There are a variety of ways to create art. The type of supplies you use to do it are called an art medium (Fun Fact: the plural term is media). For example, oil paints are an art medium.
As the years have passed, I’ve been slowly finding myself being drawn (no pun intended) to a handful of mediums I like using. But I want to start focusing on one or two so that I can go from being a jack-of-all-trades to eventually a master. Because let’s be honest, I still have a long way to go before I create a true masterpiece.
I had heard of a way to do this is to draw/color a piece in different styles to see which one you like the best. Unfortunately I did not have my watercolors on me so I could use them for this study, and though I love using acrylic paint for my crafts, I don’t use it too much for classic art unless requested. The three mediums I wanted to try out today were: inks, colored pencils, and digital illustration.
The one above was created with my little black pen. I really enjoy the contrast of the black and white, and the different ways I get to play with lines to convey shading and depth (valid, I still need some work on these). However, this style feels very…colorless. So though I usually enjoy my end results, I am not too happy that there aren’t any colors on it. This took…2-3 hours to create, with the background taking most of the time with it.
This version of the alien girl (because that’s the name I gave her while working on her and it’s kinda stuck) was done with prismacolors. I feel like the paper was too smooth for the coloring pencils to work to their full potential, but I dislike the way some of the shading is one this. Plus, it looks very…I don’t know what word I wanna use, but it looks very scratchy? Like it is not fully completed.
It took about an hour or two to finish this one. The time-consuming bit was the shading.
This final version was created with Clip Studio and my Wacom art tablet. To be honest, this feels like a better version of the prismacolor creation. I like that I can easily change colors, correct lines, and create perfect shapes when I want to. And shading is a whole lot easier with layers. The con is that I have to use my computer, which means I can not easily go outdoors and work on this under a tree.
This version took about 3 hours to complete, and was actually started and completed on my latest stream on Twitch.
In the end…
My top two favorites were the inks and digital illustration. So from now on I’m definitely focusing on them. However, I have a collection of adult coloring books waiting to be used, so I might practice my coloring skills with them.
Which was your favorite?
ArtsyRobotz 