It's to the point that even doing art of other characters I don't paint very often feels excessive. Like I'm choosing a favorite child. As it stands, I've only drawn Yasar a few times, despite the fact he's a prominent supporting character in a big (and very old) story of mine. I'd go into greater detail about his personality and history, but I'm viciously protective of my intellectual property. Maybe someday when I actually commit this story to a game or a book.

I like to separate character art into three categories: simple, complex and illustrative. The first is exactly what it says on the tin, with no background or any supporting elements whatsoever. The middle adds a little more, such as an item or animal. The latter is an illustration in all but name, with the focus still heavily on the character themselves. I take a lot of inspiration from fashion magazines for that last one, since they tend to showcase models in all sorts of environments that play second-fiddle to the subject. This character art is somewhere between a simple and complex, as the giant gilded egg fills out the space without any additional interaction. 

Funny enough, even after extensive thumbnailing (see below), I still didn't have any idea what I was going to put behind him. Just...something. Something to round out that space! Throwing in a big fancy egg while painting ended up giving me an idea for one of his powers, since he's an illusionist that depends on sleight-of-hand and a jack-of-all-trades approach. ...Don't do what I did, though. Figure everything out in the draft stage. It'll save you so much more trouble.

Thumbnailing my character art was something I did sparingly in the past. Mainly because I internalized some bullshit ideas about how fast my art should be. Thumbnails and rough drafts were for illustrations, right? The complex stuff. The ones with backgrounds and action poses. ...Yeah, that's not true at all. Literally everything can be thumbnailed, from the smallest sliver of concept art to the most elaborate multi-character tapestry. Since my designs tend to be pretty fanciful, this step is extra helpful, allowing me to work out everything before committing to a polished pencil sketch. 

I've been working on a sketch buffer these past few weeks: painting is my greatest strength and it saves me time to have a bunch of pencil drawings ready to go. This was my favorite in the pile, so I decided to start off strong. To the right I added a flat to bring out the silhouette -- the key to any good character art -- and move from there. 

The soft brush remains my go-to for creating base colors. I love everything bleeding into each other. It's a very traditionalist approach to digital art and something I want to keep pushing; see just how buttery and iridescent I can get. I've been experimenting quite a bit with color burn, overlay and soft light layers to add more subtlety. I want colors so rich you feel like you could bite into them like a ripe fruit.

Remember: paintings are conversations. You learn as you go. I realized the legs looked kind of stringy, so I used the magic wand tool to thicken them. Also, I'm obsessed with this guy's pants. They are seriously satisfying to look at.

It took a few passes for me to figure out the most appealing color balance between the character and the egg. The teal ended up being a really tasty contrast with the pink backdrop: almost like a sandwich between the equally warm dominant colors of the character's outfit. I also made the head a little smaller and the hands a little bigger. Probably a sign for me to not get too lost in all the extravagance and keep in mind basic proportions.

A little progress .gif for your viewing pleasure.

Worked on this on-and-off over four to five days. I need to start tallying up the hours, because I honestly don't remember how long it took me overall. I really wanted to push my painting abilities with this one. Interestingly, I feel more success not in the final result, but the process: of committing to a thumbnailing/rough draft stage, using references and getting back into traditional sketching. I also got to show off all my strengths in one place. Fashion design, color theory, character design, lighting, texture. I plan on getting more playful with my layouts, as well as focusing on dynamic poses. 

I've got a pile of great ideas sitting in Photoshop, so this is one challenge I'll be happily meeting head-on. There's nothing quite so intoxicating as having a goal and being like, "Yeah? No fucking problem."

Long version: sometimes it's hard to believe I went from a gangly kid who religiously wore the same grey hoodie, old sneakers and side-braid to a woman who experiments with nearly every look. It's like a Pokemon evolution, only a lot slower.

I compose my looks not unlike how I compose my paintings. I take into account the theme, such as cute casual or 80's nostalgia. I make sure colors and patterns are balanced. Got a lot of warm? Contrast it with something cool. Got a patterned top or leggings? Pair it with something simpler. It's hard to even come up with a name for my style, because I love to dabble in everything. Magical chic? Contemporary nostalgia? Flowery fatale? These are starting to sound like music genres. I'm not complaining.

Why did it take me this long to embrace the utter power of the tunic dress? Seriously, come to my TED Talk. Let me tell you about how easy it is to mix and match these wonderful things, with the big fat bonus of skipping a step (shirt + pants). I had a tunic dress or two back in high school, but had no idea how to wear them. I'd actually tuck the damn things into my jeans so I wouldn't look 'weird'. There goes the point!!!

The gray sweaterdress on the left with the white and yellow decorations is an old staple I still love. It was actually given to me by a high school friend and, a decade later, still fits me like a dream. Had to get rid of those cute boots, though. Listen to me. Pinched toes aren't worth it.

Long tops and tunic dresses are two sides of the same coin. When in doubt? Stretch it out. I got the pink knitted tunic on the left back in Boston during my attendance as Arisia's guest of honor. I got the shoes and the rose gold headband at the same store to round out the purchase. The only thing more fun than traveling is picking up a fresh new look while you're there. Bonus points if you look like you walked out of a JRPG.

These are my spring and summer looks: just layered enough to feed my obsession, still cool enough to hold up to the weather. I had a really cute encounter while wearing the middle outfit, where two shoppers at a grocery store walked by me in the parking lot and said, "Okay! I see you, salmon jeans!" Made my day. 

Then I gained twenty pounds and couldn't fit into my purple pair. Womp.

I had another cute encounter at another grocery store with the middle outfit, where a guy complimented my hat: when I told him I got it for $2, he excitedly congratulated me. What can I say. Thrift shops really are that girl. 

​Who said fashion is pain, anyway? So many of these outfits aren't just comfortable, they're insanely so. Something else I've been enchanted by lately are unique layers, like the outfit on the right. Regal, unusual drapery you don't see a lot in the day-to-day, like long sleeves peeking out of short sleeves or thigh-high boots with a peek of thigh-high socks. Just...careful details like that make my soul sing. I want to get crafty with my crafting.

Finally bust out my gold cat ear headband (that I also got in Boston, by the by). At this point you're no doubt seeing a few clothing items reused, like the red ankle boots and the jewelry. When you like to switch things up, it helps not feeling the need to reinvent the wheel every single time. Sometimes you have a piece that's been collecting dust for months and deserves a moment in the spotlight. Hell, I can come up with a dozen great looks for a single dress. Again: get crafty.

I went from being unable to find a pair of flats that fit me for months to suddenly finding all the pairs...right when it started getting cold. Go figure! Another favorite contrast of mine is bulky + slimming, like the left and the middle outfits. Cozy and stylish, in equal parts.

My closet's pretty damn stuffed, but that doesn't stop me from reusing the same outfits. Yes, sometimes even I want to take a break from putting together a look. I wore the striped tunic dress on the left quite a bit during the summer. It's the perfect cute casual top, with just a little extra charm to make it pop (like the gaps in the elbows). The middle dress I wore to a concert: Beck and Cage The Elephant, two bands I've loved for years and who delivered one hell of a performance. Oh, the weather was perfect. So warm and breezy I could've been outside all night and not minded.