dtiyse ✦ arlo.exe (+process)

Instructions

My entry for this DTIYS challenge! Arlo is adorable and this was super fun to draw! I’ve included a “speedpaint”/process of my work (click or press any key to go through the slides) for anyone who might want to know my drawing process, what brushes I use, etc. This was all made using the drawing program ProCreate for the iPad. ✦ Sketch - I lay out the pose and proportions, but it is somewhat simplified. I used the brush “HB pencil” but I totally forgot where I first got it! (I don’t know if it’s a default brush or not but here’s a link if you have ProCreate and don’t see it - https://www.deviantart.com/astral-shadow/status-update/22123845 ) ✦ Detailed Sketch I changed a few things about the original sketch and added layers for the main window/box, each secondary box, and the overlays of clouds, stars, and hearts. I also forgot the wings so I added those. ✦ Character Lineart Here I used the Technical Pen brush with about 35% Streamline to keep the lines a bit smoother. I started by just lining Arlo (and the box around them— not shown in the slide) to keep my initial coloring simple and not be cluttered by too many of those other boxes at first. ✦ Coloring By now I had finished the lineart and moved on to colors. I used the same colors from the reference sheet to keep consistency for the character and would later change the aesthetic with overlays. I mostly used the fill or select tools here to keep in bounds easily, not too complicated of a step. Additionally, I colored the lineart slightly darker than the darkest color on the image. ✦ Detailed Color Here I lined and colored the hearts, stars, clouds, and other boxes, and colored the background. I shifted a few things around from my sketch to improve the composition. I also colored the stars in the eyes since yellow was used as a highlight/accent color in the original image and it provided more balance and a focal point to the center of the image. ✦ Basic Shading Here I used a layer clipped to the coloring layer and set to the multiply blend mode to shade the image. The color of the shading was pretty bright, about the same peachy color as the claws, but slightly more vibrant and pinker. I set it to 40% opacity. I also drew the strawberry and crown in this step. ✦ Highlights I added an add blend mode layer and used the bright yellow color of the crown and stars to add highlights to Arlo and the items around him. I still used the Technical Pen here but blended it out using the smudge tool set to the Syrup brush. ✦ Overlay I added an overlay of purple at the top fading to blue/cyan at the bottom set to the Overlay blend mode. I experimented with a few different overlays such as a red, blue, or pink, but the purple produced an aesthetic closer to my goal. ✦ Final I added some final touches such as a secondary layer of highlights and a darkened layer airbrushed around the edges to draw more focus to the character.