Leia Haglund Illustration

I wanted to make an illustration depicting a contemporary subject this time, since I made fantasy and historically inspired ones previously.

Sketching

I am currently reading Figure Drawing by Jake Spicer. In his book, Spicer mentions that blocking out the model with simple straight lines makes subsequent sketching a lot easier. I used this technique to more accurately depict my pose reference, by putting the photograph on my second monitor and glancing back and forth between it and the very geometric sketch I was making. I found this to be incredibly helpful for nailing down a pose, as I normally focus far too much on accurately depicting the reference in my first sketch, instead of channeling the rough movement of it.

Additionally, I also roughly put down the size of the objects I was going to draw in the background in perspective. The sketching as a whole took 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Line art

The lines in this illustration were straight forward. I wanted to use tiling similar to what they use in underground train stations, while also not making these stand out like a sore thumb. In later stages of the illustrations I used blending layers to make the tiles seem more like a part of the background and blending in with shadows and similar. The line art took 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Colors

I wanted to use colors with a cooler tint, since it fit better with the underground train station motif. While I still used reds and yellows, I either made them muted or tinted them with purple to make them less warm. I focused most of the bright warm colors around the character’s face, where I wanted the main focal point to be. I spent 2 hours and 40 minutes on the color and render.

The total time for this illustration was 5 hours and 20 minutes. Until next time!