Mimi's Illustration Club September - Third Activity! (Patreon)

Hello everyone!

I've finished my illustration for this month's illustration club and I want to share it with you!

As you know, the prompt for this month is 'Cosy Activities' and I chose to draw a little mouse knitting away on their favourite chair 🐭

So far in the club this month we’ve filled a sketchbook page with ideas relating to the prompt, then we explored some composition sketches from those ideas, and now we can take one of those composition ideas and create a final illustration from it.

If you skipped the first activities and came straight to drawing a final illustration that's totally fine!

You can use any medium you like to create your final illustration. The aim of this activity (and the whole club) is to just explore the creative process and enjoy practising our art skills together, so if you can achieve those two things then whatever you create is a success!

So I’ll show you what I created for this activity based on a sketch from activity 2:

This is my final illustration for 'Cosy Activities'! I'm actually so happy with how the knitting turned out, I thought it was going to be difficult to draw but it was surprisingly simple!

So let me show you a quick breakdown of my illustration process and the basic palette that I used (which you can download below if you'd like to use it yourself):

My process went a little something like this:

First I drew a simple black and white sketch based on the pencil sketch that I drew in activity 2. 

I made my sketch layer about 30% opacity and 'multiply' blend mode so that I would easily be able to see through it (the blend mode isn't necessary, just makes it a bit clearer to see)

On new layers below the sketch, I coloured in all of the basic shapes, using the sketch as a reference. I mostly draw different coloured elements on their own layers.

Then I added some line details, like the pattern on the knitting and the details on the chair.

I add lots of texture and shading to pretty much every element using my texture brushes. This part takes a little while.

Then I draw in final details like the sparkles in the background and add my signature over to the side.

And that's it!

Now it's your turn (yay!) - take one of the composition sketches that you drew in activity 2 and create a final illustration from it (if you haven't already). Or if you feel like it you can do a completely new idea!

These activities pretty much replicate my normal art process when I'm faced with a new prompt - I brainstorm ideas, doodle down a few sketches to explore some compositions, and then illustrate my final piece.

If you do draw a final illustration with the prompt this month then feel free to share it with us over on Discord in the #final-illustrations channel. Everyone is welcome, and you can share what you've created for any of the activities at any time!

I'm really looking forward to seeing how your illustrations turn out ❤