Hey Hive!
We're back again with another Art Attack! If you're new to the series, this is where I share my drawings and the process behind them. A behind-the-scenes look at my artwork, if you will. This is not to say that I'm very good at art, or that I'm a professional in any way. In fact this is the opposite, and serves as a reminder to how I first started, and lets me track my progress too!
So last November, I had a lot of art pieces planned since a couple of birthdays and not to mention, Christmas was coming up. Since I have no idea what to buy for my friends I always opted for art presents and I'd draw something for them because it's just easier and more meaningful than buying them something they'd never use/don't like.
Anyway, the first birthday art piece I set to work on was for my brother! I didn't know what to draw for him at first, but figured we could relive some good memories together. And one of my favourite memories growing up with him was when we used to go to the neighbourhood playground; playing tag on the sand, and swinging on the swings. The swings were definitely my favourite part of going to the playground, and I was too short to swing myself, so I always asked my brother to push me. 😆
Those were some of the most fun memories we had together, so I thought it'd be cool to immortalise them in an art piece for his birthday!
Here's my sketch. I tried my best to mimic the layout of the actual playground but with a different perspective so you could see the swings. We actually didn't have pictures of us in the playground since smartphone weren't a thing back then, so I had to use Google Streetview to find reference images.
I started with the swing set first, since that was easy. And I tried to draw my brother in my cartoony style.
For the trees in the back I actually had to look up a youtube video on how to draw trees, since I realised I couldn't draw them nicely. They'd turn out too simple looking and didn't match with the vibe I was going for. Then I found this video that was pretty helpful and looked like how I wanted my tree to look like! The right balance of cartoony-looking but still detailed.
Next was drawing me! I decided to emulate my look when I was younger, and I had long hair and wasn't wearing spectacles then.
Next was colour! Since the trees were going to mostly obscured by their respective crowns the outline didn't really matter too much. I also changed the perspective a little bit so the trees and benches would look better. I know the swing set is a little crooked, but unfortunately I was using Clip Studio Paint at the time and I don't think it has the same shortcuts as Procreate where you can make perfect arcs.
I chose the colour of our clothes from our favourite clothes that we used to wear back in those days. I also added some texture to the sand to give it a little more dimension I guess. Not sure if it came across though.
After I coloured in the trees, which actually took quite a bit of time; choosing colours and getting the right shapes and shades. But I liked how they turned out in the end at least!
For the background I opted for a soft pinkish sunset colour to contrast the green hills. I thought the gradient was pretty nice. I know the shadows don't really make sense since it would mean the sun is overhead, but whatever. I was always bad at lighting effects.
Next was drawing in the shadows of the trees! I know the shadows don't make sense with the sunset, but I wasn't sure how else to do it.
So I blended the shadows of the trees since they were in the background.
And we end up with this!
I know it's not the best, and there are a lot of flaws but this was back when I was still getting used to digital art. I think this was only my fifth digital art piece, and while Clip Studio Paint is a good app, it's not exactly the best to be starting out on since the UI can look pretty complicated for those starting out.
But anyway, at the time I was happy with this and I had spent way too long on this already. I knew it was a gift and I wanted it to look nice but I had other gifts to do as well. I think he liked it, which was all that mattered anyway.
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
