The Reason Why Drawing Is So Hard - 'Duel' Process Video & File

Hey everyone

Here is the process video, file, and brief insights of DUEL, my latest illustration. These kinds of articles are often split into two parts: the concept, where I share the idea behind the piece, and the execution, where I explain the technical aspects like shapes, colors, and value choices. I hope you find this useful; have a great read.

Concept

The initial idea was about a character inspired by a compass. I explored various references to find out what kind of character to develop and eventually saw a guy hanging on a boat pole adjusting what I assume were sails (I don't know much about navigation). However, the whole perspective was pretty interesting for a top view composition. I thought about a Pirate-like concept, but I was curious about a particular issue. Since the view and the posture of the guy in the reference did not allow for the person's legs to be seen, I wondered if this would be an issue for my character. After a few minutes of sketching, I struggled to come up with a decent pose, so I decided to move on with a different idea.

I just lay on the floor, trying to think of something cool, and my immediate thought based on things I've done in the past was 'cats'. So, I went back to Pinterest in search of interesting cat pictures to create a story about. I found some pictures of them ready to fight, and I thought it would be interesting to take back the pirate idea, but instead of hanging, just two of them ready to 'throw some hands' or, in this case, 'bullets'. The reason behind their fighting could be something simple, like not wanting to share something. I chose a map for this matter, and as for the outfit, I did not struggle to find good references since pirate costumes are often full of information.

The list looked this way:

• Color: Cats colors. Grey/brown and black. White, black, and orange.
• Ref: Cats.
• Action: Two pirates in a duel for a piece of a map.
• Costume: Pirate (belts, boots, hats, lines, guns, jackets, accessories, scars) plus cat symbols (Collar with Bell, Feather Wand, Squeaky Mouse Toys, paws).

Execution

This particular composition gave me a fight for more than two hours. I was struggling with things like anatomy, gesture, and perspective. To be fair, I felt a bit distracted because I was listening to a podcast, and maybe that was the reason. So, at some point, I just stopped listening to anything and eventually managed to come up with a decent gesture for both characters, all during the line art phase.

After I solved the issue, I thought, all this process is so bizarre and mysterious to me, even after years of doing the same. Basically, I have an idea in my head, and then I make attempts through body movements and strokes to print that idea. It feels like a game of chance, in which I just hope one movement lands the 'right' line. And then I ask, how the hell am I judging what the 'right' line looks like since the idea in my head is barely clear? Anyways, I did not even comprehend the whole thing, but the curious thing to me is how amazing and complex creatures we are. Basically, we all do things like this on a daily basis and barely notice. This is why struggling is useful; in my case, I don't ask questions when everything is working, but when it does not, I start to ask in search of answers or solutions.

Back to work, so I figured the problem was that I was trying to match the cats' faces in characters' bodies that did not share the same gesture. For instance, in my head, I envisioned the character on the right with her face in profile, but both cat references were looking to the front. As a consequence of not being aware of this issue, I ended up drawing body gestures and perspectives that fitted the idea in my mind but did not match the head or face drawings.

The solution was to simply follow my gut and forget about the references for a sec, do the whole drawing (head and body) like I envisioned, and just figure out after how to match the cat's face/head perspective and expression. Matching the cat's expression was key since that's one of the information points I often consider valuable during these illustrations. People like to compare similarities between the references and the characters, especially face expressions.

As for colors and values, I relied strongly on the colors of the cats and the values their patterns had. I did find plenty of nice references of two cats fighting in the same picture, but in most of them, both cats looked the same in terms of colors and patterns. Having different cats would be easier for me when coloring, providing more contrast, in my opinion. 

For shadows, I tried to guess the right shadow for each part of the costume, like for instance, for white cloth, I tried a bit of purple, for skin a bit of orange, and so on. I don't often try this approach since I'm always more concerned about shape than colors during the shadow application, but in this, both characters did not have big fabric folds to worry about, so essentially, I shifted toward color. Check the process and file for more!

Conclusion

Although I'd like to think I'm in control most of the time, the truth is I'm just aware of a certain amount of decisions and processes, but a big part of my actions are just a mystery. I guess that can be something frightening but also fascinating. It means you are a box full of possibilities, so the best thing to do, in my opinion, is to be aware.

Thank you for your support.