January 2020

First traditional drawings of the year:

Red Veggies

This vegetable series began this spring, first as a relaxation from the Indesign work I was doing as my day (and sometimes night) job, then more diligently as I had more free time (like the 6 peppers one).
The first two are done only using colored pencil while the rest also have a watercolor base. They are quite small, except for the last, more medium sized one.

The idea was to create a collection for my Etsy shop as well. I've always found red to be a very stimulating color, so maybe I overused in an attempt to feel more fresh, haha.

The technique is still the same, a light sketch, which I erase, only leaving a hint on the paper. Then slowly adding color, until I've reached the darkest shade from the reference photo.

Maybe the most important part is the years of drawing practice beforehand and attempting with each drawing to understand how to suggest the volume of something, the diligent study of the way light and shadow rest on things. And even exagerating sometimes, like making slightly darker outlines so the shape will pop more in constrast to the white of the page.

The scanning and cleaning process are very important as they contribute to this as well. I usually do it using polygonal lasso in Photoshop with a grey layer underneath so I don't leave any old paper undeleted. Then I replace that layer with pure white.

M.

Women's Day 2019 Illustration

This was a fortunate accident, that I decided to make this strawberry illustration just before Women's Day. Lately I've been dabbling in food illustration, mostly fruits and vegetables for now.

This was also the first time I had used a refillable water brush, and while I'm not such a fan of sinthetic brushes, it really did help speed up the process. Of course I added color pencil on top, in an attempt to make it even more realistic. This succeded, altough it did take away from the freshness the watercolor alone provided. The ones I'm most proud of are probably the last set, on the lower right corner.

M.