Little Red
For the past three weeks, I've been kept busy with full time work placement in an animation studio in Dublin. It was fun, I was able to develop my skills, and I met a few wonderful people along the way. I gained so much more from the experience too; discovering what it was like to live and work in the biggest city in Ireland. I'm incredibly thankful to have had that opportunity, but it did take some getting used to... and I was exhausted from it. When I got home, I spent an entire day just sleeping, thinking, writing, and drawing in an effort to get my energy levels back up to usual. So, to kick this blog into its usual routine again, I thought I'd share one of the pieces I did that day, which helped me get back to my usual self again. :)
I didn’t do a whole lot of planning or prep for this one. I just had this idea that I wanted to create something warm and inviting, while trying to capture the feeling of relaxation growing into passion. In my mind, I was seeing a lot of warm reds and gold. With just that very vague guideline to work with, I hit the ground running with a soft, creamy base using almost cloud-like, low opacity brushes. From there, I developed a loose sketch – nothing too complex, just whatever came naturally – and added a kick with a solid block of crimson. At this stage, I had moved on to firmer, rougher brushes and a higher opacity setting, adding a little weight. I liked how it was looking – building on the causal, relaxed feeling I was looking for – so I continued that style with Red’s clothes and carried the same colour throughout the linework too.
Next, I toned down the opacity again, and started building up the tones throughout Red’s features, never straying too far from the colour scheme I’d already established. At this stage though, I felt like the background was a little too relaxed, bordering on boring… and I wanted to capture passion and energy as well as relaxation. So, with that as my goal, I swapped out the cream background and replaced it with a vibrant crimson, laced with sweeping golden swirls. I kept it loose and fluid - a visualization of creativity and ideas coming to life – and experimented with layer styles until I was happy I’d achieved what I’d set out to do. A few adjustment layers later, and I feel like I did just that.
Overall; I'm happy with how this one turned out, and happier still that I'm feeling more like my usual self than I did before I started. Drawing just because is a pretty wonderful thing. :)