Hello! Do you usually use references for drawing clothing? It always looks so real, the newest painting of yours included <3
hi! thank you!!
*getting on my soapbox of Fellow Artists Please Use References*
short answer is, yes i do!
long answer is, i usually use like a dozen references for one illustration alone; if i’m drawing, say, a silk skirt, i google “silk skirt” and study all the shit that comes up to better understand a) the texture of silk and how it reflects light and b) the density of silk and what kind of folds it creates. and then mash all of that up into my own silk skirt! sometimes i also take my own pictures when i’m having trouble figuring out how the fabric will hang from/wrap around a certain body part in a certain position. for example, the tunic in the latest painting was referenced from a real shirt that my roommate owns! i modified the garment in my picture (it’s a different color irl and is a button-up shirt and not a tunic with voluminous sleeves and a wide sash) but taking and studying that reference photo was immensely helpful. so ye! references everybody
I'm sure you get plenty of questions about this (and please redirect me if you've already answered this!!), but how did you develop your painting style? I'm particularly interested in the parallel contour lines you add- looking at your progress images, it looks like you lay down a flat color and then manually hatch them in? However you do it, it's gorgeous! I've been seeing your art on twitter/tumblr for a couple months now and have always been curious as to your technique/painting inspirations
hi, and thank you for the kind words!! to be quite honest, it’s a little bit difficult to answer the question of how i developed my painting style, simply because i’ve been painting for over fifteen years 😂 a Lot of stuff has inspired me throughout this time, and there’s tons of things i figured out on my own, it’s all just a gumbo soup in my head at this point 🤭
however, i can tell you one thing in that the parallel hatching is mainly inspired by the works of leyendecker, toulouse-lautrec and edgar degas! when i use it i usually lay down/block out a base color and then go over it with parallel hatching in a slightly/entirely different shade depending on the kind of effect i need to achieve; usually it’s a lighter color, but not always! i pick the direction of the lines based on the 3d shape of the object to sort of ‘hug’ said shape; picking the right direction and stroke length also helps convey foreshortening, though for me it requires a lot of thinking and experimenting to achieve the right perspective. i also use other kinds of hatching to convey different textures! it can be fun to try and figure out what works best for this or that thing.
this is a bit of a bare bones answer i think, but yeah! i’m not entirely sure what else to add without writing a 10k word essay, but i hope this helps and if you have any specific questions, let me know!
two ✌️thingsies:
1) i love the way you render and even tho I'm not into your current fandom (followed for hs and stayed for jjk) i still find myself searching the nearest person to me to show your art whenever you come across my dash. in conclusion it's lovely and so fascinating
2) do you put on texture on the canvas? or is it the brush? also which program do you use?
and thanks for sharing your art! everytime I see it i have to pause to take in the beauty and zoom in the details!
hi, thank you!
1) glad to hear that you’ve stuck around through my hyperfixations 🤭 LET’S BE REAL i cycle back to homestuck every so often so i might draw some more yet 😏 but fr though thank you!
2) i use paint tool sai 2 and you can find my brush settings in my pinned! the texture you can see in my pics is the Watercolor B layer texture (which i am reasonably sure is one of the default ones……), and pretty much the same thing can be achieved in photoshop by creating a new layer on top of your drawing, filling it with mid gray, applying a monochromatic noise filter, blurring it a lil bit, and then setting that layer to soft light