dkk's Daily Art

Daily Art - Here should be a picture

2012-02-23T13:48:00.001+01:00

I FINALLY started a new painting, it took a long time to come up with an idea this time, but I forgot to take a picture and here I am again with empty hands... :/ Update next thursday.

Daily Art - Hills

2011-12-12T13:35:00.001+01:00

It's done! :D

Daily Art - Hills, in progress

2011-12-05T13:57:00.001+01:00

Nearly done... just a bit more.

(Sorry, the photo is a bit blurry.)

Daily Art - Fox

2011-11-29T14:07:00.001+01:00

This fox is going to be a christmas present. Watercolor & watercolor pencils.

Daily Art - Hills, in Progress

2011-11-28T14:17:00.001+01:00

You probably wondered why the picture I'm working on at the moment is called "Hills", while all you can see is a shiny Thoroughbred. Well, here they are now!

Yes yes, I know. The horse looks like it has been cut out and pasted onto the background. I'm going to connect the fore- and background in the next step, but the layer just needs to dry a bit before I can continue...

Daily Art - Hills, in Progress

2011-11-24T13:13:00.001+01:00

I added highlights today!

Daily Art - Hills, in progress

2011-11-14T13:28:00.001+01:00

I'm working on my new oil painting, another horse! I love horses! Horses look so awesome!

Daily Art - Portrait

2011-11-12T09:05:00.001+01:00

Daily Art - Arowana

2011-11-08T14:29:00.005+01:00

I like fishes. Arowana are in my opinion one of the coolest ornamental fishes and I'd love to keep one... but they grow really big and I don't have the means for a giant tank.

Well, I can still draw them. That's a Golden Arowana, but I'm not satisfied with how it turned out. The scales were a huge pain to make and the result looks not very convincing. I think next time I make I'll try to mask the scales off.

Daily Art - Rappe (horse)

2011-11-04T13:56:00.000+01:00

I had a lot of work to do in the last couple of weeks, flyers and layouts and so on, and didn't have any energy for recreational drawing :C

Well, today I finally got around to make a new watercolor pencil picture again! It's a horse, hurray, because I started taking riding lessons recently.

Daily Art - Nude Studies Flood

2011-10-12T12:46:00.000+02:00

Okay, here is a flood of the nude studies I did last week. I'm not satisfied with most of them. One point was, that we only had 15 - 20 minutes per picture, another one that I just didn't have a connection to the models and felt I couldn't catch their spirit........ Oh, well.

Daily Art - Birch, In Progress

2011-10-10T17:09:00.004+02:00

What happened? Where have I been? ...well, doing stuff. I attended an intensive course in nude painting at an adult education center, which took all my time and attention. I'll talk about it tomorrow and will post pictures. For now have an in progress photo of my new oil painting, called Birch trees... I did not paint them yet.

Daily Art - Pilot, In Progress

2011-09-28T16:04:00.000+02:00

I literally spent hours on Pilot today. I'm not completely satisfied, but I'm getting somewhere.

Daily Art - Pilot, In Progress

2011-09-27T17:38:00.001+02:00

I did Dunis first color layer today, and I'm very satisfied with gesso as primer. The surface was super smooth and the color looks really good. I also worked in Pilot today - here's a photo. She's still not done though.

Dunis & Pilot, In Progress

2011-09-25T14:20:00.002+02:00

I primed Dunis with gesso today. It's the first time I'm using that material, it was interesting and I think it could turn out pretty well. I think I'll have to sand him before painting though.

I also worked on Pilot's coat, but because I'm using very thin layers, it will take a lot of steps before you can see a result.

Also, because Pilot was not primed, I now have a little experiment which allows me to compare both methods directly: gesso priming vs painting directly on the "naked" model.

Dunis, In Progress

2011-09-23T14:19:00.004+02:00

I stripped down Dunis completely, it just didn't work out. I made too many mistakes at the beginning, used too thick paint, didn't blend the brush strokes carefully enough... I'll start from the scratch, that's better than finishing half-heartedly. Well, he's my first model horse, it's normal to make mistakes - and hopefully get better.

Lili

2011-09-22T18:17:00.001+02:00

I made the grounding for my next oil painting today, but because that's rather boring to look at, I have this photo of my dog Lili for you instead. If it wasn't fir the eyes, you probably couldn't tell what is what...

Daily Art - Rotlord (cat, step-by-step)

2011-09-21T15:09:00.000+02:00

I hear everybody groaning "Another cat picture?!"... Yes, I love cats. Cats are awesome!! Okay, you can call me Crazy Cat Lady. Sorry.

Anyway, I made some photos while drawing. Because I already described several times how I make that kind of watercolor pencil illustration (take a look at the right side: "Tutorials / Step-by-Step Guides"), I just post the pictures without any comments.

Only one thing worth mentioning is: This time I used normal blue paper (because it's the complementary color of orange), which is actually not meant for watercolor painting. So I had to be very careful not to apply too much water, or the paper could have been damaged.

And finally:

You're still here? Do you want to know why this cat is called "Rotlord" ("Redlord")? Okay. The photo I used as reference was hanging on our fridge for many years, because that cat looks exactly like our cat "Lord", face, expression and all - with the exception that Lord is gray, not red. So we called the photo cat Rotlord and decided that he must be Lord's lost twin. He's basically a family member, except that he's just a photo.........

Daily Art - Sirens

2011-09-20T09:40:00.000+02:00

I'm finally done with my Sirens picture! (The photo was taken with my cell phone and is unfortunately partly blurry. I'll replace it with a better one soon!)

Daily Art - Brook (How To Part 2)

2011-09-19T08:56:00.002+02:00

Let's continue with the tutorial on how to make digital art (Read the Part 1 here)! Today we start with the fun part of painting: The shading! I love shading! So many colors.... so happy.

Well, first of all I have to decide on the light source. The object sides that face the light source will be lighter, the backside darker. Because this is a night scene, the light comes from the moon - and I want it in the right corner behind the treetops. This means backlight! But wait a moment, there is a second light source: The fish, which illuminates the objects in it's proximity.

To illustrate the point:

To make proper shading, we also need shadow and highlight colors. I start with the basic color of the object (e.g. the orange of the dress) and add a transparent stroke of the blue background color over it. The result is my shadow color for that object.
For the highlights I'll need two different colors: One for the side of the moonlight, the other for the fish-light. The moon is pale, therefore I pick the basic object color, make it lighter and desaturate it. The result is a pastelish color. The fish-light on the other hand should have a vibrant, strong glow. I use the basic object color again, lighten it up and then saturate it completely. I also change the hue slightly into the direction of yellow, to make it "glow".
Finally I add all three colors to my palette next to the basic color. To give you an example of how the colors look, here's a pic of the four shades of the orange dress!

These colors are my guides, but I'll use other colors every now and then, too, to make the picture more vibrant. You'll find the orange of the dress in the grass and the blue of the background in the trunks.

You remember that I told you to make solid unicolored layers for every object? The reason is that these will function as "mini-canvases". Lock the transparency, and you will only be able to paint where already paint is, not on the "empty" parts. That means that you can go wild with the brushes and don't need to worry about drawing over the outlines anymore.

(I don't use that function for the objects without outlines like the treetops, they will have softer, irregular edges.)

I wish I could give you step by step pictures on how I color each object, but that's just not how I work. I make all objects without an order at once. I'll paint the dress a bit, then go into the treetops, make some parts of the fish, go back to the dress, the fish again and so on. (I get bored quickly, when I have to work on one part for a long time.)

Here's an in-progress example: As you see, I already worked on nearly every part, but no part is finished yet.

You can also see that I use different brushes depending on the object I'm working on. The brush of the dress is smooth, the foliage is blotty, the grass has a lot of small vertical lines.

Some work later, the pic looks like this:

Because the face is very small, the outlines look kind of rough. Therefore I erase them and paint the facial features directly on the layer of the shaded skin layer with tiny, soft brushes.

The part of the dress, that is floating in the water, has a half transparent blue layer on top of it to give the impression of being submerged.

After some more work, we are here:

Now it's time for the final step, fine-tuning! "SketchBookPro" is a nice painting software, but it doesn't offer a lot of tweaking functions "Gimp" has. So I open my picture in "Gimp" and start playing around with it. I adjust the colors, contrast and brightness of all objects to make them look more harmonious. For example the background blue is now a bit more cyan... and I didn't like the green of the belt after all, so it's red now... Finally, we have this:

The end.

Daily Art - Brook (How To Part 1)

2011-09-18T16:19:00.000+02:00

Hurray, my internet is working again! And because I had some time to kill while I was offline, I not only made a new picture, but a tutorial for digital art, too!

I am oddly obsessed with water creatures, mythical or real. One of my favorite fish species are Channa (Snakehead). They have a bad reputation in the media, but actually they are super awesome and I could give you a two hour speech why everyone should love Channa. Which I won't do now. Instead, I give you this picture with a giant, glowing Snakehead. (And no, they don't really get THAT big... nor do they glow.)

Click on the picture to enlarge it!

Let's take a look at how this picture was made!

I used "SketchBookPro" and "Gimp" (later on), but there are many other programs which work similarly and can be used to make such digital illustrations. However, I strongly advice the use of a tablet (I have a Wacom), because drawing with a mouse is tedious and will eventually kill your wrist!

Let's start! I open the software ("SketchBookPro") and create a large canvas (the original is larger than the pictures I show here. The bigger the picture, the more details - and the more your computer will slow down). First of all I fill the background in a dark blue color to set the mood for the picture. Then I pick a complementary brown (that is, a desaturated, dark orange), which I will use for the outlines. I add a transparent layer and draw a very rough sketch on it to find a place for the elements I have in mind.

Then I lower the opacity of this first sketch layer, so that it's barely visible, add another transparent layer and draw a second sketch on top of the first one to work out the idea.

I make the first sketch invisible and lower the opacity of the second sketch, too. Now it's time for the lineart, which I'll draw on a third transparent layer I added on top of the other ones. Pick a nice, soft and clean brush (not airbrush or a pixel brush with hard edges).

I draw, erase and redraw the lines until I am satisfied. Don't try to take shortcuts - the lines must be perfect or you will have much more work later (trust me on this, I tend to make sloppy outlines myself and always regret it later). For drawing, I zoom in really close, and then zoom out to check the overall impression of the part I just did. I also flip the picture horizontally every now and then to check if I'm drawing lopsided.

I only outline the "solid" objects, not the plants, treetops and background. I also cut the canvas a bit and rearranged the fish and one tree slightly (select them with the mask tool and then just move them).

The lineart takes much work and time... so much work and time..... eventually, if I turn the visibility of the sketch layer off, the picture looks like this:

Now, let's start adding colors. Each colored element will get a single layer (the fish, skin, trees, dress and so on) and the layers are arranged by their depth position - e.g. the skin layer is on top of the grass, but below the dress. On top of all these color layers remains the outline layer. And because I'll have a lot of layers in the end, I name them appropriately to avoid confusion later on.

Now, when I have a layer ready, I pick the color I want for a certain element and paint a solid shape within the outlines (we'll do the shading in the next step). Did you enjoy coloring books as a child? I myself hated them, because I could never stay within the lines, but that's exactly what we have to do now. Tedious, but necessary. You can use the fill tool for some parts (if the outlines are closed, otherwise you'll fill the whole picture), but watch out that it really fills up right to the outlines without leaving edges or holes. You might have to correct such parts by hand with a brush.

And a little extra here: I made a veil layer, which is half transparent and on top of the other clothes and hair layers.

For now the picture looks like this:

That's it today. Tomorrow we finally start with the fun part: The shading! :D

Offline, again / still

2011-09-16T11:01:00.002+02:00

It turned out that my internet connection at home only worked for a single day and now is broken again. I can only go online with my phone. The blog is on hiatus again. :C

Daily Art - Dunis, In Progress

2011-09-14T12:15:00.000+02:00

I'm online again! Hurray! Internet, my good old friend, I'm so happy to have you back <3

Anyway, I've been working on Dunis again. Last time (when I was still offline) I started painting his white frame overo markings, but the color wasn't covering well and looked streaky. Today I made the second marking layer and had the same problem, the color just didn't cover and looked really disappointing. After some messing around and getting really frustrated, I noticed that I've been using the wrong color all along, zinc white, which is semi-transparent, instead of titanium white, which is opaque. Gaaaaahhhhhh. So I repainted the markings with the proper white and, guess what, it worked. (Please ignore the mane and tail, I didn't really start working on them yet.)

Offline

2011-09-12T10:03:00.001+02:00

My internet connection doesn't work, I can only go online with my phone. That means no proper blog updates for the next couple of days D:

Daily Art - Dunis, In Progress

2011-09-10T15:00:00.000+02:00

I finally finished Dunis' buckskin coat. Now I'll be adding the Frame Overo markings.

I also did Pilot's first coat. She's going to be a dark bay (nearly black) with some small Sabino marks.

Daily Art - Pilot, In Progress

2011-09-09T12:32:00.002+02:00

I've been working on Pilot again. She got her tail today, which was kind of complicated to sculpt, and some loose strands.

Daily Art - Pilot, In Progress

2011-09-08T14:47:00.003+02:00

While my first model horse ("Dunis") is drying and waiting for the next layer, I decided to start my second project "Pilot". The body is a Peter Stone Ideal Stock Horse (ShoMeFive). I do some sculpturing this time. First I removed the tail, parts of the mane, one ear (heated with a candle and then cut off the softened plastic) and turned the head slightly. I also changed the gender, from stallion to mare.

Then I sculptured the new parts with epoxy putty (Milliput). I'll add the tail tomorrow, when the glue of the wire frame is dry.

Daily Art - Dunis, In Progress

2011-09-07T12:46:00.004+02:00

Sanding didn't go well :C Oh well.... I worked on the next layer today, modulating the different types of brown, but I didn't have much time. I'll have to continue with the shading on Friday.

How To - On Oil Colors

2011-09-06T19:53:00.000+02:00

When people hear that I mainly work with oil colors, they are often surprised and ask if those are not difficult to use. And I always answer: No, you don't need to be afraid of oil colors! There is no magical secret - and you don't need to be a master artist either. They are just colors! Nice colors, though.

Of course you have to get used them, like every other medium too, but in the end they offer a lot of advantages as reward. You can correct mistakes easily as long as the paint is wet (and in average it will remain wet for a couple of days... yes, you'll learn to be patient), so you don't have to put many, many layers on top of each other until you have the result you want. Blending is easy (e.g. with a dry brush). As well as mixing color tones! And oil color looks, in my opinion, really elegant.

A problem is that a whole industry wants you to buy their products, so they will tell you that you need this and that to be able to properly paint with oil colors. Don't fall for that trap, it won't make you a better artist to have a lot of useless equipment and tools and extras....

What you really need, are:

Oil colors, of course.

As I said, keep it simple. You don't need sky blue and dark cyan and fuchsia and mauve and turquoise and and and... If you use many different pigments in one picture, you're running the risk of making it look disconnected and disharmonious. Basically you only need black and white as well as the three elementary colors blue, red and yellow. You can mix everything else. Yes, I know, this is difficult - but if you learn to mix colors, you'll get a much better understanding and feeling for them. So just give it a try! (Alright, if you need certain tones regularly or love a certain color, you can buy it additionally. For example, I have raw and burnt sienna which I sometimes use instead of yellow or red.) Keep in mind to buy pure elementary colors (e.g. not a violet or greenish blue), because otherwise you will not be able to mix all colors you might need.
Quality pays off. Buy a good brand. They are more expensive, but as you only need those five colors (or maybe one or two more), it won't cost you a fortune.
Watch out that the colors you choose have as less as possible pigments. Good colors have one or two pigments. More pigments mean a higher risk of unexpected reactions while mixing (I had a cheap color with a mix of pigments which suddenly turned from black to bright green when I added a bit of yellow!!).
Buy the transparency / opacity that suits your painting style. Do you like translucent layers? Do you prefer rich, thick paint? Choose the one you like. (I have transparent blue, yellow and red and opaque black and white. This way I can make translucent layers, and when I add black or white give a part more volume.)

Linseed oil as a thinner. I use oil because it's smooth, affordable, doesn't smell bad and there is already oil in oil color (duh), so you won't get unexpected results like sudden pigment reactions. There are a lot of other mediums which make the paint thinner, thicker, dry quicker or more slowly, look glossy or whatnot, but you won't need them under normal circumstances.
Canvas or cardboard, primed (you can get them in every art supply shop).
Good brushes (a topic on it's own)...
Curd soap to clean the brushes (and your hands). Other people use paint thinner or turpentine, I don't like them because they smell bad... And in my opinion soap makes the brushes softer.
Convenient extras: A palette is useful, but can be replaced with a piece of plastic (e.g. ice cream lid) or aluminum foil (single use). A palette-knife is nice for mixing colors, but a large brush works as well.

That's it!

If you are interested in oil colors, give it a try! They are no more difficult to use than other colors. And as you see, you also don't need much equipment.

Daily Art - In Progress

2011-09-05T14:56:00.000+02:00

Today was difficult.... Something didn't feel right. I ended up repainting the some couple of parts again and again. Oh well... but we're still getting closer to the finish line.

Daily Art - Araneus diadematus (spider)

2011-09-04T10:51:00.000+02:00

This is a Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus) with backlighting and the sun between the first pair of legs. I usually don't do photography, but I found that motive nice - I love invertebrates, and especially arachnids!

Click on the image to enlarge it.

Daily Art - Dunis, In Progress

2011-09-03T12:35:00.002+02:00

I did the second undercoat today! And I fixed the hue slightly, it had a too yellowish tint before (not really visible on the last photo), now it's a proper buckskin tone. When the coat is dry, I plan to sand it carefully to smooth the surface.

Daily Art - Wolf pup

2011-09-02T12:51:00.001+02:00

Someone asked me to draw this wolf puppy, and here it is. This is actually the first time I used pattern brushes - very handy and not as awkward as I thought (I did draw every single hair by hand before)!

Daily Art - Sirens, In Progress

2011-09-01T14:56:00.003+02:00

Today I've been mainly concerned with siren hair and makeup:

Daily Art - Dunis, In Progress

2011-08-31T15:43:00.000+02:00

I just started my first model horse custom. The body is a Breyer Ideal Oldenburg. I use oil colors and will turn him into a buckskin frame overo. On the pic you see the first primer layer. It's still wet and half-transparent, that means that I'll have to add at least a second undercoat before I can start working on the actual color....

Daily Art - Trees

2011-08-30T15:15:00.001+02:00

A sketch I made on the train - playing around with horizontal and vertical strokes.

Awesome Artists - Aubrey Beardsley

2011-08-29T14:24:00.001+02:00

Aubrey Beardsley (1872 - 1898) was an English illustrator and author around the time of Art Nouveau. He is well known for his illustrations of Oscar Wilde's Salmone.

Why he's awesome: Beardsley's black-and-white ink style is distinct and unique. He worked with strong contrasts and tension - at the same time his works always remained overwhelmingly elegant and aesthetic. Grotesques were mixed with beauty, and consequently his pictures are not only beautiful to look at, but also very intriguing! If you are interested in black-and-white art or Art Nouveau, you must take a look at Aubrey Beardsley's works!

Daily Art - L (Death Note)

2011-08-28T13:12:00.002+02:00

L (from Death Note) is my favorite manga character ever... but I always kind of feels sad about him.

Daily Art - Havana Brown (step-by-step)

2011-08-27T13:35:00.004+02:00

The Havana Brown is a cat of the oriental type with a wonderful brown coat.

Let's take a look at how this picture was made!

(For the introduction on how to make a watercolor pencil picture, check the Cat Step-by-step guide).

I start with a sketch and draw the dark areas with a rich chocolate brown watercolor pencil (yummy). I use short strokes in the direction of the fur growth.

The color looks almost black when it's dry, but when you use water to blend it, it will lighten up (sorry, the picture is blurry):

I add more brown and a bit black to give the shadows more depth.

Blending....

Then I use a white pencil for the highlights (sorry, blurry again):

The contrast is now very high and the fur doesn't look natural, but we'll soften that with a bit more watered brown.

More pencil strokes and more blending...

We're almost done! Now I draw a couple of single brown and white (in the highlights) hairs which I don't blend, add the whiskers and a white point as reflection in the eye.

Daily Art - Meadow

2011-08-26T19:10:00.000+02:00

I had a great afternoon, sitting in that meadow in the shadow of large trees, watching the landscape and the light and the colors....

Daily Art - Sirens, In Progress

2011-08-25T16:58:00.001+02:00

Suddenly green everywhere...

Daily Art - Ladra (dog)

2011-08-24T15:33:00.002+02:00

A quick sketch of my parents dog Ladra:

Daily Art - Russian Blue (step-by-step)

2011-08-23T13:43:00.002+02:00

I made a sky blue Russian Blue (cat breed with a blueish-grey coat)....

How this pic was done:
(For the introduction on how to make a watercolor pencil picture, check the Cat Step-by-step guide).

I wanted a dreamy, soft and somewhat mysterious look for the picture, that's why I drew a sketch with a light blue and then blended it totally into a soft blue cloud, which will serve as a background.

I re-sketchted the cat into that cloud, concentrating on the darker regions of the picture.

And blended it with water...

I repeat that several times, drawing lines and blending them, using light, medium and a bit of dark blue in the shadows and the details (eyes and nose).

When I have the right contrast between dark colors and white areas, I brighten and soften the highlights with an eraser and start working on the details. I accent the facial features, the nose and eyes. The upper parts of the eyes are blueish green, while the lower part, where the light reflects, is yellow with white. I also add white points reflections. And finally I draw the whiskers.

Daily Art - Sirens, In Progress

2011-08-22T13:37:00.000+02:00

An update on the oil painting I'm working on:

Awesome Artists - Johann George von Hamilton

2011-08-21T15:35:00.007+02:00

Today is Sunday and I'm not in the mood to make a picture today. Let's have a look on an interesting artist instead.

Johann George von Hamilton (born 1672, died 1737) was at his time a renowned still-life and animal painter. Today he is unfortunately barely know (he doesn't even have an English Wikipedia article). His speciality were horses and particularly Lipizzans, which he showed performing various movements of the Spanish Riding School. His paintings were skillfully done and are usually very elegant.

Why he's awesome: Hamilton was a great painter, but I particularly love him because he had the tendency to paint his horses very roundish....... very roundish........ which is hilarious in contrast to the delicate legs and elegant poses (take a look).
My favorite picture is Cerbero, a smart pinto with a beautifully shining coat who performs a difficult capriole. He looks like he's hovering in midair, defying gravity.......... which seems so impossible given his meatball body. This pictures cracks me up every time and also inspired my fat pegasus.

Daily Art - Ballade von der Erweckung

2011-08-20T14:06:00.002+02:00

This is something like a fanart of ASP's "Ballade von der Erweckung".

(Yes, I know, the hair is very, very exaggerated. I wanted to make a point and then got carried away........)

If you don't know the song:

And a (unfortunately not too good) translation of the lyrics: Lycrics Wikia

Daily Art - Sirens, In Progress

2011-08-19T08:26:00.000+02:00

That's the oil painting I'm working on at the moment:

Daily Art - Tier ("animal")

2011-08-18T15:19:00.001+02:00

For this oil painting I tried a technique called "decalcomania" as Max Ernst used it: Thinned paint is put between two surfaces (glass or metal on paper or canvas), pressure is applied irregularly and then the top layer is removed. You achieve interesting patterns, and once the paint is dry, you can flesh out motives from the surreal blotches and shapes you got.

Daily Art - Blackbird

2011-08-17T14:31:00.001+02:00

Today a multicolored horse and a blue blackbird...

Daily Art - Lovebird (step-by-step)

2011-08-16T12:39:00.001+02:00

Today I have a colorful illustration for you today, a little Lovebird:

How this pictures was made (for the introduction on how to make a watercolor pencil picture, check the Cat Step-by-step guide).

1. Outlines with a light color to find the right proportions

2. Adding the first colors

3. Blending with water

4. More colors

5. Blending again, careful to stay in the corresponding area of a color (e.g. don't blend the green of the wings into the chest)

6. Even more colors!

7. Blending and adding more colors

8. Adding highlights on the blue wingtips

9. Finally some more details and a quick sky background as a contrast for the red and orange. That's it!

Daily Art - Guinea Pig

2011-08-15T14:24:00.000+02:00

I was working on an oil painting today, but I forgot to take photos (I'll hand in the picture later on Thursday). Have a sketch of a guinea pig instead:

Daily Art - Pegasus

2011-08-13T09:07:00.002+02:00

I have no idea how he even took off - probably by magic...

PS: I won't be home over the weekend, that means no new picture tomorrow.

Daily Art - Cat (step by step)

2011-08-12T12:45:00.009+02:00

Who loves cats? I love cats!

And you know what I love, too: Step by step guides. Let's take a look at how this picture was made!

Materials:

Watercolor pencils (I use Faber-Castell); color pencils which can be blended with water
Watercolor paper (I use Aquafine, 300g/m²)
A small watercolor brush (I use a size 2)
Glass with water
An eraser
A tiny bit white acrylic paint

Making such illustrations is much easier if you use a reference photo. That photo should be large enough, sharp and with good contrasts. Don't worry if your picture doesn't look exactly like the reference in the end, that's perfectly okay. I use references as a guide for lightening & shades and general proportions, but I almost always change some aspects to suit my taste (e.g. colors or pose). In this case I changed the overall proportions of the cat (the original was more slender), the focus of the eyes and I wrapped the tail around the body.

First of all you should decide which colors you want to use. Try out several pencils on an extra sheet of paper (dry and with water - the color might change when you blend it!), to find the ones that suit you best. You can mix colors by painting over, but that is a bit tricky. In this case we have mostly grey tones, so the selection is easy.

I start with a light color and do a rough sketch of the proportions. You might have to correct the lines several times with an eraser until you're satisfied, that's why you shouldn't use a dark color, which will more likely leave marks.

After you have the rough image, add you first shades with a darker pencil! I concentrate on the darkest parts of my reference picture and draw soft, short lines in the direction of the fur growth. Never mind the details now, we have to concentrate on the overall distribution of light and shadows first.

And now we use a wet brush and blend the lines into soft shades. Again, we follow the direction of the fur and do small, soft strokes. Excessive water can be dabbed away with a tissue (I use toilet paper, lol), this will also take away a bit of the color.

Basically that's the trick!
We wait a couple of minutes until the paper is dry again and add more pencil lines, shading more and more, getting darker and darker.

Blending again!

Another pencil layer!

And blending again.

After some more layers, we're almost there! I now add a couple of pencils lines which I won't blend to give the impression of single hairs. I also add some white lines as highlights.

Now I soften the large highlight areas with an eraser and remove the remaining (very light) outline on the back to dissolving the silhouette in light. Then I add the final details, the whiskers and two white spots of acrylic paint for the highlights in the eyes.

And we're done! I hope you like it C:

Daily Art - Chihuahua

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Now for something cute:

(The original looks softer and nicer than the scan... :/ )

Daily Art - Horses

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Yesterdays topic was horses:

Hello :D

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My name is Doris Kawgan-Kagan and I make pictures. On this blog you'll find my daily art. I hope you enjoy it.

If you want to see more of my works, head over to www.this-is-dkk.com