Line art and Sketches for April's Riso subscription print! (Patreon)

Hello! I've aaalllmmlmost got April's Riso subscription print finished but wanted to share some process pieces for it first! It'll be called Desert Dreams, as a companion piece to my Island Dreams print below>> Thinking of making this another little series...maybe a deep forest or mountain scene next. What environment would you like to see me draw?

Here's the reference I pulled for this piece- I've been so inspired to make a high desert drawing since I took a trip to Joshua Tree with some friends in February. The landscape out there is absolutely stunning and every bush and rock has an interesting shape I'm not familiar with. Here are some photos I compiled together from one of my hikes in Yucca Valley.

And below are some photos I pulled from google and pinterest to help me get some better lighting and flower reference. I usually keep these images on the canvas as I draw or save them as jpegs and keep them on my laptop screen rather than on my cintiq screen as I draw...so I can look over for a refresh, but I'm not tempted to copy any one shape or composition.

When I started I just wanted to block in some real rough shapes so I used a big blue round brush and a big eraser to throw some lines around and cut in and out of them with the eraser tool. With the general composition in place I started with my scribbly line art sketch.

I was also looking at the Joshua Tree national park Instagram for reference and inspiration and found one about owls!! So I decided I needed to add owls in there somewhere...owls have definitely been ON MY MIND since I went to a raptor figure drawing event last August!

and then...I found...THIS WONDERFUL IMAGE and had to add the baby owls to the joshua tree as well!! I love how they seem so curious, and how one just has an eye peeking out behind the tree fronds.

Then I started on blocking out some of the large shapes with loose, squiggly line art. I knew I wanted a shooting star in there somewhere because we saw so many of them on our trip!!

I then turn the opacity down on the sketch, change it to have a blue line and start drawing on top of it.

and here's the final line art again! Excited to share these soon. Just a few more tweaks to the color and I'll be ready to send them out. If you paid on April 1st please make sure your address is up to date- I should be getting these out around the 20th!