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#babydragon #butterflies #child #dragon #fae #faerie #fairy #fear #girl #green #greengirl #hope #illustration #lost #magic #oc #originalcharacter #pixie #woods #magicwoods #knightosaurus
Published: 2019-07-11 20:53:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 1743; Favourites: 205; Downloads: 13
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Description
When we're very young nothing is more scary than feeling lost. When I was a child I once lost sight of my mother in a mall and since then few things have ever frightened me. This illustration is just about that. I don't have a story connected to it and the little girl I just made up on the spot.I should give the Green Girl a name sometime....
This one took me much longer than planned. I did have family over for several days (some of whom I had only just met) so I knew that I would not have much time for this one. It feels like it was a little rushed but I'm happy with it for now.
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Comments: 30
Reading the description reminded me of when I got lost in a hospital once. I ran from my mother and one of my older brothers as a child and traveled in a elevator where I got lost and explored the rooms all across the many floors. I was a kid that liked to go my own way at times.
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Some kids are that way (natural adventurers)... good thing that you did not enter the emergency wing and see something graphic!
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I don't think they let me. 
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Technical question: (Sorry if I've already asked this earlier but forgotten: ) I was wondering what's your secret to ensuring that hard edges remain hard and don't get painted over accidentally? How many layers do you generally use and do you use masks or erasers? Do you start with vague edges and refine them later on, or start with precise edges for things at different depths and use masks or transparency lock to keep the elements from accidentally merging?
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I have an old art program and I'm using an old computer that's way too underpowered. It can only handle two layers at a time so I don't have the luxury of multiple layers. So my technique is to first splash the colours where I think they should be until I'm satisfied. I then start to detail the background and work my way forward. I keep the contrast light (in the background) and frequently use the blur tool. I do this less often as I work my way to the focused layer. Once at the layer of focus I leave the edges sharp and the contrast as high as it needs to be. Anything closer than that layer I blur a little, lower the contrast but raise the saturation.
I'm sure there are probably better and quicker ways to achieve this but this is how I trained myself. Maybe I should make a video of it sometime... I made need a newer program for that though.....
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Thank you for explaining how your process works! Having to work around the limitations of the software forces you to make the most out of what you've got while having access to unlimited features can make it hard to figure out which tools to choose when nothing is forcing you to limit it. For example in Photoshop, because there is no penalty for having dozens of layers, it can lead to a temptation of keeping everything separated just in case you need to adjust something in the middle later on or add details underneath one of the layers. It can lead to being afraid of merging layers because they can't be separated anymore after that. I remember in the past, in worst case scenarios I could have small details like parts of eyes on a separate layer, only a few pixels in size, and I might move them around, trying to figure out how to make it look good. I'm trying to let go of being afraid to paint over things and feeling a need to keep backups. I hardly ever discard changes anyway, so in most cases, the extra caution is completely pointless.
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It's kind of funny how limitations can inspire creativity. I just over three years ago I was just using pencils and pens for art, so a single extra layer seemed like a big cheat to me when I figured it out. My earliest digital works were all freehand (I don't think I posted any of them, they were not very good).
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I originally started digital drawing with MSPaint in the late 90s, that didn't have gradient fills or soft brushes, so I used the dissolve type brushes to make soft transitions and sometimes would simulate fades by changing colors one pixel at a time. You could make things like tiny glowing stars with that. As a teenager, I started using Micrografx Picture Publisher, which had soft brushes and a smudge tool, but I didn't know back then that making everything smoother doesn't equal making it better. I think a lot of young artists have that same illusion, especially when people get exposed to airbrushed photos of celebrities and learn to assume that the lack of blemishes equals beauty. It's harder to convince people that a certain level of roughness is what makes things look natural. Everybody has to travel their own path and make their own discoveries.
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I did touch it up a little since I posted it yesterday and now I'm much happier with it. Thank you so much!
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Thank you most thankfully!
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"You're not actually a hungry wolf in disguise, are you?"
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"N-n-n-NOOO!"
A most impressive disguise if it were so!
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Thank you very much!
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