so I was going through some of my old files - ugh, 2009 *EEK!
and I was looking at some of
these old drawings that are made and I realized - down here - so here we have my
very first digital illustration I specifically remember drawing this like
on my very first computer like the first thing I did when I got my very first
computer and if you look at it - wow...Why does it show two? Thats weird...
but if you look at it there's some like little white spots in there and other different mistakes
that definitely a beginner would make so while I redraw it I'll definitely go
over some changes you could make if you're having some of these problems
with your own art
♪
so on the left I have the original piece from 2009 and on the
right you'll see me creating the new version in what is it 2018 oh my
goodness hoo-hoo-hoo it's been nine years
besides having those nine years of
like drawing experience between me and that illustration on the left I'm also
using a different art programs so I'm using Photoshop cs5 on the right and on
the left I remember I used MS Paint and MS Paint is free,
Photoshop is kind of heck'a expensive so if there's going to be a quality difference there
I think MS Paint has changed since I've used it but back when I was using it you
really didn't have a lot of options and there definitely weren't layers that you
could use so you'll see the one on the left just the line art quality is very
pixelated and rasterized-looking so you can almost see the individual
pixels whereas the one on the right everything looks a lot smoother and
softer I can zoom in quite a bit and it still looks pretty smooth
the reason for this is in MS Paint I was working in a much smaller canvas whereas on the right
well, now, Photoshop - I'm using a much larger canvas with a much higher
resolution which allows me to have more pixels squeezed into a smaller amount of
space, kind of, - I think that's kind of how it works so I always
work at 300 dpi whereas MS Paint I'm sure was 72 dpi and
that's if you know your math that's a lot less
so if you're wondering I always work at 8 1/2 by 11 inches usually and then 300
dpi for my canvas, the other thing that is improving the quality of the one on
the right versus the one on the left is the type of brush that I'm using, on the
one on the left this was really the only option besides like the spray paint tool
and the paint bucket tool at the time, and that was the pencil tool - and so when you used
that it had a harsh edge and it was very easy to use the paint bucket tool with
that tool but you get that like very pixelated look which wasn't really what
I was going for - if you're going for something that's more like the one on
the right like I'm doing right now you want to use the paintbrush tool which is
much softer and cleaner but it really isn't it doesn't work well with the
paint bucket tool - unless you use the paint bucket
tool the way I do which has to do with using layers! and that's another great
thing about, I think every drawing program nowadays, has layers and if
you're not using those layers you're really missing out on one of like the
biggest benefits of digital art
the best way to explain layers is to show you so
this is the finished layers that I have after completing this illustration so
you'll see I don't really name them I'm kind of lazy but you'll see the sketch
layer is separate from the colors which are all of these, the shading has
its own layer and then the line art has its own layer so because of this
basically whatever is on the top - so here I have the line art layer, this line art
layer, anything that's underneath of it will not be able to draw on top of it
that makes sense? so basically works like gravity so if
you drop something on top of another thing it's going to be on top of the
other thing so *hehe* so you have a lineart, I have all the colors, then I have the
shading on top of the color so that it shows over top of the colors I like to
do each of the colors on its own layer and then I use clipping masks which are
these little arrows but that's a little bit more difficult to explain and those
are all clipped to this base color which the base color is the layer that I add
the color to everything so I fill in the entire character with one solid color
and then I create these clipping masks that clip to that base color layer and
I'm not able to draw outside of the base color layer - it's kind of interesting I
definitely would recommend looking into some clipping mask tutorials if you're
interested in doing that but it really does help me um, you know, color faster so
I really only have to worry about coloring everything
well coloring in all the little detail-y spaces once and then I add the color
and do that - I don't know if that makes sense...
but it's helpful and then the sketch layer I can turn on and off and so each
layer is separate so if you want to turn one off you just click on the little
eyeballs and I think that works for basically any drawing program so you can
hide layers when you don't want them anymore and things like that - it's very
very very cool stuff and I definitely just recommend playing around with it
using it and yeah if you're new it's just the best experience is just the
meddling around and clicking random buttons and seeing what happens - talking
more about the art that's actually happening on screen I decided to add
legs because I think last time, nine years ago, I was very nervous about
drawing legs and I'm pretty sure I tried to draw legs and they just didn't turn
out so I feel like it's only right to - now that I know that it's possible
for me to draw legs to, you know, take advantage of that occasion and do it so
I've added legs I don't know what clothes this character should be wearing
so I kind of just made it up as I went I believe this character was technically
supposed to be me... I think it was a self-portrait - doesn't really look
anything like me but I'm pretty sure that was my intention so my favorite
color at the time was red but I still managed to throw purple in as the
background color which I find is funny because that's my favorite color now so
yeah the color red with the hat and the sweatshirt was definitely inspired by
the Red Wings and like their jerseys but you know toned down a bit to be a little
bit more casual - looking back what I really like about this old illustration
that I've really not done in a while and I've noticed thing this a lot in all of
my old drawings was that I drew curls really really cute like they're almost
I don't know, maybe some people don't think they're cute but they're very stylized
curls and they'll be straight and then all sudden I'll just be like ah *schwoop!* and
then they'll go straight back down so I tried to capture that a little bit but
also you know throw a little bit more realism at it and make it make sense so
I wanted to capture that idea but you know redraw it in my style - something
else I changed going at it this time around was the colors you'll see I'm
using still a color that you would consider red for the sweatshirt but it's
not the exact same red tone as the one on the left and that's because I'm
trying to incorporate it all into a cohesive color scheme and colors
that all work well together - I'm still new to this but I was definitely trying
my best and I'm definitely better at it now than I was back then cuz I'm pretty
sure if I look at the one on the left I just used random swatches that were
available to me so I grabbed the 'red' color and I grabbed the 'peach' color I
grabbed the 'brown' color and the 'white' color and filled in everything
accordingly whereas this time around I used more of
a - I have swatches but I also like to use the color picker and
sliders and things and pick my colors that way and to pick colors that are
less saturated or more saturated depending on what I need so I have a
little bit more experience about those sort of things now but definitely still
learning so I decided to go with the khaki pants because I feel like I always
draw jeans (that was the reasoning behind that) and then I also instead of using
like a harsh white color for the elements of the original drawing that
were white I decided to use like an off-white or a yellow and I think that
makes it look a little bit more retro I really loved the way it looked and it
looks really good with the khaki and then here I'm adding shading um I feel
like I get away without shading a lot because I feel like my attention span
just isn't there I'll draw something and then by the time
I get to the part where I need to shade it I'm like I have an idea to draw
something else and I'll start drawing something else but the original drawing had
shading so it was definitely necessary for me to attempt some shading - I did it
differently I just added a separate layer like I mentioned
earlier and I added all the shading on it at once so I set that layer to
multiply and used like a purple color and lowered the opacity quite a bit and
then just drew it everywhere I needed it and also used gradients and the
selection tool to grab different parts of the drawing and then use the circle
radial gradient to create soft smooth transitions between the shading and
the non-shading and then I also used the eraser tool to erase bits of the shading
and since it's a separate layer I can erase the shading without erasing the
colors that are underneath and I can get those like kind of interesting like it
looks like it sticks out a bit more you know... that sort of thing, anyway, I also
use some of the other tools like levels and color balance tools to kind of
adjust some colors in post - so this is it - Oh! I also added freckles because I
noticed that there's freckles on that left one they're very subtle but they're
there and I added them to this one so yeah here is my finished redraw of my
very first digital drawing I'm pretty sure it is the very first one I know I
did somewhere I like would draw on paper and then scan it and color it digitally
but this I think is my very first full digital piece so yeah it's very nice to
revisit it and like just see my own growth over the years I think it would
have been kind of cool I kind of wish I had drawn it in a more - more complicated
style instead of my jelly bean style but you know maybe I'll have to draw this
again but with more anatomically correct features - maybe?
anyway thank you guys for watching! let me know what you think, and I'll see you
guys all next week and
♪ Hope you all have a delicious evening full of Waffles!! ♪
♪ bye! ♪
♪