This is what the transferred drawing looks like! I use inktense pencils to trace it via a lightbox and then work them into the surface with water so they don't move around.
shel kahn
And as a final digital step, i used the drawing to map out my colour and value scheme in much, much more detail. This piece is now ready to get transferred to my watercolour paper and stretched on a board!
shel kahn
With things reoriented, i did a full drawing, focusing on mailing down a composition that reads well, and a story worth reading from said composition! I've been trying to create new characters for every card for Swords -- these three are all princesses who've gone rogue, in my mind.
shel kahn
ok so the first thing i wanted to do once i got this onto my computer was flip the orientation of the creature so the head and the pearl were a surprise in the distance, and the second thing was add some people to be surprised, so here's my glamorous digital sketch of all that:
shel kahn
Alright, for my last piece for Swords, let's do a process thread! Here's the thumbnail that @epidiah.bsky.social and @ndpdesign.com and i picked! This is probably about a 1 x 2" sketch.
I've been calling this one the Pearl Axolotl to keep track of it, hopefully that clarifies some things.
