Hello! So, the vacation is over, a few weeks have passed and I’m trying to get back to my drawing routine. I want to start optimizing my work for speed, that is, focus less on the details and generally dial down the quality in favor of finishing a piece more quickly. Today’s WIP is one such attempt.
The character is Fu Xuan from Honkai: Star Rail game. I’m definitely going to pull for her, which partially motivated this painting
Honestly, I don’t know if I’m going to finish it… It’s a bit of a shame, because I managed to draw a pretty nice cosmos background for her, but on the other hand it took me 10 hours to get to this point… In that regard, I failed the speed objective (aiming for more like 5 hours and this isn’t even shaded yet).
As for the challenges with this one:
low angle shot is always a bit awkward, but I think it holds up
as usual, the hair was a bit of a pain
omg, the dress… I was completely clueless here, eventually just drew some vague draperies and called it a day (lol). Her dress is nothing like this originally (shape-wise)
Here are some thumbs. Wanted to go for something like a ballet dancer pose, but ended up liking this sitting, low angle pose. I drew these thumbs over a few days, waiting for something to catch my eye. The bottom ones were quite elaborate, they were actually full roughs, but I concluded the pose is unnatural and that I don’t like it after all.
Sorry , I’m rambling as usual, but wanted to share one more observation. I was recently working on that other WIP (already spent hours and hours on it) and during that time I neglected basic stuff like figure drawing and basically drawing various new roughs. This is BAD. I got really rusty and felt like regressing. Obvious is obvious, but yeah, need to draw at least one character pose a day, the daily routine is key.
Hey! Nice work! But I think it’s a bad idea to try trading quality for speed: what’s a few more hours of making for a quality that will last potentially forever, as long as you release your finished artwork on the internet? Besides, speed should come naturally over time and practice…
I feel you on practice! I am back on my factory job, so I find less time for my art- especially just practice. I know somethings are like riding a bike, but there is still more ground to cover!
Yes, you’re certainly right! If my aim was primarily creating a portfolio, like in a hope of finding work, I would totally agree. However, I realized there’s a big opportunity cost to these highly polished pieces, especially if you’re still inexperienced. If I have a choice of creating 1 super clean piece or 5 “looks pretty nice” pieces, then I think I’ll go for the latter.
Why? It’s more of a balancing act than anything. I think I’ll still do a few of those high-investment, high-polish works, but I want to supplement them with a steady stream of simpler ones. Each new piece gives me an opportunity to practice thumbnailing/concept, composition, perspective, and rough linework. This is what I think will give me the biggest bang for buck at my current level. I want to keep churning stuff out and and yeah, maybe at some point (like, in several years) I’ll be able to paint one masterpiece after another, haha
As for that quality thing, what I mainly mean by this is that there are artists that can create stunning work with just a few basic shapes. If you zoom in, it turns out it’s just a bunch of dots (example: WLOP), or the lineart isn’t all super clean or smooth (example: Naoki Saito). Yet somehow, when you view it at the intended scale, it all blends together in your brain and looks nothing short of amazing.
, I’m rambling as usual, but wanted to share one more observation. I was recently working on that other WIP (already spent hours and hours on it) and during that time I neglected basic stuff like figure drawing and basically drawing various new roughs. This is BAD. I got really rusty and felt like regressing. Obvious is obvious, but yeah, need to draw at least one character pose a day, the daily routine is key.
Besides, speed should come naturally over time and practice…
