A good ol’ lineup
It’s safe to say that I sure did make a lot of stuff this month. And here it is, all lined up:
HERE
BE
MONSTERS
Let’s get into more detail, ladies and gentlemen: the hellhound was a doozy. The biggest part of the image happened to be something I had never drawn before: hot lava. Couldn’t be too hard, right? Not really. The thing about lava is that you need to keep in mind how hot it would actually be. No, I’m not talking about how it would burn you - although that’s absolutely true - I’m talking about the coloration. The hottest parts are lighter, and the cooler parts are darker. Ever observed flames? Same idea. So it goes without saying that I needed to do a quick self-taught science lesson to get things straight.
I’m no geologist, but I think I wrapped my head around this pretty quickly. So, without further delay, here’s a look at the process I went with to color the hellhound poster:
I start out with a pencil sketch (I didn’t get into digital art until around freshman year of college, so I’m used to not having a tablet and I much prefer to start with a physical sketch). Once I have that finished, I get it onto my computer and adjust the levels so the lines are more defined.
Then I take the sketch and drop it into Photoshop. I make the background gray (as opposed to white, which is a strain on your eyes if you’re staring at a screen for a while). I lower the opacity to around 25 so I won’t confuse the sketch for the trace I’m about to do.
I use a default black for the initial lining. For this specific design, I left out the hard lines from the neck to the middle of the spine, for the fire effects I’ll be adding later.
Once the lines are done, I give it a basic flat color. This becomes a base for the rest of the color.
Now I’ll give the flats a bit more detail. I also made a little blob of color to get the shape of the fire.
Fire time! For environmental effects, I usually look at reference images or follow a quick little tutorial. I never dive headfirst into details like this, or else it won’t look right. I also added in some light effects, since the fire and the ground give off light.
Now I color the lines to make them blend a little better with the colors underneath. Looks good!
Now onto the background. I rough out the shapes and give it a good orange-brown tone to match the hellhound. Also, it’s hell, so it’s not like it’s going to be blue, right? Right.
Since the ground the hellhound is running on is lava, I give it a nice orange/red color and lightly brush some smoke coming off of it.
Now to add more details to the lava. The hotter it is, the brighter it is, so the bit that’s farther away from the rocks is more yellow. As lava cools, it turns dark and cracks, and the bright hot stuff underneath can shine through those cracks.
Let’s saturate this lava some more. Looks hot! Once again, I used a lot of reference images to get the look of it right. But something is still missing. Can you tell? Look at the feet.
I finally add where the hellhound’s feet come in contact with the lava ground. This was the most difficult part for me, and I struggles to wrap my head around what the interaction would look like, not to mention how I would execute it. This was a lot of experimentation and consideration of how hot each part of the footprint would appear logically. Smoosh goes the lava. Add in some sparks and some stray rocks near the edge, and we’re done!
Did I learn anything? Of course.
While I already knew marketing was going to be difficult for me, I was never sure how difficult it would be until I charged into the process and put as much out there as I could. Unfortunately, things didn’t really go according to plan.
All of the feedback I received on the quality of my work was favorable - not to toot my own horn, but it usually is favorable and this didn’t come as a surprise. But after a certain point, the praise is empty. Yes you like my work, will you buy some of it? I’m glad I drew your favorite monster, would you like to put it up on your wall? So far, I’ve made no sales.
And I’m trying not to get discouraged. I knew getting into this that there was no guarantee I would sell anything, and I worked off of the desire to just have an online store and be making posts about it on social media leading people to the page. I used tags, I made regular updates, I made it sound exciting. I reached out via Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and email to artists who had found success doing the same thing I’m trying to do now. I haven’t received any response. Yes, I’m bummed. But it’s not their number one priority to pay attention to my needs. They have other stuff to do, I get that.
I don’t want this to be a whining post. It’s not. It’s about realizing that I’ve been obviously doing something wrong. I figure I’m not being assertive enough. I’m also spreading myself a little thin. I need to take a step back and prioritize.
What to do going forward
I’m going to make more art. I’ll keep adding to my store indefinitely - not on the same timeline, since this month was a bit of a crunch, but steadily. I’ll make it regular and I’ll keep up with posting on social media. Twitter is my main method of outreach at the moment, but that is subject to change. I’m thinking of moving to Instagram with the bulk of my posting and using the other websites as supplements. Not sure, though. I’ll keep reaching out to people, too, but be careful not to be too annoying or pushy.
I already have a new set of stickers in mind to draw up (no, not the ones I spilled soup on, these are different). Next month in the Praxis curriculum is filled with daily blogging, so you’ll definitely be hearing more about it then.