Draw a Circle Then Draw the Rest of the Owl
Art processes 1; cartoon the rest of the fucking owl
Hello lovely internet ppl. This time terminal yr I was running my Insecta Deck Kickstarter, and fabricated a serial of backer posts on my art processes. This was 1 of the most popular, and now my backers and Patreon patrons take had plenty of time to expect at it, I figure its fourth dimension to share. I hope you relish it likewise….
[CONTENT WARNING: PROFANITY, Apparently]
At that place's more to drawing the rest of the fucking owl
SO. In that location's this meme, correct…
How to describe an owl; 1. Draw some circles. 2. Describe the remainder of the fucking owl.
I both love and vehemently detest this meme. I cannot tell you how much it makes me giggle and notwithstanding grind my teeth at the same time. And since it regularly pops up again, I might as well make the most of it
The internets favourite unhelpful art meme
I love this meme considering to be honest, drawing isn't magical or all about innate talent. A lot about learning to draw is more to do with learning to discover. That, and putting in countless hours of repeatedly honing your skills until you tin, in fact, merely draw the rest of the fucking owl. There'due south no cloak-and-dagger, just hours and hours of practise - the length of which will vary for all of united states - and at any point in time we're either capable of drawing the residue of the fucking owl assuredly, or we're non.
I hate it with the fire of a thousand stars that are significantly hotter than our lord's day, because it encapsulates EVERYFUCKINGTHING that is smug and unhelpful near art advice on the internet. OF Form you gotta depict the rest of the bastardtittyshittyfucking owl, but do you know what? No ane e'er got helped on their way to BEING ABLE to recognisably draw the rest of the fucking owl past this kind of advice. Y'all'd be an accented arsebarnacle to give out such advice and leave it at that.
Because there are another things betwixt the circles and the rest of the fucking owl, my friends…
Those things can be hard to define though. Which is maybe why the meme exists. Here is my honest breakdown of what comes between the circles and the finished beast for me. Merely delight also bear in mind I've been using pencil mediums intensively for years. I've put a lot of coins in the practice fountain, and for what it'due south worth; I'm still never 100% happy with the quality of my fucking owls… Merely I think I can describe satisfactorily enough to commit things to a print projection similar a deck of cards
Some color pencil work on the ii of Spades planthoppers - shading their waxy tails
My drawing board. Yeah, I live by the laws of blue tack and 120 oil-based pigment pencils. (That, and coffee)
How to draw the remainder of the fucking insect...
In that location are iv stages to the nitty gritty drawing (for me at least); sketching, marking out, shading, and fine detailing. Below are some WIP images from the deck artwork that cover these stages. You can hopefully come across that most of my drawings kickoff out looking like they've been made in crayon by a hangry toddler, but they practise turn out alright in the terminate
1 - Sketching
I have no innate sketching skill, it's only scratchy-drawing, swearing, refining, repeat until your insect looks less crayoned. But you lot ameliorate believe some of my insects did not start out with the right number of legs, run into exhibits A-D below...
The 9H sketch was particularly crayon-y initially
The sketches for the Hearts courtroom cards
I don't know why I'm so indecisive about legs. I just am
Clubs courts. And then many legs. So. Many.
I piece of work from reference where possible - and so I estimate step zero is research; deciding what you want to draw and studying reference images if you can become em. Only anyway, I use a ruler to endeavour and get the proportions of an insect correct. If I'm striving to exist super-authentic, I'll apply the grid method and a reference prototype, only we're making upwards new insect species hither, then we're good with but vaguely accurate proportions.
For cards with a lot of insects on them (eg the 9s and 10s); I refine my sketch until I'one thousand happy, go over it in ink, and then I scan it, duplicate the digital insect, and arrange ten insects digitally on a card template. This is so I know I'll leave the correct amount of room for each critter, and not overlap the pips. I'll oftentimes leave multiple legs on the sketch also, and then I can depict unlike insects with different leg positions. Then I print my layout, and use a lightbox to transfer the digitised sketch on a paper template. For lower numbers I sketch direct onto a paper template and then I can see the pips. For court cards, jokers, and aces (cards with just one large-arse insect on), I sketch on blank paper and refine the one drawing until ready to be marked out.
Images from sketching, outlining and marking out the 10 of Hearts - ane of the more complex designs, for which I digitised my initial sketch to make a layout, and lightboxed a rough outline onto my paper template. Click to enlarge
2 - Marker out
Marking out consists of going over my graphite pencil sketch (or lightboxed outlines where necessary) to refine them to a final layout. I do that beginning in graphite again to satisfy myself everything is in the right identify, and then in light colour pencil. There is a lot of tweaking at this phase, because y'all don't necessarily become a sense for what the concrete drawing will await like until you lot have all your insects on the card template in front end of yous. Then I erase all the graphite pencil and become over my light color pencil outline in heavier colours. Above you can come across some stage of this marking up for 10H
At this indicate I am basically committed, and I'm internally screaming for pretty much the whole residual of the cartoon process in instance I fuck it up. (Hey, I said this was an honest breakdown.) The internal screaming gets louder the more than hours of drawing elapse. And then that's... [checks notes] 'fun'.
Each phase of marker upwards the drawing for 10H, from pencil transfered using the lightbox, to heavy color outline & internal screaming. (I made this image so I could do a WIP series for my Patreon patrons, I wouldn't usually take one insect at each phase)
3 - Shading
At that place's no going back at present, and so I begin the loooooooong work of shading the cartoon to make full in and gradually build up layers of colour from low-cal to dark (or vice versa, depends on the critter) as you lot tin can see in the images & videos below. Sometimes I outline blackness insects in pen to proceed my outline well-baked, which also makes shading a mite easier. For larger number cards I also generally tested out my colours on a tiny test piece get-go, and you tin meet one of those being made in the 10H video.
This is where that practice stuff actually becomes important, cos if you rush shading; you will regret it. There's not an like shooting fish in a barrel way to describe this... So I suppose I have to grudgingly acknowledge to drawing the rest of the fucking owl at this point. Here's a couple of videos to illustrate - the 9D video has artists commentary in the closed captions that explain what I'm doing a piddling. The other video is some shading on the Ace of Diamonds, speeded up A LOT to show how choosy I am with my layers. I unashamedly dear some expert careful shading.
Images of shading and detailing the Opal Deck tuck box cockroach
Timelapse for drawing the Insecta Deck 10H, featuring an imaginary deck-dwelling relative of the Mexican beloved wasp. With thanks to Alex Wild for photograph reference of the real life species to measure from. Music is past Soft and Furious.
Images from the shading and detailing of 10H
9D timelapse with artists commentary in the closed captions (click the CC button to bring up captions). Music is past Lee Rosevere
The 9D card template shown in the video above is the only i I printed in grey. My fancy printer I use for heavyweight drawing paper templates was outta ink, but I wanted to get on with cartoon, then I coloured over the pips in red later! I use a digital template for the actual pips, so this doesn't affect the deck press
Some careful shading at >m% actual speed. Music is by Kai Engel
4 - Fine detailing
Alright, say we've survived the shading. *Now* we have the opportunity to Actually fuck things upwardly if we get incorrect! [Internal screaming intensifies...] Rushing would take been a bad idea earlier, just it would exist a truly awful idea now. So I make sure my pencils stay perilously sharp - if I take one piece of advice (for both shading and detailing actually), it'south to never miss an opportunity to sharpen a pencil. I become slowly and advisedly (and scream internally) with the pointiest pencils around.
Thassit.
Seriously though. Putting all the veins in the wings of blatts and bees, calculation all the hairs to beetle legs... That stuff is nervus-wracking I'm telling you. Merely very satisfying if y'all get it correct!
Fine details on the carabid beetle for the Opal Deck bill of fare back
Just shy of xxx hours of drawing, in 2 and a half minutes! All of drawing the Insecta Ace of Spades, including the tiny test cartoon. Music is by Soft & Furious
Whew.
I don't know what else to say actually. That's basically how Insect Deck happened. This process, 61 times.
Each of these designs took and then many hours to draw. On the ane paw there is a lot more to it than drawing the residue of the fucking owl, but on the other... Information technology'southward difficult to define exactly what I'grand doing some of the time because I've been drawing and then long, it's all muscle memory. As of summer 2015 I haven't been able to feel all my fingers (tl;dr - my spine is an asshat.) But it hasn't afflicted my drawing. Fifty-fifty when I can't feel well-nigh of my paw I can nevertheless depict. I say that to illustrate that musculus retentivity is wild! There's no substitute for exercise to gain that.
To finish upward; the closest affair I've got to actual art advice tin exist constitute hither, and someone else's advice that I've e'er valued is here. I've written a tonne then I'm going to drop this art-&-words-flop and go find some more fucking owls to draw
Pls take care of yourselves and each other as much as you lot can lovely people
Immy xx
Drawing board cam view of the Ace of Spades shading and detailing. Music is past Kai Engel
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Source: https://www.immysmith.net/blog/2020/2/1/art-process-drawing-the-rest-of-the-fucking-owl
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