Today I decided to bring you something slightly different! In an attempt to spotlight some of the amazing and talented furres in Furcadia, I bring you Behind the Scenes (BTS)! Today we will be doing an artist spotlight. Recently, I have seen a lot of buzz and compliments to a particular artist's portraits, and decided to reach out!
I'm sure all of you have at least witnessed one portrait by Gherkin. Her portraits have a particular look and feel, and are easy to distinguish. I was lucky enough that she was willing to let us in on the secret to her style, and gave us a look at how she makes portraits! I hope you enjoy the article, and her description below.
When drawing pixel art I always use the pencil brush 1px in diameter (sometimes called binary tool). Admittedly, I make use of MSPaint for the majority of my work. I tend to occasionally use GraphicsGale for layering or animation. I like the simplicity of these programs, as after all, pixel art originally provided graphics for limited systems that couldn't cope with/ had no need for complicated visuals.
Naturally, I start out with a sketch. I like to 'block' out my work with bold colours in order to clearly define different parts of the subject/ object that I'm drawing. Starting with a clean, simple sketch like this helps me to produce much cleaner lineart.
Following this, I line the sketch in black to make it stand out. I also reduce the amount of 'blocking' colours now that I have lines in place. Doing this makes it easier for me to proceed with colouring without mistaking areas of the subject/ object that I'm drawing.
I proceed by laying flat colours as a base for shading. I start to add further details to the subject to be further embellished later.
As I begin to shade, I also alter the lineart with lighter colours to reflect light sources (indicated by green boxes). I use highly contrasting colours when shading to make my work pop. Colours that are too similar can make your work look fossilised or dull when used for shading. I blend colours manually and avoid using blurring tools as a matter of personal preference. Typically I use layers and opacity to help me blend colours (indicated by pink circle). I use analogous colours for blending to make the transition of colours as natural and soft as possible.
I finalise shading and add further details give more depth to the subject, such as adding definition to inner lineart on the hair or blending out shading in certain areas.
Finally, I add a background. I tend to stick to simple backgrounds when I draw Furcadia portraits because I usually take up a lot of space focusing on the character in question and don’t want to crowd the work too much.
Wow! You can see all the hard work she puts into her portraits, but the results are stunning! Thank you so much for taking time to share with us, Gherkin!
If you would like to recommend someone's talent, or even your own, feel free to send me an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. I would love to hear about all the amazing talent and be able to share with everyone.
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