[WIP] Shrimps and ginkgo tree (Patreon)

Related post : [wallpaper] Shrimps and ginkgo tree

🌸 Cherry blossom shrimp and isopod

One of the things I enjoy imagining is seeing aquatic creatures on land, just like the animals I encounter in everyday environment—for instance, freshwater shrimp perched on the grass by the roadside. They would move about as if swimming through the sky, appearing here and there all around me...

This photo shows the branch of a ginkgo tree, taken on September 27th. When I saw it, I thought, "This would be the perfect spot for a shrimp to hang from," so I snapped the picture. It ended up being a key reference for the finished illustration—I actually used it as a guide!

If you look closely, you can see ginkgo nuts hanging from the tree. Since this tree is primarily found in East Asia, I’ll add a quick note for those who might not be familiar with it: while this nuts has an incredibly pungent, unpleasant odor, the nuts are actually delicious when roasted and sprinkled with a little salt. When I was a child, I used to gather them and ask my grandmother to roast them for me. It’s about 2:00 AM in Korea as I write this, and just imagining those roasted ginkgo nuts is making me feel quite hungry...🤤

Right now, in early November, they are gradually turning from green to yellow.

Everything is gradually turning into autumn colors. I’ve tried to captured this time of year in my painting.

In Korea, there are many streets lined with ginkgo trees; as time passes, all the trees turn completely yellow, bringing the autumn atmosphere to its peak.

I took this photo today near Gyeongbokgung Palace; you can often come across large, ancient ginkgo trees like this one. In the neighborhood where I live, there’s also a ginkgo tree that’s over 500 years old and designated as a protected tree.

This is a photo I took on November 24, 2024. It brings back such fond memories—just look at that beautiful yellow ground! 💛

Stepping outside like this, the autumn atmosphere everywhere, so i had to draw some 😄

I’ll also show you the process of drawings~

💛 WIP GIF

For this work, I’ve created a canvas large enough to serve as a wallpapers. I spent some time thinking about the shrimp's placement, so some shrimp composition has evolved since the initial sketch.

The reason some of the early lines are different colors is that they’re on separate layers; using different colors helps me distinguish between them, which makes it much easier to keep track of my layers.

The two rectangles visible in the middle serve as guides for how the image will be cropped.

The red line indicates the orientation of the shrimp. In the final illustration, the positions of the shrimp have been slightly adjusted.

💛 Another shrimp drawing

I wanted to draw one more little sketch featuring more ginkgo leaves— this time, completely yellow version!

Considering that a fully grown cherry shrimp is only about 2 inches (5 cm) long—making it much smaller than a ginkgo leaf—my imagination tends to scale the shrimp up, closer to the size of a little bird.

1. Sketch

2. Cleanup

3. Coloring

4. Add some texture/shadows

The process is always much the same, but it’s been a while since I’ve laid it out like this. There’s no color thumbnail—I just had the idea in my head and sketched it out quickly. The color palette is derived from the piece I finished just before this one, with the white and green tones removed.

Thank you!