Draw a Circle Draw the Rest of the Owl
Art processes 1; drawing the remainder of the fucking owl
Howdy lovely internet ppl. This time concluding year I was running my Insecta Deck Kickstarter, and fabricated a series of backer posts on my art processes. This was i of the about popular, and now my backers and Patreon patrons have had enough of time to look at it, I effigy its time to share. I promise you bask it too….
[CONTENT Alarm: PROFANITY, OBVIOUSLY]
In that location'due south more to drawing the remainder of the fucking owl
SO. At that place'south this meme, right…
How to depict an owl; 1. Draw some circles. two. Draw the rest of the fucking owl.
I both love and vehemently hate this meme. I cannot tell you how much information technology makes me giggle and nevertheless grind my teeth at the same fourth dimension. And since it regularly pops upward once again, I might besides brand the virtually of it
The internets favourite unhelpful art meme
I dearest this meme because to exist honest, drawing isn't magical or all almost innate talent. A lot well-nigh learning to depict is more than to do with learning to detect. That, and putting in countless hours of repeatedly honing your skills until you can, in fact, just draw the rest of the fucking owl. There's no secret, just hours and hours of practice - the length of which will vary for all of the states - and at any point in time nosotros're either capable of cartoon the rest of the fucking owl assuredly, or nosotros're non.
I hate information technology with the burn of a yard stars that are significantly hotter than our dominicus, because it encapsulates EVERYFUCKINGTHING that is smug and unhelpful virtually art communication on the net. OF Class you gotta draw the rest of the bastardtittyshittyfucking owl, simply do y'all know what? No 1 e'er got helped on their way to BEING ABLE to recognisably describe the rest of the fucking owl by this kind of advice. You'd be an absolute arsebarnacle to requite out such communication and exit information technology at that.
Considering there are another things between the circles and the rest of the fucking owl, my friends…
Those things can be difficult to define though. Which is maybe why the meme exists. Here is my honest breakup of what comes between the circles and the finished creature for me. But delight too bear in mind I've been using pencil mediums intensively for years. I've put a lot of coins in the practice fountain, and for what information technology'due south worth; I'm even so never 100% happy with the quality of my fucking owls… Simply I think I can depict satisfactorily enough to commit things to a print project similar a deck of cards
Some color pencil work on the ii of Spades planthoppers - shading their waxy tails
My cartoon board. Yes, I alive by the laws of blue tack and 120 oil-based pigment pencils. (That, and coffee)
How to draw the rest of the fucking insect...
At that place are 4 stages to the nitty gritty drawing (for me at least); sketching, mark out, shading, and fine detailing. Below are some WIP images from the deck artwork that embrace these stages. You lot can hopefully see that most of my drawings starting time out looking like they've been made in crayon by a hangry toddler, but they exercise turn out alright in the end
ane - Sketching
I have no innate sketching skill, it'south simply scratchy-cartoon, swearing, refining, repeat until your insect looks less crayoned. But yous ameliorate believe some of my insects did not start out with the correct number of legs, see exhibits A-D beneath...
The 9H sketch was specially crayon-y initially
The sketches for the Hearts courtroom cards
I don't know why I'1000 so indecisive almost legs. I merely am
Clubs courts. So many legs. So. Many.
I piece of work from reference where possible - and then I approximate step naught is research; deciding what you want to depict and studying reference images if yous tin can get em. But anyway, I use a ruler to try and become the proportions of an insect correct. If I'chiliad striving to be super-accurate, I'll utilize the filigree method and a reference image, but we're making up new insect species here, and so we're good with only vaguely accurate proportions.
For cards with a lot of insects on them (eg the 9s and 10s); I refine my sketch until I'm happy, become over it in ink, so I scan information technology, duplicate the digital insect, and arrange x insects digitally on a carte du jour template. This is so I know I'll leave the right amount of room for each critter, and not overlap the pips. I'll often leave multiple legs on the sketch also, so I tin draw different insects with different leg positions. Then I impress my layout, and apply a lightbox to transfer the digitised sketch on a paper template. For lower numbers I sketch straight onto a paper template so I tin can see the pips. For court cards, jokers, and aces (cards with simply one large-arse insect on), I sketch on blank newspaper and refine the i cartoon until gear up to exist marked out.
Images from sketching, outlining and marking out the x of Hearts - one of the more complex designs, for which I digitised my initial sketch to make a layout, and lightboxed a rough outline onto my paper template. Click to enlarge
2 - Marking out
Marking out consists of going over my graphite pencil sketch (or lightboxed outlines where necessary) to refine them to a final layout. I do that first in graphite once again to satisfy myself everything is in the correct place, and then in light colour pencil. At that place is a lot of tweaking at this stage, because you don't necessarily get a sense for what the concrete drawing will expect like until you have all your insects on the card template in front of you. Then I erase all the graphite pencil and become over my calorie-free colour pencil outline in heavier colours. Above you lot can see some stage of this marking upwards for 10H
At this point I am basically committed, and I'k internally screaming for pretty much the whole rest of the drawing procedure in case I fuck it up. (Hey, I said this was an honest breakup.) The internal screaming gets louder the more than hours of drawing elapse. So that'southward... [checks notes] 'fun'.
Each phase of marking upwardly the cartoon for 10H, from pencil transfered using the lightbox, to heavy color outline & internal screaming. (I made this image so I could do a WIP series for my Patreon patrons, I wouldn't usually take one insect at each stage)
3 - Shading
There's no going back at present, so I brainstorm the loooooooong work of shading the cartoon to fill in and gradually build upwardly layers of colour from low-cal to night (or vice versa, depends on the critter) as you lot can meet in the images & videos beneath. Sometimes I outline black insects in pen to keep my outline crisp, which also makes shading a mite easier. For larger number cards I too by and large tested out my colours on a tiny test piece offset, and you can see one of those beingness made in the 10H video.
This is where that practise stuff really becomes important, cos if you rush shading; you will regret information technology. In that location'due south not an like shooting fish in a barrel style to draw this... And then I suppose I take to grudgingly acknowledge to drawing the rest of the fucking owl at this betoken. Here'due south a couple of videos to illustrate - the 9D video has artists commentary in the airtight captions that explain what I'm doing a piffling. The other video is some shading on the Ace of Diamonds, speeded up A LOT to show how choosy I am with my layers. I unashamedly love some good conscientious shading.
Images of shading and detailing the Opal Deck tuck box cockroach
Timelapse for cartoon the Insecta Deck 10H, featuring an imaginary deck-habitation relative of the Mexican honey wasp. With cheers to Alex Wild for photograph reference of the real life species to mensurate from. Music is by Soft and Furious.
Images from the shading and detailing of 10H
9D timelapse with artists commentary in the closed captions (click the CC button to bring up captions). Music is by Lee Rosevere
The 9D carte template shown in the video above is the only one I printed in grey. My fancy printer I use for heavyweight drawing paper templates was outta ink, just I wanted to get on with drawing, so I coloured over the pips in red later! I employ a digital template for the bodily pips, so this doesn't affect the deck printing
Some careful shading at >thousand% bodily speed. Music is past Kai Engel
4 - Fine detailing
Alright, say we've survived the shading. *At present* we have the opportunity to REALLY fuck things up if nosotros go wrong! [Internal screaming intensifies...] Rushing would accept been a bad idea before, but information technology would be a truly atrocious idea now. And then I make sure my pencils stay perilously precipitous - if I have ane slice of advice (for both shading and detailing really), it'southward to never miss an opportunity to sharpen a pencil. I go slowly and carefully (and scream internally) with the pointiest pencils around.
Thassit.
Seriously though. Putting all the veins in the wings of blatts and bees, adding all the hairs to protrude legs... That stuff is nervus-wracking I'm telling you. Only very satisfying if you get it right!
Fine details on the carabid protrude for the Opal Deck card dorsum
But shy of 30 hours of drawing, in 2 and a half minutes! All of drawing the Insecta Ace of Spades, including the tiny examination drawing. Music is past Soft & Furious
Whew.
I don't know what else to say really. That's basically how Insect Deck happened. This procedure, 61 times.
Each of these designs took so many hours to draw. On the one hand in that location is a lot more to it than cartoon the balance of the fucking owl, but on the other... Information technology'southward hard to define exactly what I'chiliad doing some of the fourth dimension because I've been cartoon then long, it'due south all musculus memory. As of summer 2015 I haven't been able to feel all my fingers (tl;dr - my spine is an asshat.) But it hasn't affected my cartoon. Fifty-fifty when I tin't feel virtually of my hand I tin can nonetheless depict. I say that to illustrate that muscle retentivity is wild! There'south no substitute for do to gain that.
To finish up; the closest matter I've got to actual fine art advice can be found here, and someone else's advice that I've always valued is here. I've written a tonne so I'thou going to driblet this art-&-words-bomb and become find some more fucking owls to depict
Pls accept intendance of yourselves and each other as much every bit yous can lovely people
Immy twenty
Drawing board cam view of the Ace of Spades shading and detailing. Music is by Kai Engel
Source: https://www.immysmith.net/blog/2020/2/1/art-process-drawing-the-rest-of-the-fucking-owl
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