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Description
Concept:

There's really not much of a concept. I just wanted to draw something a bit more realistic, but in a somewhat cartoony style. I love ladybugs, so I thought, "Why not?"

Materials:

Studio 71 Watercolor Paper
Oil Pastel Crayons
Gamsol (oderless mineral spirits)
Drawing pencil (Hardness of F)
small watercolor well for the gamsol
many photo references of ladybugs to use as inspiration
Paint brushes
Black Permanent Sharpie Marker
Metal lid for melting oil pastel crayons
White out pen (for highlights)

Process:

Using photos of the real thing, I sketched out my ladybug design. I also traced around a bunch of different sized circular things to make the process smoother for the shape of the beetle, and I used tracing paper to get the legs roughly the same. Then, I inked my sketch with a sharpie marker and moved on to filling in the colors with the "paint" I created by melting down the oil pastels with gamsol. As a finishing touch, I added in highlights with a white out pen.

My Thoughts:

I absolutely hate how large I made the beetle. It takes up way too much of the page. However, I actually really like the way I created the shadows with a purple color and the highlights with the white out pen. I also enjoy working in this more simplified, cartoony style, which is far different than I used to be. Originally, I was going to try to crowd all the legs onto the drawing, but I decided to leave only the front two legs visible, which I feel was a better design choice. I feel like the image is incomplete, though. Maybe I should have added some kind of background? Or something else? I have no idea.

If anyone has any thoughts they want to share, I'd love the hear them!

Description
Concept:

There's really not much of a concept. I just wanted to draw something a bit more realistic, but in a somewhat cartoony style. I love ladybugs, so I thought, "Why not?"

Materials:

Studio 71 Watercolor Paper
Oil Pastel Crayons
Gamsol (oderless mineral spirits)
Drawing pencil (Hardness of F)
small watercolor well for the gamsol
many photo references of ladybugs to use as inspiration
Paint brushes
Black Permanent Sharpie Marker
Metal lid for melting oil pastel crayons
White out pen (for highlights)

Process:

Using photos of the real thing, I sketched out my ladybug design. I also traced around a bunch of different sized circular things to make the process smoother for the shape of the beetle, and I used tracing paper to get the legs roughly the same. Then, I inked my sketch with a sharpie marker and moved on to filling in the colors with the "paint" I created by melting down the oil pastels with gamsol. As a finishing touch, I added in highlights with a white out pen.

My Thoughts:

I absolutely hate how large I made the beetle. It takes up way too much of the page. However, I actually really like the way I created the shadows with a purple color and the highlights with the white out pen. I also enjoy working in this more simplified, cartoony style, which is far different than I used to be. Originally, I was going to try to crowd all the legs onto the drawing, but I decided to leave only the front two legs visible, which I feel was a better design choice. I feel like the image is incomplete, though. Maybe I should have added some kind of background? Or something else? I have no idea.

If anyone has any thoughts they want to share, I'd love the hear them!