Rusted Silvers Sketchbook of Everything Special to me!

[RustedSilver]

Just recently I had a little baby girl. I decided that as she grew up, I would create a new illustration of her showing what she can now do and as a different fantasy character. So far I have her has a newborn flower fairy and a newly sat up princess. When she can stand and walk I will do another portrait of her as a new character.

Whilst I was pregnant I painted lots of pictures of animals. I didn't know if I was going to have a boy or a girl so I painted all sorts of animals that I thought he or she might like.

I hope to be able to pop my work up as I do it. I love blogging about my works in progress and this seems a great place to do that as well as my usual blog!

I really want to improve so don't hold back. I know my anatomy can be a bit wonky when it comes to drawing people so any tips are much appreciated.

Can't wait to hear any feedback :-)

[RustedSilver]

Thought I would pop up a few work in progress images from creating my two most recent illustrations of my little girl so you could see how I go from sketch to finished doodle

[Narrenzauber]

Oh my, what have we here? Such cute little drawings! The little bunny or the drawings of your little princess. And I must say it is a great idea to honour your daughter that way.

It seems that you don't work much with shading. (Well there are just 4 examples of your works, therefore I am not sure if it is true or not.) In the last work with the bunny you used flat shading, which isn't that easy. I know very well. You have to know the shape pretty good to do a successful flat shading.

I would recommend you to try out mixing other colours into the shades and highlights (depending on the light source or reflected light), when using rendered shades. You know what I mean? If you are blending things together and don't do flat shadings. There is no natural thing in this world, which contains only one colour (plastic might be one exception, that's why I said natural things). It's hard for me to describe what I mean. The best would be if I try with an example. Yes, that sounds like a good idea!

Let's take skin. In skin there are various different colours! Let's take light skin: There are different hues of red, violet, even blue or green. These are just examples. And in the highlights there are other colours, depending on the colour of the light source. If the light is blue, then the higlight are blueish. With the shades it is similar. The colours in the shades can be cooler or warmer than the "basic" colour in the light, depending on the light source. And I was speaking about other light sources or reflected light. Let's say there is a red underground. So the red would appear in the shades, because there you can see the reflected light from the underground. (reflected light cannot only be seen in shades, but I used it for my example)

Oh my... I hope you get what I intended to say. >.< Sometimes it is pretty difficult to explain for me. Therefore I am sorry!

What I like about your works are the small details. I guess even without them your drawings and paintings would work, but it gives some extra piquancy.

[Gannicus]

great start! you seem to have a solid line work i also like your animal sketches alot

[Vritra]

RustedSilver, welcome to CA. It's a beautiful sentiment, drawing for your child. And if your art is anything to go by, you have an angelic baby.

Well, art is not all about draughtsmanship, and your art looks great the way it is. Big shapes and colours that I'm sure your child likes.

I see that you've been advised at length on technicalities. I won't get much into it, but I think it's best if you looked at some good books or tutorials. For colour and lighting, I think these two might be of help -

Richard Schmid: Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting

Andrew Loomis: Creative Illustration

If you search for them, I think they're available online as well. Best wishes and keep drawing.