Drawing Snapshot - Tiny Pinecone Home (Patreon)

Hello everyone!

After drawing a cosy little home inside a pumpkin last month I've been feeling inspired to draw more tiny homes, so last week I drew a tiny pinecone home for a squirrel!

You will have already seen it in this month's phone wallpapers and on Instagram if you follow me there, but I wanted to show you a quick breakdown of the illustration process as well.

Here's a simple breakdown of my digital drawing process, plus you can download the colour palette below if you'd like to use it yourself!

My drawing process went a little something like this:

First I drew a sketch of my illustration, starting with the pinecone home in the middle. I actually first drew my sketch without the squirrel and added them a little bit later when I felt like the home needed someone living there!

Then I made my sketch layer about 30% opacity and 'multiply' blend mode just so that I would be able to easily see through it.

On new layers beneath the sketch, I started colouring in all of the elements of my illustration. I mostly keep all of the elements on their own layers, but things like leaves or flowers that are the same can go on a layer together.

Once everything was coloured in, I went over each element with a broad texture brush (I'm mostly using my Soft Crayon brush at the moment) to give it some nice texture.

I drew in a few layers of shading (also with a texture brush) on everything to give some three dimensionality and some contrast.

Then I added some details and final touches like some highlights, and it was finished!

I love the idea of this squirrel living in a little pinecone, maybe I should draw the inside of it as well?💖