Drawing Snapshot - Cosy Tree Stump Kitchen (Patreon)

Hello everyone,

In my last poll asking you what I should draw you voted for 'a cosy rabbit kitchen inside a tree (with lots of cakes and treats)', and I've finished it but I forgot about all the cakes and treats! 😭

I can't believe that I forgot to add the most important part, but they are still making treats so I hope that still counts!

Here is a little breakdown of how I drew this illustration and the base colour palette that I used (which I'll attach below if you'd like to use it in your own illustrations):

First I drew a digital sketch of my composition. I knew that I wanted to do a cutaway into the tree stump but it felt a bit boxy on its own so I added some blackberry brambles around the outside. There is an old tree on my local walk at the moment that has blackberries growing out of it so I was inspired by that!

Then I made my sketch layer about 30% opacity so that I could see through it to use as a reference for my colour layers.

I coloured in all of the elements of my illustration, mostly using my Marker Pen brush. Most things that are the same 'element' can go on the same layer, like all the blackberries together or all the little plates in the kitchen, but otherwise I keep things on separate layers.

Then I give everything a broad pass of texture using my Textured Pencil Light brush and/or my Soft Crayon brush, followed by a couple of layers of shading (still using texture brushes).

I add in lots of little line details like on the leaves and the tree stump.

And finally I add a bit of lighting which really helps with the cosiness!

I added the lighting in three simple layers:

1. I used a soft texture brush to add some shadows around the top of the kitchen and in the corners (this layer was on multiply blend mode).

2. I used a soft brush again to add some really soft glowy highlights in light yellow around the stove and by the window (this layer was on screen blend mode).

3. I used a smaller, more defined brush to add some sharper highlights in light yellow around the edges of things that would be catching the light (this layer was on screen blend mode as well).

And that's it!

I like to think that their kitchen is connected to their underground den and to other rooms in different tree stumps - what do you think?

💖