HOME | DD

Description

This was another box where it took me a while to decide what to do with it. I definitely explored some of the more obvious options for "Growing Up", but in the end I decided to approach it more introspectively and draw "Classic Sy '''Tiger''' Form But With The Wrong Colors" - Drawing characters with different palettes (due to lighting or just pure artistic-ness) always sounds like a super fun challenge to me but also very strange and daunting since you're forcing yourself to put down colors you know is not 'correct' for the character. It's cool, I like it! I love doing challenges and would love to actively try doing more

Anyway, back to the theming, Sy is a super old character. He is the oldest character I have that is still 'actively' around ~ not so much drawingwise, but as far as having a role in my story/universe, he is still very much in there. It's not as big of a role that it was (the focus definitely shifted more on the sion characters, lol) but still notable and there. His personality and backstory have changed so dramatically over the past MANY years that he's honestly not even the same character that I started with, but I still love him anyway and that's also why I think he's the embodiment of the theme.

Additionally I also decided to try out a flooding technique to try to get more range since the colors were so limited...I believe that's the right term? It's where you put your color down, then when it's still wet, you press another color down into it to basically create an 'alcohol dump', and it forces some of the first color away. It was...interesting. It was a little finicky and hard to control but it did make some cool effects in some areas. I don't think I'd use it on a whole picture again but I'll have to remember it if I want to do certain special effects

---
What I thought about The Stuff

Windsor & Newton ProMarker - These are an alcohol-based marker and can be compared to using Prismas, with a couple differences. They had small bullet nibs on one end and a small chisel on the other. What I didn't like was the size of the barrel is a little big, and the cap for the bullet end is a...uh, bullet shape, so it's actually hard to grip and pull off, and requires precision to get it back on unless you want to mess up the nib (I'd like to not pay that close attention to getting my caps back on ok >>a) On the plus side, they don't smell nearly as bad as prismas do, still smelly, but not so bad, and the colors came out nice and even. I believe these are also about the same price point as prisma markers, maybe even a little cheaper depending on the seller.
Sakura Pigma Micron 01 & Black Brushpen - These are your standard liner pens. I haven't had fresh ones in a while so these were nice. I'm not a huge fan of brush nibs for lining because I think they're hard to control, but I know it just takes practice. They're really good if you're doing things like calligraphy or gesture sketches. Like all liner pens, you should do one light go around the art, wait until its fully dry before erasing pencil lines or coloring, then go around again to add details or heavier lines.
Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen 1.5 - It's another white pen! I wasn't as fond of this one as the others I've gotten. Its more like a paint pen; the nib is very round and difficult to get fine lines out of
Faber-Castell 9000 Pencil - As far as wood pencils go, its very nice. The card says the lead is specially bound to the wood to help prevent breakage, and looking at it closer it does seem very solid (for a pencil)

Description

This was another box where it took me a while to decide what to do with it. I definitely explored some of the more obvious options for "Growing Up", but in the end I decided to approach it more introspectively and draw "Classic Sy '''Tiger''' Form But With The Wrong Colors" - Drawing characters with different palettes (due to lighting or just pure artistic-ness) always sounds like a super fun challenge to me but also very strange and daunting since you're forcing yourself to put down colors you know is not 'correct' for the character. It's cool, I like it! I love doing challenges and would love to actively try doing more

Anyway, back to the theming, Sy is a super old character. He is the oldest character I have that is still 'actively' around ~ not so much drawingwise, but as far as having a role in my story/universe, he is still very much in there. It's not as big of a role that it was (the focus definitely shifted more on the sion characters, lol) but still notable and there. His personality and backstory have changed so dramatically over the past MANY years that he's honestly not even the same character that I started with, but I still love him anyway and that's also why I think he's the embodiment of the theme.

Additionally I also decided to try out a flooding technique to try to get more range since the colors were so limited...I believe that's the right term? It's where you put your color down, then when it's still wet, you press another color down into it to basically create an 'alcohol dump', and it forces some of the first color away. It was...interesting. It was a little finicky and hard to control but it did make some cool effects in some areas. I don't think I'd use it on a whole picture again but I'll have to remember it if I want to do certain special effects

---
What I thought about The Stuff

Windsor & Newton ProMarker - These are an alcohol-based marker and can be compared to using Prismas, with a couple differences. They had small bullet nibs on one end and a small chisel on the other. What I didn't like was the size of the barrel is a little big, and the cap for the bullet end is a...uh, bullet shape, so it's actually hard to grip and pull off, and requires precision to get it back on unless you want to mess up the nib (I'd like to not pay that close attention to getting my caps back on ok >>a) On the plus side, they don't smell nearly as bad as prismas do, still smelly, but not so bad, and the colors came out nice and even. I believe these are also about the same price point as prisma markers, maybe even a little cheaper depending on the seller.
Sakura Pigma Micron 01 & Black Brushpen - These are your standard liner pens. I haven't had fresh ones in a while so these were nice. I'm not a huge fan of brush nibs for lining because I think they're hard to control, but I know it just takes practice. They're really good if you're doing things like calligraphy or gesture sketches. Like all liner pens, you should do one light go around the art, wait until its fully dry before erasing pencil lines or coloring, then go around again to add details or heavier lines.
Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen 1.5 - It's another white pen! I wasn't as fond of this one as the others I've gotten. Its more like a paint pen; the nib is very round and difficult to get fine lines out of
Faber-Castell 9000 Pencil - As far as wood pencils go, its very nice. The card says the lead is specially bound to the wood to help prevent breakage, and looking at it closer it does seem very solid (for a pencil)