A first edit. Stay tuned this week for more edits, new characters, and new outfits! Also stay tuned for the start of item concepts!
Beautiful <3
This painting was done for Illest of Ill 2011. The painting didn’t get in but it was fun as hell! I put together my process just to share the experience.
Thumbnails
In this case I started traditionally drawing thumbnails on every piece of paper I could find. The thumbnails were all smaller than a inch each, this gives me the ability to cover a lot of ground extremely fast. My idea for the project was to have a character with their animal companion and I took it from there. At this point there is no character design, no reference, nothing besides the shapes of the elements I planned on using. I pushed these 1 inch thumbnails until the composition was perfect for me… using things like tails, vines and cracks in the rocks to bring my eye around the composition.
Draw over
This was a technique I leaned at Digital Domain over the summer. Basically, in Photoshop throw a white layer on top of your drawing at a low opacity and you got yourself some tracing paper. I blew my 1 inch thumbnail up to about 15 inches and drew directly on top of it, roughly fleshing out the shapes I made with the pencil. Trying to give the characters somewhat of a pose while staying within the shape I gave them in the thumbnail stage. Continue adding tracing paper over and over until you settle on a decent final drawing.
Painting
I use the hard round brush in mostly all of my paintings. Im not a fan of searching through a billion random brushes for texture… It really slows me down and I don’t know how to use them that well. My process is more of an Alla Prima painterly approach. I have my Hard Round Brush equipped with pressure sensitive size jitter and opacity jitter to give me a butt load of control. With this one brush I can imitate any texture and any edge. I don’t use the soft round brush because it dictates how soft my edges are and EVERY edge is different and unique in its own way.
Once I have my drawing done I will change the color of the lines to a dark warm red, Just so I don’t pick up any muddy black. Under the line layer I will start painting with color. I tried this website that gives you a color scheme for the first time and it went pretty well. I grabbed the colors from the website and pushed them towards the colors I needed for a tree, a rock or a person etc…Color is relative by the way… Once my values are reading I make a new layer on top of the lines and RENDER AWAYYYYYYY
At this point the only reference I had was for the female character. I had been painting so much of this stuff from work I didn’t bother getting reference for anything. Besides stripe patterns that is**
For me the painting process is just working edges and filling the world with everything you imagine would be there. Constantly questioning everything about your painting and bringing it to a stage where you have all the answers.
This painting took 20-30 hours. Hope you enjoy.
#Arkh wants and NEEDS our supporters to spread the word in real life. Are you in any queer organizations, PoC organizations, QPoC organizations or just plain old human rights organizations? Are you in a major city and can just hand out flyers on the street?
WE NEED YOU.
Be a part of Arkh’s street team!
The street team is an attempt to get Arkh into the eyes of people who might not spend a lot of time online, but would have an interest anyway.
The best thing about joining the street team is that all it requires is your TIME and DEDICATION.The above is a flyer you can print and distribute at your leisure. You can download the PDF here. Distribute these flyers WHEREVER YOU WANT. Leave them in apartment buildings, libraries, stores, universities, and just plain hand them out on the street.
And if you want to, and you can? TAKE VIDEO! Send us video of your exploits and help us let the world know that Arkh is here and Arkh is EVERYWHERE!That said, Arkh is looking for people in NYC to be part of the NYC street team. We will specifically plan a Saturday or Sunday to hang out in Manhattan and hand out flyers. We also need someone to video us! Email thearkhproject@gmail.com and let us know if you’re available!
Kimiaki Yaegashi (aka Okimi), 39, is a Tokyo-based illustrator and graphic designer. With a myriad of unique characters, which include a panda, a kappa, a tengu and Michael Jackson, she creates art that is at the same time kawaii, sexy, and surreal.
Buy prints of her work here
Word as Image (by jibyollee)
Dancers in the Dusk by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law
