I always start with what is basically a stick figure (otherwise called a gesture drawing.) What I’m trying to do here is capture the attitude of the pose, movement, as well as the correct proportions and perspective. All of these things can be communicated efficiently using a simple stick figure or gesture drawing! You should not progress beyond this point and add more detail before your pose strongly communicates the attitude or action you are going for, as well as as correct proportions for your character. I learned this from a lot of drawing from observation, both live models and images, and then practicing drawing strictly from my imagination. #illustration #drawing #learntodraw

Here is a little look at the drawing process I use for most of my children’s books. This was done in adobe fresco, a great program that many don’t know about. As always i always start with really basic shapes, and then a rough sketch. My books contain a lot of illustrations so I don’t have time to do a very detailed sketch (although I would like to sometimes). Then I do the inking of the black lines. The main reason I like adobe fresco so much is that it has a great tool for drawing lines, that actually lets you draw with vectors. Procreate does not have this option. Vectors mean the line is always sharp, even if you zoom in infinitely far. I find procreate lines are not as smooth and can feel a bit jagged… Then it’s time for coloring. I usually use pretty saturated color, thats my style. I will start with flat color, then use a soft brush to add shadows and light. Light and shadow is the main way to really create feeling in your work! 🙏🏾