Sketchbook (PAGE 20) (Patreon)

Looking at these prep sketches for Kalahari and the bear shaman makes me feel a kind of regret for not returning to her sooner. I will revisit her, but I want to get it right, and of course that’s where the inertia comes in. When I originally drew this series, her proportions were kind of all over the place and her design felt a little half-baked. I want her to look more how she feels in my head, which means some more exploration of the character. Thankfully, I don’t seem to have the same hangups about Kal.

There’s a couple sketches of Petra looking troubled, and Ms. long-dragon sitting especially pretty. Every time I look back at that pose I want to use it for something.

The color study in the lower left was for a watercolor piece that I don’t think I ever uploaded (so I’m attaching it now). That painting pushed me hard against the limits of my watercolor skills and gave me a lot of grief. Well, maybe it was less about "skill" and more about basic knowledge. I didn’t understand that watercolor paints can be either granulating or non-granulating and this affects the texture in very obvious ways. Getting a lovely, smooth sky out of some very crunchy blue was never gonna happen. I've got other issues with the piece that all pretty much boil down to “it doesn’t even look like a watercolor”. Someone once told me that the best way to learn to paint with watercolor was just to go at it and get a feel for it. And sure, while that’s valuable, my own experience has been that taking the time to learn the fundamentals (like you’d find in a book or video course) is more valuable here than for any other medium I’ve used. So take that for what it’s worth I guess...

And yeah, right in the middle there’s a nice guiding mantra I wrote for myself that I now share with you <3