Whew!
Sort of the last 4 hours have been a whirlwind that sucked me into this piece. I’ve been wanting to really get into Solaris visually lately ’cause he’s just so neat. He always has been. I remember doing a huge pastel drawing of him in like 11th grade (even though he looked like a woman at the time…not so much now :3) because of his hot color scheme (no literally). Working digitally let me take this to a whole new level.
Also when I started drawing him today I did a bust and then I was like “No, I want to go more epic than that.” So of course epic I was thinking, cape-flying, scowling at the viewer and a few moments of sketching confirmed that wasn’t going to take off today. So then I went super-static like “basic drawing poses” and then I was like e___e so then I started thinking of Solaris and how he’s really struggled having all the power he does and how he’s sort of old and weary and introspective, so I opted for a more under-stated pose and as soon as I decided that I was golden. The more I look at this pose the more pleased with it I am. It’s totally him — working magic, still moving forward, but sort of dismissive of his powers what with his staff tucked into the crook of his elbow.
Oof but I just realized I forgot his tattoos/scars from when he was a Night Magician. So it looks like I’ll give this another round (…or not) sometime soon.
It was a nice union of applying traditional techniques to digital work but also taking advantage of digital tools and mess-free experimentation.
I did Solaris himself with the same approach to working traditional which was SUPER satisfying. It meant not getting really frustrated with his lines right away. I started with a low-opacity sketch that I worked directly on top of with stronger lines so that I could just erase the worst of the sketchiness as I went, just like normal. You can see he’s a lot more organic-looking than my digital people frequently end up.
Then first with his sunlight stuff I was just going to do boring old streakies but then, drawing inspiration from my host-sister’s way of getting inspired to do art, I decided to (GASP) experiment! In that way I found the cool real ink pens or whatever that exploded into that awesome smoky light over his head.
The only thing I’d like to keep working with is his staff. I found a good design for it based on dream catchers but I know it looks pretty crappy. Probably because I was thinking “God I suck at ornamental art” the whole time I was working on it. Good attitudes count, guys. xD
