New artwork: Let's grab some ramen after practice! (Patreon)

Hello everybody! 

Happy Friday woot woot /does a cool lil' dance and finishes with jazz hands/! Hopefully this week has been kind to you~ I finished the piece I posted about earlier this week and wanted to show you what I came up with! 

Quick backstory of these characters: Two girls are in a band together and meet up several times a week to practice their music. They're hard workers and jam sessions usually run pretty late. They've developed something of a tradition after practice by rewarding themselves with a stop at a favorite local ramen stand. Nights are cold, but the ramen is warm and the owner of the stall (a friendly ghost cat) knows their orders by heart and welcomes them each visit.  

This piece was so much fun to create, but also quite a doozy to put together. Let me just say, the amount of references I had to pull up and mood board together was overwhelming (I've never drawn a ramen stand and would've had one heck of a time trying to conjure a drawing from memory). That being said references are your friend! I used to shy away from them until I learned that EVERYONE uses them, even the professionals, yes, the professionals! 

Caveat, references are NOT equivalent to copying. Copying images and claiming them as your own is not recommended. Using references to better understand the subject and then draw something like it in your own vision is good and recommended. You can't draw what you don't know. For example, the ramen stand in this piece is a compilation of several different ramen stands that I saw on Google. It is not a carbon copy of any one stand, but rather an amalgamation of many making it something new and unique. Want to draw a cityscape but have no idea how? Look up reference photos on Google and practice drawing by studying those photos. Then from those studies, create and piece together your own environment with your newfound understanding of cities! :D 

I've been telling myself to draw more backgrounds this year and its been a great experience so far! I love the challenge and I'm finally drawing images that have been stuck in my head for the longest time. Instead of shying away from backgrounds and the uncertainty they bring, I've been embracing the discomfort and simply enjoying the learning process. Hope you all enjoy this piece and thank you so much for your support! 

Also, I'll be sharing a tutorial/walkthrough of this piece so keep an eye out for that! Hope you all have a great weekend and I'll see you soon with giveaway details. <3

Love,

Vicki