Sphinx doodles, done in sharpie multi-liner and bic markers.
Here is the orange tabby sphinx, from start to finish!
1. The sketch! This was actually done in a red col-erase pencil, I just scanned it in black and white. I made it the size I wanted to work with on the computer and printed it out.
2. Here’s the clean line art, done with a sienna brown prismacolor pencil. I drew it onto Arches hot press watercolor paper with the help of the original sketch and a light table.
3. At this point I lay in my shadows with watercolor. I’m using a cheap japanese brand I got for about a dollar a tube at Daiso, a japanese dollar store that’s around my area.
4. And now the background. I kept it quick and simple, I wanted it to push the character forward rather than draw attention away.
5. A larger step here, I paint in the local colors for the character and then wait for it to dry juuust a little bit. Then I painted in her markings. I didn’t do it right away, as the stripes would just end up bleeding out. But waiting for it to dry completely would mean harder edges on the stripes than I would like, making them come forward to harshly. This way they blend gently at the edges.
6. The finished piece. I made touchups with prismacolor pencils here and there. I strengthened the line art a bit more and added temperature changes to the lines using sienna brown, violet, and tuscan red. I also went in and touched up the shadows of her hair and body with the violet pencil, and added some texture to the sky with lilac and deco blue.
…And that was my process for this piece! :D
I often default to drawing sphinxes when I can’t think of what else to draw. That, and people with horns. I took some progress pics with my phone as I was doing this, so I’ll be making a step by step post for it soon. Probably tomorrow.
I keep forgetting to post this here. My part of a trade with kalamu on DA! :)
Sphinxes are one of my very favorite things to paint EVER.
