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Ah the grueling journey of art improvement. Just remember, sucking at something is the first step of being moderately better at something. You're doing great!
Or the second, the third, the fifth, the eleventh, so many times out of nowhere that will make you ask if everyone else is treating it like a number that always goes up and you are born as a failure in the thing you love the most. I am fine tho, why ask?😢
Even though I've been drawing daily for nearly two years now, I've only recently started regularly drawing backgrounds. By that, I mean make the lower half of the drawing one shade of green and the upper half a different shade of green. And, if I'm feeling particularly creative, I'll add a blue area at the top.
"I can't wait to enjoy my meal concept" I love how you're just as Drawfee-pilled as the rest of us, my vocabulary has also been irrevocably damaged by those funky fellas 🤣
In the tree house I think the mane problem is the lighting, in the sense that the tree house, which is the focal point, has the same dark values as the foreground which makes it all kind of meld together. I think it would be way better if the sunlight that is hitting the middle ground with the kids and the grass was also hitting the tree house, just make it really bright and with those warm tones. Having the tree with lighter values would make it stick out way more compared to the foreground and make it clearer. Another thing is that the colors all around are very similar, which is not necessarily a problem, but here it has the same effect as making the values similar, blends everything together. You definitely included a variety of greens like you said, but when it comes to separating the forest from the tree house I think it would be good to set up a base distinct color palette, for example: if you want to keep the house on the sunlight and make it really warm, try to make the colors of the forest in the foreground very cold, pushing to bluish tones, this will help build contrast. A great thing to remember is that when the sun is giving off a yellowish hue of light the shadows will be purple-ish and blue-ish because its the complementary color, you can notice this in real life, you can use this in your environments to build contrast and make more interesting color palettes. Having variety of hues is great but make sure that you have a reason for that variety, intention is very important in making art great and consistent.
Words cannot express how encouraging this is for me to continue on my art journey and stop being so intimidated by aspects of design I am unfamiliar with.
So I went to commercial art school just before computer art took over. One of the arguments against the new tech artists was the lack of their working first in black and white and only then adding color. It was said that tech artists used color to make up for lousy perspective, values, and lighting. And that led to muddy color, etc. So, seeing you begin in gray scale first is heartening. Of course, tech artists have grown since then (i.e., dinasours). Anyway, I enjoyed watching your process. I think you're very talented, and your thirst for learning is actually exciting. Thanx for the journey.
Some of your terms are confusing so I might be getting this wrong, but I went to school for graphic design and traditional art under the same degree, back circa 2010s and I have to say that, especially these days, there are probably millions of talented digital artists who begin with black and white sketches first and i cant imagine why that wouldn't always be the case, and there was a trend of People doing whole pieces in black and white to get values right and then adding color, and it is still considered a good practice to add black and white filter to your art to see if the values are good, before finishing it. Many professional animators and illustrators use digital programs and know all the fundamentals. I cannot imagine what that argument was referring to, unless it was just that it was then a new field and so most who did it were still amatures. But muddy colors and bad proportion and perspective is something many amature trad artists struggle with in my experience, so it's not unique to digital art
Thanx for the info. I was in school in 1985 and 86. Very very early cgi, etc. My partner in the late 80's was an early commercial cgi artist. She spent days working out the creation glass. Cool to know artists still work from the basics. Seriously, I haven't kept up as I went into a different direction for a career. So if I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about, it's because I don't. What I do creatively now is I'm building a diorama for D&D 28mm and 32mm female characters. It does my heart good.
your point about the spider-verse cityscapes stuff is so real. i eat up all the spider-verse backgrounds, fork and knife, they are all stunning, and your backgrounds were beautiful and a very good dessert for the evening!
You critiquing your works/ setting goals was SO helpful because Im almost in the exact same situations (difficulty with values, breaking stuff down to understand it better, PERSPECTIVE)
when she said she couldn't wait to enjoy her meal concept my drawfee braincell activated immediately hahaha, in all seriousness the video was really good and a nice display what progressing as an artist also means ! (it's not all pretty characters done in a few hours even if we do love that as well ^^)
One thing that really helps with perspective if you're struggling on buildings is do some studies of weird close up angles of parts of a building. Strange angles looking down stairwells, angle up at some interesting rafters, etc... Even doing a stack of blocks with multiple lights helps a lot. Jumping in on a whole building if something isn't clicking can really block learning the basics of perceptive.
That spiderverse piece 👌 plus you add a cat to anything i will automatically love it. I don't do digital art and really enjoy hearing you learning and pushing your skills further
A very important point: You reduced the saturation in order to check the values, but that screws with the values, since those are affected by the colour. Meaning if you put down the saturation the values for blue and yellow will be similar despite that not being the case. Instead either use a sgrey filter or add a new layer, fill it with black and then set it to colour. Then you get the true values of your work ^^
Ight I found your channel like a month ago now and INSTANTLY I felt that Jenna/julien energy and I must say I’ve been obsessed ever since, your work is amazing and so inspiring as a new digital artist!
This is great! Hansi of Nerdforge just did a whole course that Martina built for him, and I've been working my way through it, because I make abstract paintings, but can't draw anything from life/reference at all, and the value of many, many hours of practice can't be overstated, in my opinion. I love watching the process of building skills, because it motivates me to spend my own time building my own skills.
Omg! Thank you for the shout out! You did a fantastic job on the cityscape and all of the colours in the windows too ☺this is such an inspiring video to keep trying things out and pushing yourself as an artist
The treehouse is very visually loud, I think something you could look into is that a lot of the values and colors are 'fighting' for attention, maybe play with other ways to show composition? Brightness, level of detail, placement, etc. It has so much potential and I think it's gorgeous! I think your choice of colors and overall process here is done well! I especially love the shapes and especially the colored windows(?) on the top.
Wow!!! These studys are so gorgeous. It can def be hard to pick good refs without getting overwhelmed by all the options, but you really brought the magic out of the images you chose!
If you ever do a sequel of this could you draw some building interiors? Maybe some landscapes that you don't usually work with like a desert or coral reef?
Omgg those are so gorgeous, I love seeing artists who admit they need to practice, you inspire me to paint and work on my characters, I'd love to see some interior design/backgrounds
Will have to rewatch this one - the background drawing was so chill and calming that I was put into a calm, semi-hypnotized state. Very sorry for the artblock, but my anxiety thanks you for the relaxing vibes.
This is very inspiring for me, young artist who loves illustrations of backgrounds but definitely struggles with them & with the fact that i need to work on stuff to actually get better at it. Loved the lay out of the video too, thank you for sharing your art !
Kira this video is amazingly helpful, not only the process, but the resources and the commentary, as an artist this is one of my favorite videos in the internet
Honestly it’s so comforting to know I’m not alone in struggling with composition and value. It’s soo tough!! I get stuck in the details and then step back and realize everything is off in scale or composition and then have to redo everything. We learn and grow with everything we do at least!! The forest are such a vibe also!
Loved seeing all the background pieces you made. My favorites of the first sets was the mountain with flowers. For the second set I absolutely adored how the castle with the volcanos at night looked! The lighting and silhouettes were just sooo pretty!!! Would love to see more of these. A background for your fairy and witch oc's would be cool. Witch houses! Fairy houses!
These look so great! your critiques were really nice to hear too. One thing I want to point out is that your values in that building piece are actually a lot neater than the desaturated image gives it credit for. That bright turquoise you used in the horizon is a lot brighter in value than the grayscale image shows! :o
Honestly, this is one the most inspiring videos I've seen from your channel so far! I have a very similar taste in background art, especially with cityscapes as a focal point, so the resources are going to be a huge help in the future! On top of that, just listening to you go through the process of practicing and improving over the last couple of videos has really inspired me to go back to practicing more fundamental ideals of art, even when I'm working on full scale pieces! Over all, I had an amazing time joining you on this little practice session, and I hope you find your way out of your art funk soon!
Awesome video! I have been struggling with painting backgrounds, shadows, and highlights on Procreate. I am a beginner and I am used to drawing traditional art, but looking back to your old videos for tutorials how to paint shadows, highlights, and don’t over blend the shadows. I have learned everything from your videos and they were very helpful. I would love to learn more about this video because the way you explained about painting background is really interesting and it helps me to understand and not confusing. Much respect thank you for sharing this Kira and keep it up the good work.
23:30 To fix the distance issue, the trees in the WAAAYYY back, like on the horizon, should be way more LIGHT blue (they're like a vibrant light green.) This will at least draw the eye to the base of the tree where the swing is. You might want to try either graying down, or taking out some of the detail of the trees in the up close foreground. Or de-contrast them and take out a stick/thin trunk or two on either side. I like your use of contrasting colors (the overall subtle red and vibrant greens, some yellow/purple accents, and also the blue/orange accents.) It's a very cute piece, and hopefully that helps! And I like the fence kitty!
oh my gosh dude ur art is so inspiring i was just trying to learn backgrounds and was starting to loose motivation im really bad at them also im just not satisfied with my art in general recently this videos helping me gain the inspo and motovation to keep trying, thanks!
This is so comforting! I have been drawing for awhile now (nowhere near professional) but I have been pretty art blocked, it’s like “Yeah, I can draw, but I could probably draw this better” and with art deadlines coming up my art frustration from lack of fundamental practice is getting to me. In total, nice to see I’m not alone in the never ending process that is art
Even the greats use references for their masterpieces so doing so is not "cheating " or showing a lack of knowledge/ imagination. I used to get down really hard on myself about using reference photos or drawing inspiration from different sources thinking that "true" artists can see an image in their mind and then create it all on their own. Then I started taking college courses for my art major and I quickly realized that my original idea of art was inherently flawed. The "greats" like Picasso, Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Boris Vallejo, Luis Royo, and even the modern digital media "greats" all use references to work from. It is always good to go back to basics when art blocks hit so you or anyone else experiencing it, it's ok, and just like she mentioned in the video art block is just the stage that we all Plateau on before we break through and improve apon our craft. I'm so happy that this is a safe place for us to be open and honest about the ups or downs of our art journeys. 🎨 ❤
the way you just breakdown the backgrounds is so MWA like watching the pieces come together was so satisfying, i wish i could paint backgrounds like you
I love this! Very inspiring!!! If you ever feel the slightest want to do another environment/landscape/backgrounf etc focused video, i will be there metaphorically foaming at the mouth for anything like that!
FUN FACT: Alberto Mielgo was the artist for both Entergalatic and spider-verse i studied him for my Uni project hes said himself the way he colours is inspired by Impressionism
I super love this video since I LOVE doing landscape and background art, more on nature, it’s definitely my comfort art. Though I get you in cityscape/architectural art even though I do it on the daily since I’m an architecture student so im crying, kicking and screaming to get through it all. The advice I have learned as a student in terms of emphasizing that distance between objects is keeping the balance of the foreground, mid ground and background. I was taught to tint (more to sky’s colors) & less detail (since the focus was on drawing the main building I was case studying and everything else was to paint a picture of the surrounding environment the architecture was located in, so I had to learn how to keep it vague) the background, putting more detail on the mid ground (or your focal point), and then again with less detail but darkening the foreground. I definitely see that in the beginning in the thumbnail sketch and putting all the values but it gets lost as soon as you started putting in more of the details and colors. Overall, you’ve got most of it down so you’re on the right track on improving and I feel very inspired to do more with my art (even ones I have to do for school ;w;). Thank you for this video, I didn’t know I needed this until now. ^^
one of my favorite ways to practice this kind of thing is taking screenshots of shows/movies i'm watching with interesting lighting/composition then using those as the reference
The first building you drew actually has a 1 point perspective, right in the middle behind the central building =) It is funny cuz I envy your ability to draw such fluid characters and I am a drafter who has been drawing square buildings for far too long... lol
You can try to add light blue gradient that start from the bottom of distant object to give atmosphere or fog effect, it will start to show depth on your arts.👍
as always - you DELIVERED! love everything! did have an idea for the treehouse piece that might be worth a test-drive: Lock the foreground layer(s), group the mid and background, and scale up the mid/back ground so that the tree house is larger (pan it as needed to frame with the foreground). I think what may be underwhelming you about it is the scale.
Everytime i draw my mind just goes blank, like just no thoughts, head empty. Then I come across a great artist, or amazing art pieces - specifically the spider verse ones - and those works motivate me to draw more. But the perfectionist in me makes me doubt my artistic skills so i go back to scrolling mindlessly on my phone. It's definitely annoying, but your video is actually helping me open up my creative mind, maybe because i relate to the art block part a lot. Really loved the pieces you were able to produce, they looked incredibly amazing, especially the castle, and your painting style is really good. It's really important to keep in mind that you'll have to draw wonky before you produce something close to perfect, I believe that every artist should remember this And this is off-topic but I really love the way you speak. I'm not an English speaker but i really like your way of speaking great work 🖤💫
So grateful for this video! It's come at a time when I've just started to put effort into practicing environment art, and being able to see your workflow (even including your pinterest boards full of references) is so helpful. Also a big fan of your channel in general, all of your work is amazing!
What would be pretty fun is If you'd start making Backgrounds based on some of the Charakters you Made, so you could Talk about the Charakters lore more, while learning how to Paint Backgrounds! I mean, i would definetly watch it 😃
hey! even though im not an expert, for the treehouse composition that you did, i think that the main focus is on the three characters and not on the treehouse itself. the way that i would fix it is that i would move the treehouse and the characters more to the left, so that the tree is more visible and the characters are kind of hidden by the trees in the foreground. hope that helps! also great video and all in all those were great studies!!
i loved all of these backgrounds so much! its so hard to grasp that they're beginnings for you... but man I hope i can get to a point where i'd make something of similar caliber and think it's not enough (if that makes sense). one little note that i had as someone who read into things a lot: for the volcanic castle islands (the volcastle islands, if you will) image, the character holding the torch facing the right side of the screen seems to communicate more of a feeling of 'discovery' and gives an implication of them heading toward the island. since you said they're escaping, i'd probably have them face the opposite direction, so it gives more of an immediate indication of them turning their backs on it, so to speak. obv, i'm not the most knowledgeable, so take what i say with a grain of salt, but i always like to give people an insight into certain ways tiny details might be interpreted, if even just by my own brain
Hello! Excellent video as always ^^ your skill and speed at these backgrounds is really inspiring and now i want to try some too! You mentioned not being sure of how to fix the range of greens in the treehouse piece and I have a suggestion. I believe that the hues are less planned out than they could be. You definitely used a good range of yellow green all the way to blue greens and even full blue, but I think the arrangement of them could be made a bit more purposeful. For example, with the atmospheric perspective, as I'm sure you know things further away tend to be a bit more blue tinted and less saturated, whereas those closest to the viewer keep their more vibrant tones. Yellow is lost first, then red, so if the main focus of the warmer tones is near the foreground and the greens get cooler as they go back it could help with the depth and clarity that you seemed to be missing when you mentioned the lack of distance. Since you did use cooler hues in the foreground for this particular piece, you could also do a stylized reversal of this where the furthest parts would still be less saturated but also stick with that warmer colour, as if the atmospheric perspective is created by the sunlight bouncing off the particles in the air instead. Since the overall look is a warm afternoon/evening closer to golden hour than a bright blue midday I think it would work nicely as well ^^ For the second and third pieces you incorporated the brushes really well! That can be really tricky so excellent work ^^ (gasped for joy when you added the rain in the spiderverse piece. The VIBES ARE IMMACULATE and we are thriving) Do you tend to flip your canvas? I do it all the time especially in the sketching. It can really help your eye find those little "off" things that may not stand out enough to know what's wrong without a fresh *perspective* hehe Such a fantastic video, Thank you so much for sharing your studies and process!!! (enjoy your meal concept got me diving into the comments liking everyone that pointed it out, love from a fellow drawfreak!!!)
23:02 -- an idea that popped in my head to bring the focus to the treehouse is maybe to but a light blur on the closer trees at the edges, because when you're looking at something intently everything else is slightly blurred, and maybe decrease the saturation of the non-focal points a little (idk about that one tho just a spitball idea) maybe that'll help! I don't do backgrounds either so i get the struggle
New viewer here! It’s very inspiring and helpful to watch you break down your pieces and what you were trying to improve on. For the treehouse piece, I think adding those trees in the far background messed up toe composition. Before, you had a white space around the treehouse that led your eye to it, while separating it from the foreground trees. Even just lowering the opacity on the farthest background trees would’ve helped.
Something that really helped me with environments/backgrounds was watercolor. Watercolor is all about layering, You can see every color you put down. I always struggled with environments but with watercolor, Its my favorite part lol
I have no idea who you are this popped up in my feed and I'm happy i watched this, i really liked the study to critique than into fun art. Just really fun vibes
I love this type of video thank you for showing your process!! I really want to work on my backgrounds but I’m so intimidated especially not knowing much about anything other than drawing everything by hand. You really turned up at the end there lol
omg thank you for this vid!! u inspire me as an artist so much. i definitely feel more inclined to expand my skills. ❤ and thank you for linking your resources😭 im gonna share this with my friends!!!!
I think I fell in love with your art but also your taste! When you mentioned Spider-Verse and the artbook I was jumping, then Entergalactic and the last bit talking about Devil Elle Kurtz's brushes! omg, never met someone with so many mutual interests lol
The volcano one is really cool! I've never done digital art, outside of sketching with a tablet, so this is fascinating to watch (it seems so arcane 😅)
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Can you show us how you made the texture for bricks in a separate video?
And how you applied them :)
im pretty sure that mountain reference is AI
We enjoyed YOUR meal concept! (The meal concept was this awesome video)
almost two mil and no verification, huh, champs? (hi jacob!)
Congratulations on the verification, Drawfee! It certainly didn’t happen in the last 48 hours, did it?
@@purpleduck1400Nah, they certainly couldn’t have gotten verified WHILE on the 2Mil creep. Impossible.
Wow, is that THE verified Drawfee?
New sub. Jacob gave you a shout out during the Secret Sleepover Society stream tonight. I look forward to all your concepts. Meal or otherwise.
Ah the grueling journey of art improvement. Just remember, sucking at something is the first step of being moderately better at something. You're doing great!
Jake the dog
ohh my god im saving that, so many times ive immediately given up because it looked ridiculous 😭 some wips dont ever go anywhere but thats alr 😌
Or the second, the third, the fifth, the eleventh, so many times out of nowhere that will make you ask if everyone else is treating it like a number that always goes up and you are born as a failure in the thing you love the most. I am fine tho, why ask?😢
Thankyou so much!❤ God bless you and thank you for this. Jesus loves you.❤
@@lakhanyakhwela4262 And Finn the human
Even though I've been drawing daily for nearly two years now, I've only recently started regularly drawing backgrounds. By that, I mean make the lower half of the drawing one shade of green and the upper half a different shade of green. And, if I'm feeling particularly creative, I'll add a blue area at the top.
me. most of my backgrounds are abstract shapes and outlines LOL
"I can't wait to enjoy my meal concept" I love how you're just as Drawfee-pilled as the rest of us, my vocabulary has also been irrevocably damaged by those funky fellas 🤣
The brainrot is so real
What’s the point of being an artist if you’re not a drawfee fan
we can never watch brave the same way ever again
this entire comment thread makes me unexplainably giddy
I have not watched enough draw fee then. My vocabulary is still the same .
1. That last painting is JUICY
2. pricklyalpaca drawfee guest prayer circle
In the tree house I think the mane problem is the lighting, in the sense that the tree house, which is the focal point, has the same dark values as the foreground which makes it all kind of meld together. I think it would be way better if the sunlight that is hitting the middle ground with the kids and the grass was also hitting the tree house, just make it really bright and with those warm tones. Having the tree with lighter values would make it stick out way more compared to the foreground and make it clearer.
Another thing is that the colors all around are very similar, which is not necessarily a problem, but here it has the same effect as making the values similar, blends everything together. You definitely included a variety of greens like you said, but when it comes to separating the forest from the tree house I think it would be good to set up a base distinct color palette, for example: if you want to keep the house on the sunlight and make it really warm, try to make the colors of the forest in the foreground very cold, pushing to bluish tones, this will help build contrast.
A great thing to remember is that when the sun is giving off a yellowish hue of light the shadows will be purple-ish and blue-ish because its the complementary color, you can notice this in real life, you can use this in your environments to build contrast and make more interesting color palettes. Having variety of hues is great but make sure that you have a reason for that variety, intention is very important in making art great and consistent.
Wonderful critique!
I can't believe Alpaca spent 80,000 hours painting backgrounds
Words cannot express how encouraging this is for me to continue on my art journey and stop being so intimidated by aspects of design I am unfamiliar with.
Ah yes my mortal enemy, backgrounds
So I went to commercial art school just before computer art took over. One of the arguments against the new tech artists was the lack of their working first in black and white and only then adding color. It was said that tech artists used color to make up for lousy perspective, values, and lighting. And that led to muddy color, etc. So, seeing you begin in gray scale first is heartening. Of course, tech artists have grown since then (i.e., dinasours). Anyway, I enjoyed watching your process. I think you're very talented, and your thirst for learning is actually exciting.
Thanx for the journey.
Some of your terms are confusing so I might be getting this wrong, but I went to school for graphic design and traditional art under the same degree, back circa 2010s and I have to say that, especially these days, there are probably millions of talented digital artists who begin with black and white sketches first and i cant imagine why that wouldn't always be the case, and there was a trend of People doing whole pieces in black and white to get values right and then adding color, and it is still considered a good practice to add black and white filter to your art to see if the values are good, before finishing it. Many professional animators and illustrators use digital programs and know all the fundamentals. I cannot imagine what that argument was referring to, unless it was just that it was then a new field and so most who did it were still amatures. But muddy colors and bad proportion and perspective is something many amature trad artists struggle with in my experience, so it's not unique to digital art
Thanx for the info. I was in school in 1985 and 86. Very very early cgi, etc. My partner in the late 80's was an early commercial cgi artist. She spent days working out the creation glass. Cool to know artists still work from the basics. Seriously, I haven't kept up as I went into a different direction for a career. So if I sound like I don't know what I'm talking about, it's because I don't. What I do creatively now is I'm building a diorama for D&D 28mm and 32mm female characters. It does my heart good.
your point about the spider-verse cityscapes stuff is so real. i eat up all the spider-verse backgrounds, fork and knife, they are all stunning, and your backgrounds were beautiful and a very good dessert for the evening!
You critiquing your works/ setting goals was SO helpful because Im almost in the exact same situations (difficulty with values, breaking stuff down to understand it better, PERSPECTIVE)
when she said she couldn't wait to enjoy her meal concept my drawfee braincell activated immediately hahaha, in all seriousness the video was really good and a nice display what progressing as an artist also means ! (it's not all pretty characters done in a few hours even if we do love that as well ^^)
One thing that really helps with perspective if you're struggling on buildings is do some studies of weird close up angles of parts of a building. Strange angles looking down stairwells, angle up at some interesting rafters, etc... Even doing a stack of blocks with multiple lights helps a lot. Jumping in on a whole building if something isn't clicking can really block learning the basics of perceptive.
That spiderverse piece 👌 plus you add a cat to anything i will automatically love it. I don't do digital art and really enjoy hearing you learning and pushing your skills further
A very important point: You reduced the saturation in order to check the values, but that screws with the values, since those are affected by the colour. Meaning if you put down the saturation the values for blue and yellow will be similar despite that not being the case. Instead either use a sgrey filter or add a new layer, fill it with black and then set it to colour. Then you get the true values of your work ^^
As a non artist your skill and attention to detail are really impressive and make me want to learn too!
i talk about you so much that my friend teases me when i talk about art things "dang did you learn that from Kira?"
Ight I found your channel like a month ago now and INSTANTLY I felt that Jenna/julien energy and I must say I’ve been obsessed ever since, your work is amazing and so inspiring as a new digital artist!
This is great! Hansi of Nerdforge just did a whole course that Martina built for him, and I've been working my way through it, because I make abstract paintings, but can't draw anything from life/reference at all, and the value of many, many hours of practice can't be overstated, in my opinion. I love watching the process of building skills, because it motivates me to spend my own time building my own skills.
All of these backgrounds are so pretty. I'd get them all as prints.
Omg! Thank you for the shout out! You did a fantastic job on the cityscape and all of the colours in the windows too ☺this is such an inspiring video to keep trying things out and pushing yourself as an artist
The treehouse is very visually loud, I think something you could look into is that a lot of the values and colors are 'fighting' for attention, maybe play with other ways to show composition? Brightness, level of detail, placement, etc. It has so much potential and I think it's gorgeous! I think your choice of colors and overall process here is done well!
I especially love the shapes and especially the colored windows(?) on the top.
Wow!!! These studys are so gorgeous. It can def be hard to pick good refs without getting overwhelmed by all the options, but you really brought the magic out of the images you chose!
If you ever do a sequel of this could you draw some building interiors? Maybe some landscapes that you don't usually work with like a desert or coral reef?
BABE WAKE UP ALPACA POSTED!!!
Omgg those are so gorgeous, I love seeing artists who admit they need to practice, you inspire me to paint and work on my characters, I'd love to see some interior design/backgrounds
buildings are my nemesis in drawings, i feel your pain -_-
Will have to rewatch this one - the background drawing was so chill and calming that I was put into a calm, semi-hypnotized state. Very sorry for the artblock, but my anxiety thanks you for the relaxing vibes.
This is very inspiring for me, young artist who loves illustrations of backgrounds but definitely struggles with them & with the fact that i need to work on stuff to actually get better at it. Loved the lay out of the video too, thank you for sharing your art !
Kira this video is amazingly helpful, not only the process, but the resources and the commentary, as an artist this is one of my favorite videos in the internet
Honestly it’s so comforting to know I’m not alone in struggling with composition and value. It’s soo tough!! I get stuck in the details and then step back and realize everything is off in scale or composition and then have to redo everything. We learn and grow with everything we do at least!!
The forest are such a vibe also!
Loved seeing all the background pieces you made. My favorites of the first sets was the mountain with flowers. For the second set I absolutely adored how the castle with the volcanos at night looked! The lighting and silhouettes were just sooo pretty!!! Would love to see more of these. A background for your fairy and witch oc's would be cool. Witch houses! Fairy houses!
1:23 off topic, But that Owl House piece is DOPE. Love seeing king as a big boy 😊
i really like your editing style and humor!!
These look so great! your critiques were really nice to hear too. One thing I want to point out is that your values in that building piece are actually a lot neater than the desaturated image gives it credit for. That bright turquoise you used in the horizon is a lot brighter in value than the grayscale image shows! :o
THIS IS SO PERFECT TIMING!! I’ve been planning to focus on environment painting this summer! TYY
Honestly, this is one the most inspiring videos I've seen from your channel so far! I have a very similar taste in background art, especially with cityscapes as a focal point, so the resources are going to be a huge help in the future! On top of that, just listening to you go through the process of practicing and improving over the last couple of videos has really inspired me to go back to practicing more fundamental ideals of art, even when I'm working on full scale pieces! Over all, I had an amazing time joining you on this little practice session, and I hope you find your way out of your art funk soon!
Wow, I used enough exclamation marks to exhaust weird al, didn't I... oh well
@@judee.7186 Didn't even notice until you pointed it out friend.
Awesome video! I have been struggling with painting backgrounds, shadows, and highlights on Procreate. I am a beginner and I am used to drawing traditional art, but looking back to your old videos for tutorials how to paint shadows, highlights, and don’t over blend the shadows. I have learned everything from your videos and they were very helpful. I would love to learn more about this video because the way you explained about painting background is really interesting and it helps me to understand and not confusing. Much respect thank you for sharing this Kira and keep it up the good work.
23:30 To fix the distance issue, the trees in the WAAAYYY back, like on the horizon, should be way more LIGHT blue (they're like a vibrant light green.) This will at least draw the eye to the base of the tree where the swing is. You might want to try either graying down, or taking out some of the detail of the trees in the up close foreground. Or de-contrast them and take out a stick/thin trunk or two on either side. I like your use of contrasting colors (the overall subtle red and vibrant greens, some yellow/purple accents, and also the blue/orange accents.) It's a very cute piece, and hopefully that helps! And I like the fence kitty!
oh my gosh dude ur art is so inspiring i was just trying to learn backgrounds and was starting to loose motivation im really bad at them also im just not satisfied with my art in general recently this videos helping me gain the inspo and motovation to keep trying, thanks!
Drawing castles is an absolute NIGHTMARE but I love them so much I can't stop trying! Your backgrounds are all amazing
18:06 don’t think we wouldn’t notice the drawfee reference
I wouldn't dream of it 🍽️
it is so humbling drawing a castle wow
Luz riding king was so cute!!
As my good friend Sean says "Keep doing good art, keep doing bad art, 'cause the bad art makes you better at the good art!"
Backgrounds are always super challenging but these came out fantastic
What a great sponsor! This is my first video of yours and I'm excited to see more!
Your backgrounds are looking gorgeous and I relate to your art journey a lot
I loved watching this on my break between studying during my college's final season. Keep up the great work!
This is so comforting! I have been drawing for awhile now (nowhere near professional) but I have been pretty art blocked, it’s like “Yeah, I can draw, but I could probably draw this better” and with art deadlines coming up my art frustration from lack of fundamental practice is getting to me. In total, nice to see I’m not alone in the never ending process that is art
Even the greats use references for their masterpieces so doing so is not "cheating " or showing a lack of knowledge/ imagination.
I used to get down really hard on myself about using reference photos or drawing inspiration from different sources thinking that "true" artists can see an image in their mind and then create it all on their own.
Then I started taking college courses for my art major and I quickly realized that my original idea of art was inherently flawed. The "greats" like Picasso, Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Boris Vallejo, Luis Royo, and even the modern digital media "greats" all use references to work from. It is always good to go back to basics when art blocks hit so you or anyone else experiencing it, it's ok, and just like she mentioned in the video art block is just the stage that we all Plateau on before we break through and improve apon our craft. I'm so happy that this is a safe place for us to be open and honest about the ups or downs of our art journeys. 🎨 ❤
I personally love all the outcomes and just wanted to tell you that you inspired me to go out and do some plain air painting today :)
I like the wonky castle. I think people should draw more wonky castles
I could never put my Pinterest home page and boards on full display on UA-cam in the same video my face is in. You’re so brave
the way you just breakdown the backgrounds is so MWA like watching the pieces come together was so satisfying, i wish i could paint backgrounds like you
spiderverse one was fantastic :o. amazing.
Hey just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed this video concept and definitely wouldn’t mind seeing more of it in the future!
I love this! Very inspiring!!! If you ever feel the slightest want to do another environment/landscape/backgrounf etc focused video, i will be there metaphorically foaming at the mouth for anything like that!
Once again the queen has posted a banger❤
FUN FACT: Alberto Mielgo was the artist for both Entergalatic and spider-verse i studied him for my Uni project hes said himself the way he colours is inspired by Impressionism
I super love this video since I LOVE doing landscape and background art, more on nature, it’s definitely my comfort art. Though I get you in cityscape/architectural art even though I do it on the daily since I’m an architecture student so im crying, kicking and screaming to get through it all.
The advice I have learned as a student in terms of emphasizing that distance between objects is keeping the balance of the foreground, mid ground and background. I was taught to tint (more to sky’s colors) & less detail (since the focus was on drawing the main building I was case studying and everything else was to paint a picture of the surrounding environment the architecture was located in, so I had to learn how to keep it vague) the background, putting more detail on the mid ground (or your focal point), and then again with less detail but darkening the foreground. I definitely see that in the beginning in the thumbnail sketch and putting all the values but it gets lost as soon as you started putting in more of the details and colors.
Overall, you’ve got most of it down so you’re on the right track on improving and I feel very inspired to do more with my art (even ones I have to do for school ;w;). Thank you for this video, I didn’t know I needed this until now. ^^
I feel like this is exactly what I need to do right now
Your videos always give me so much motivation to draw and improve
one of my favorite ways to practice this kind of thing is taking screenshots of shows/movies i'm watching with interesting lighting/composition then using those as the reference
The first building you drew actually has a 1 point perspective, right in the middle behind the central building =) It is funny cuz I envy your ability to draw such fluid characters and I am a drafter who has been drawing square buildings for far too long... lol
Love Devin Elle Kurtz!!! Super happy to learn that you use their brushes
You can try to add light blue gradient that start from the bottom of distant object to give atmosphere or fog effect, it will start to show depth on your arts.👍
as always - you DELIVERED! love everything! did have an idea for the treehouse piece that might be worth a test-drive: Lock the foreground layer(s), group the mid and background, and scale up the mid/back ground so that the tree house is larger (pan it as needed to frame with the foreground). I think what may be underwhelming you about it is the scale.
this is so good its hard to watch. it eats up my confidence as an artist
i absolutely LOVE every piece you did!! especially the castle/city-escape piece 😍
Everytime i draw my mind just goes blank, like just no thoughts, head empty. Then I come across a great artist, or amazing art pieces - specifically the spider verse ones - and those works motivate me to draw more. But the perfectionist in me makes me doubt my artistic skills so i go back to scrolling mindlessly on my phone. It's definitely annoying, but your video is actually helping me open up my creative mind, maybe because i relate to the art block part a lot.
Really loved the pieces you were able to produce, they looked incredibly amazing, especially the castle, and your painting style is really good.
It's really important to keep in mind that you'll have to draw wonky before you produce something close to perfect, I believe that every artist should remember this
And this is off-topic but I really love the way you speak. I'm not an English speaker but i really like your way of speaking
great work 🖤💫
"i ignore backgrounds and don't do them often" *proceeds to create several entire f*cking masterpieces*
So grateful for this video! It's come at a time when I've just started to put effort into practicing environment art, and being able to see your workflow (even including your pinterest boards full of references) is so helpful. Also a big fan of your channel in general, all of your work is amazing!
What would be pretty fun is If you'd start making Backgrounds based on some of the Charakters you Made, so you could Talk about the Charakters lore more, while learning how to Paint Backgrounds! I mean, i would definetly watch it 😃
hey! even though im not an expert, for the treehouse composition that you did, i think that the main focus is on the three characters and not on the treehouse itself. the way that i would fix it is that i would move the treehouse and the characters more to the left, so that the tree is more visible and the characters are kind of hidden by the trees in the foreground. hope that helps! also great video and all in all those were great studies!!
Your artstyle is just so unique and cool, this very much motivated me to practice backgrounds myself. Thank you 💕
i loved all of these backgrounds so much! its so hard to grasp that they're beginnings for you... but man I hope i can get to a point where i'd make something of similar caliber and think it's not enough (if that makes sense).
one little note that i had as someone who read into things a lot: for the volcanic castle islands (the volcastle islands, if you will) image, the character holding the torch facing the right side of the screen seems to communicate more of a feeling of 'discovery' and gives an implication of them heading toward the island. since you said they're escaping, i'd probably have them face the opposite direction, so it gives more of an immediate indication of them turning their backs on it, so to speak.
obv, i'm not the most knowledgeable, so take what i say with a grain of salt, but i always like to give people an insight into certain ways tiny details might be interpreted, if even just by my own brain
Hello! Excellent video as always ^^ your skill and speed at these backgrounds is really inspiring and now i want to try some too!
You mentioned not being sure of how to fix the range of greens in the treehouse piece and I have a suggestion. I believe that the hues are less planned out than they could be. You definitely used a good range of yellow green all the way to blue greens and even full blue, but I think the arrangement of them could be made a bit more purposeful.
For example, with the atmospheric perspective, as I'm sure you know things further away tend to be a bit more blue tinted and less saturated, whereas those closest to the viewer keep their more vibrant tones. Yellow is lost first, then red, so if the main focus of the warmer tones is near the foreground and the greens get cooler as they go back it could help with the depth and clarity that you seemed to be missing when you mentioned the lack of distance.
Since you did use cooler hues in the foreground for this particular piece, you could also do a stylized reversal of this where the furthest parts would still be less saturated but also stick with that warmer colour, as if the atmospheric perspective is created by the sunlight bouncing off the particles in the air instead. Since the overall look is a warm afternoon/evening closer to golden hour than a bright blue midday I think it would work nicely as well ^^
For the second and third pieces you incorporated the brushes really well! That can be really tricky so excellent work ^^ (gasped for joy when you added the rain in the spiderverse piece. The VIBES ARE IMMACULATE and we are thriving)
Do you tend to flip your canvas? I do it all the time especially in the sketching. It can really help your eye find those little "off" things that may not stand out enough to know what's wrong without a fresh *perspective* hehe
Such a fantastic video, Thank you so much for sharing your studies and process!!!
(enjoy your meal concept got me diving into the comments liking everyone that pointed it out, love from a fellow drawfreak!!!)
23:02 -- an idea that popped in my head to bring the focus to the treehouse is maybe to but a light blur on the closer trees at the edges, because when you're looking at something intently everything else is slightly blurred, and maybe decrease the saturation of the non-focal points a little (idk about that one tho just a spitball idea) maybe that'll help! I don't do backgrounds either so i get the struggle
New viewer here! It’s very inspiring and helpful to watch you break down your pieces and what you were trying to improve on.
For the treehouse piece, I think adding those trees in the far background messed up toe composition. Before, you had a white space around the treehouse that led your eye to it, while separating it from the foreground trees. Even just lowering the opacity on the farthest background trees would’ve helped.
Very cool video, and super proud of you for practicing stuff you struggle with. Thank you for sharing the process with us!
aaww.. your spider sona up there is awesome.
Devin is awesome! I already use some of her brushpacks, and I love them a lot! I'll definitely be buying the cityscape brushes, too!
Love seeing your process ❤
Something that really helped me with environments/backgrounds was watercolor. Watercolor is all about layering, You can see every color you put down. I always struggled with environments but with watercolor, Its my favorite part lol
I always come watch your videos when I get artblock- because I know you always me want to draw like no other! Love your work
i totally didn't cry while watching u paint the city piece bc its pretty
I have no idea who you are this popped up in my feed and I'm happy i watched this, i really liked the study to critique than into fun art. Just really fun vibes
I love this type of video thank you for showing your process!! I really want to work on my backgrounds but I’m so intimidated especially not knowing much about anything other than drawing everything by hand. You really turned up at the end there lol
omg thank you for this vid!! u inspire me as an artist so much. i definitely feel more inclined to expand my skills. ❤
and thank you for linking your resources😭 im gonna share this with my friends!!!!
I love your videos it all ways helps me gain creativity
i really enjoyed this meal concept, Keira
this was a really cool video thanks for sharing the process! the first castle illustration is my favorite it looks like a story book castle :)
I think I fell in love with your art but also your taste! When you mentioned Spider-Verse and the artbook I was jumping, then Entergalactic and the last bit talking about Devil Elle Kurtz's brushes! omg, never met someone with so many mutual interests lol
The volcano one is really cool! I've never done digital art, outside of sketching with a tablet, so this is fascinating to watch (it seems so arcane 😅)
I think these looks great!
super motivating to see you practicing!
I love this spidey-city, it gorgeous
these all turned out SO FREAKIN AWESOME!! :O