightens the feel of a highlight.

Here is the final bug, complete with Opaque White highlights added to the wings for details (Opaque white with the super-fine brush). I hope you enjoyed this illustration process and got some ideas for your own work.

May you have a blessed Thanksgiving Week!

New Blog Header

Running Horses
You may have noticed that I have a new Blog header. This morning I decided that my old header was just a little out of season. I also felt like drawing some horses. I ran a google search on horses to get ideas on perspective and angles for the three horses.

I drew them with a pencil first onto scratch paper, then I inked the image on a new sheet of paper using my light table...then I didn't have to erase. So, I sketched out the following illustration using a 0.05mm Gray Multiliner and a 0.05mm Sepia multiliner. Then I started coloring. Tomorrow I will post a tutorial with the steps I took in coloring the horses and markers.

Have a great day!

Doodling with the Super Brush - Blob Bunnies

When I was in Toronto recently I was showing how to make blob ducks and blob fish and someone asked me how to draw a bunny. I figured I should share it with you since Easter is only a week away. Anyone can draw these cute blob critters, so don't get scared.

Blob Bunnies
Bunnies are so cute and they have such neat poses that you get a couple variations on the blob bunnies. To make these today, pick 1 bunny colored Sketch or Ciao marker and a Multiliner 0.3mm or smaller.

Sitting Bunny
Start with a round dot for the head and add a larger oval blob for the body. Pushing straight down with the brush, add a dot for the tail and then with the brush on it's side add a blob for the front paw.

With the point of the brush aimed at the head, lay the brush down to make the base of each ear. Then turn your paper around and point the brush away from the head and lay it down to make the top of each ear.

With the multiliner, outline the head first, going around each ear. Then do the main body without the tail. When I add the tail I am making it look fluffy even though it's a round dot. You don't have to make it puffy, you could just have a round little tail if the fluff is too tricky for you.

Last, add a back foot (kind of shaped like a squished, backwards 3) and the face. See the face detail steps to see how easy it is to draw a cute bunny face. If you really want to you could add whiskers as well.

Hopping Bunny
The only difference between the hopping bunny and the sitting bunny is
that you draw the body blob at an angle, and you have the front paws and back paws stick out more. Then outline it same as you did before (I think the hopping bunny might even be easier than the sitting bunny).

Bunny Hugs
If you substitute little round ears for long bunny ears this could easily become a teddy bear. Just like before, draw a round blob for the head and an oval blob for the body.

The ears are trickier, since we are making one bent. Look at the exaggeration of the bent ear to see how you lay the point of the brush out to make the bent L shape. Add the 4 paws sticking out from the body. Outline the body as before, then look at the face detail for a close-up on the head.

This time, when you get to the bent ear, draw the line on the underside of the bent part half-way through the ear. Now it looks like the ear is really bent towards us. You could adapt this ear to your other bunnies as well. Add the face and you're ready to hop off to Easter!


I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Tomorrow I'll show airbrushed Easter Eggs, so if you want to get a head-start you can look back at the airbrushing post from a while ago. If you don't have an airbrush system you can still make fun textured eggs with this fur technique. You can do this right over the top of your dried, dyed eggs.

Sepia

It's been a while since I posted a DIY, so for people who like fine inking pens and illustration here is a review just for you.

Sepia Inking
Sepia is a rich, warm brown tone that has a distinctness about it. It is generally recognized as a color utilized for fine art sketches and for old photographs. Many of the old master artists would draw their rough work in either Sepia ink or a similar red-brown colored chalk. The original pigment Sepia was derived from the ink sac of cuttlefish but modern pigment inks are chemically made. Sepia inks are known for their rich brown color and warm feel.

Copic makes 3 different Sepia inking pens. You can get a disposable Sepia Mulitliner in 5 different sizes: 0.05, 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5 mm. I like this style because it has the most pen point sizes. The refillable Multiliner SP only comes in 0.3 mm or Brush Small, but it is a good choice because you can replace the tip if it ever gets damaged, or you can swap out the tip for any of the 7 other large point sizes available for Multiliner SP's. All Copic inking pens are pigment based meaning that they won't fade over time. They are waterproof and acid-free as well.

Copic also has a new disposable fountain pen, the F01 Sepia. This is a fabulous pen if you are used to the quirks of fountain pens and like the classic feel of them. The F01 pens are pressure sensitive, so if you push harder you will get a thicker, darker line. Since these are a traditional split metal nib you need to work on very good, smooth paper or else the pressure will cause the nib to drag and catch on your paper fibers.

If you like Sepia, then Copic has a new kit- The Sepia Ink Pro Wallet. This comes with different sizes of Sepia inking pens, refills, and matching Copic colors to get a good color range when shading.

Drawing In Sepia
Personally, I like drawing in sepia because of the warm, antique feel. If I'm not working on a project that needs to be clean black lines then it's fun to break up my artwork with gray or sepia. Doing rough sketches with the F01 Sepia allows me to have very faint lines and then as I work deeper shadows in I can just apply more pressure. Line variation makes artwork interesting.

If you want to shadow your sepia work I've found that the E30's sequence works very well. On this picture I chose a simple E33 for my shadows and I added pale Y11 to accent my highlights. I like the lighter brown because it doesn't hide my outlines, and the yellow really makes the picture feel light.

When I am drawing a human figure you can see how loose I keep my outlines. This would be the frame work for a much more detailed image. By drawing basic shapes I can get all my proportions correct before I add clothing or other fine details. It is much quicker to do figure studies in rough shapes and worry about details later. If you look online you can see similar figure studies by many of the old master painters and compare the rough drawings to their final work (Here is a study done by Michelangelo for the Sistine Chapel in a sepia colored chalk and the final painting).

I strongly suggest working with basic shapes to any beginning artist. I can't tell you how many times I've done a nice drawing without using rough shapes and when I finish I've made a bad proportion mistake that would have been easy to fix if it were still a rough drawing (I once gave a girl two left feet- oops!). I can take this warm sepia outline to my light table and easily see which lines are my roughs and which are my final choices. On this rough drawing I see at least a dozen things wrong that I can easily change when I go in for my final art.

Stamping in Sepia
If you are a stamper then you are in luck. The Sepia Multiliners are a match for the Memento ink color Potter's Clay. If you need to fix stamped lines or if you want to draw matching doodles around your stamped image then reach for a multiliner Sepia. If you go back over a line then it will darken it, so keep this in mind as you draw your patterns. Since this is a Copic inking pen you don't have to worry about it getting smeared when you go to color over the line.
Stamp Image: Unknown stamp from Japan, Ink: Memento Potter's Clay, Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 80# Other: Sepia 0.3 mm Multiliner
Sepia Illustration above: drawn on Color Laser Copier paper