I’ve been trying to come up with ideas for things to draw and thought that I would get some inspiration from other things that I’ve created. Narcissistic, right?
I recently released a soundtrack inspired by video game music, and as mentioned on another blog of mine, I’ve been very inspired by Klei’s art style in Don’t Starve.
What I love the most about the Don’t Starve art style is the 2D qualities characters have and the simple the art style is. It’s funny, but as I say that, I realize that I don’t have the verbiage to fully understand why I like the art style Klei chose to go with… But that’s what this blog is for!
Above is the first attempt I had of drawing a “me-esque” character. There’s a couple of things I know I need to work on for humans, particularly the hands and the way that arms work.
Hands are the hardest, but I’ve heard that a lot with people, and I’m not sure if I care for a hyper-realistic depiction of them. Especially because hands can be hidden or altered to be easily drawn in so many different ways. Behind objects, clenched up as fists, pointing in a particular manner.
Oh yeah, I love how even as an adult I still draw boots or shoes in the same manner. Everyone’s a duck when they stand, but it’s just so quirky and identifiable.
What I most learned from drawing the “me-esque” character is that I’m not very interested in fully human characters. I didn’t find it thrilling to be working on drawing “me” but I think it’s because I found what I really wanted to work on.
I did really love the purple in this drawing and was fairly fond of the way the shadow worked in the painting, but I don’t think that a character that resembles me is what I really want to work on.
So, I began drawing a non-humanoid character that was inspired by the element Ice. The sound sample I used to draw from was Transcendence from Basically Average: Adventure Mode, though originally the element intended was not Ice. I had joked previously that Transcendence to me had the vibes of “earthy-mountain people” which is definitely not the vibe I started feeling later.
Transcendence feels more like a world where there are lots of sculptures and castles made from ice, but for some reason, their world is experiencing rain, which is starting to cause it to melt. Especially with the instrumentation.
So, the thought behind this dude was to give him a shape and body that was fairly humanoid, but try to take out the aspects you struggle with like hands and feet quickly and see how you can work around it. Similar with his hair. I now had the freedom to point something that was abstract, but still allowed people to identify it as a living being or creature if that makes sense.
I also made sure to get that awesome background blend that you can do so perfectly with watercolours.
When I was happy with him, I decided to try the next version, ending up with these two fellas:
Look at these beauties! They definitely came a long way, but they’re headed into the direction that I want them to go into. Honestly, I think I want to challenge myself to come up with creatures from all of the different songs. See if I can re-imagine the world that I created through music in watercolours.
Who knows, but I thought I’d just put it out there, because, why not! Welcome to Paint and Things, the blog where I… Paint and Things and figure out what drawing is.
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