August calendar // A Night Out & Sweet Treats~ ★ (Patreon)

Hello everyone!   ♡ 

Hope your day is going well and I'm so happy to have you here~ As is tradition in 2017 I've completed a piece for the calendar I'm working on. ^^ 

New patrons, I'm working on a calendar for 2018! Check out pieces from the past months here:

January || February || March || April || May || June || July 

 I apologize that this month's is later than usual and to be honest I had a difficult time deciding what to draw for the month of August. I don't really associate August with any major holidays or events making capturing the essence of August a confusing endeavor. Here's one of the (several) drafts I came up with:

I liked the idea of drawing cheerleaders and going with a "back to school" sort of theme, but the composition and colors felt bland. Besides, it seems better suited for a standalone piece rather than part of a calendar.

I wanted to create something colorful, something fun, something that would pick me up just by looking at it. I kept searching for different environments that might fit the mood and thankfully came across the adorable Santa Monica Crepes stand in Harajuku, Japan! I'd seen it before and always loved how its storefront was bursting with personality, energy, and plenty of sweetness, much like cheerleaders! It seemed like a perfect fit and I'm glad I went in this direction instead. If a drawing isn't working out, that's okay! Take a break from it and try to tackle it from new perspectives. Think about how you can create a story out of your sketches and go from there. 

I love drawing desserts so much, working on this piece was an absolute treat for me! ;D

Also, here's a process gif of the piece! Done in Paint Tool SAI. Fyi I typically work on a single layer. The characters were done on one layer and the background on another, allowing me to use layer effects to add rim lighting to the cheerleaders at the end!

Hope you enjoy this piece! Only 4 more months left to illustrate can you believe it? 2017 is really going by so quickly, but I'm incredibly excited for the upcoming holidays! And Inktober, I've already got a theme in mind and I can't wait to tackle it. *w* 

Thank you so much for your support, I'm looking forward to making this calendar with you! Have a wonderful day and chat soon! ^^<3

Vicki