Hard Hit

Hardhit Back

Materials

Digital art (Procreate)

Thoughts

I'm not a huge fan of how Procreate does blending - or several other things. Honest to goodness, I can't quite decide if I've just hit that stage where I'm too old to enjoy change, or if the program really isn't as good as freeware like Krita.

I'm pretty sure I'm just repeating stuff I've already said in a ramble, though, so I'll just cut myself off here.

So! The piece itself is honestly just a figure study gone awry. Every now and then, I'll tell myself "just one quick study, in the shape of a fandom character so it feels more fun", and then, wouldn't you know it, I end up having so much fun my quick little sketch metamorphasizes into a days long distraction from all the other quick little sketches that turned serious.

Well, at least this one got done (I've lately been trying to restrain myself in that regard), and aside from the fact that it was supposed to be a sketch, it was also a chance to play with settings and brushes in procreate. It's something I realized was important a long time ago, playing with stuff. In traditional media, you've got to pull out all your brushes and use all your paints, and in digital, the first thing you should do is play with every button and bounce as many toggles as you can stand. I mostly used the watercolor brushes here, not that it shows, mostly thanks to the funky blending brushes I was also using at the same time. I tried out working in greyscales as well as pure black and white as well. I've noticed a lot of digital artists like to level out their background tone like that, and while this ended up that way more by happy accident than any planning on my part, it's an interesting look?

this was also an excercise in drawing a smooshed/awkwardly flexed face in a way that looked naturalistic, another thing I almost never do, and am therefore rather bad at. The original reference picture was downright goofy, like some guy had taken a pratfall, but as I was drawing, I realized I wanted Danny to look serious if I could, like he was in that position because he'd been hit. The idea for a nosebleed and a pissed off look came next, and after that, I just had to work out the practicals of making the piece.

For those wondering, the sucker punch that caused this came curtasy of Vlad. I like to imagine he's actually the POV character here, looking down on Danny and feeling extra smug while he stands off screen.