A Sketch of Laura from Steve's Sketchbook
A Sketch
A sketch of Laura is the latest addition to Steve’s Sketchbook.
In my hopefully never-ending quest to expand my artistic abilities, I thought I would try to sketch people. And what better way to start than with a sketch of Laura? Laura is not sure that it really looks all that much like her, and I am not that sure, either. Maybe after I get some more practice, I will give it another try.
But this was a fun experiment in all sorts of ways. First off, I tried something new in using colored lines for inking instead of just straight black lines. That gave this sketch a softer look, is important to me for a female, especially a female as important as Laura. Black lines are great, but colored lines look just a little more natural.
I also tried a new coloring style using a different brush in the Procreate app. What you see here is actually my second attempt at coloring this sketch, because I was not happy with the airbrush look that I used at first. I liked this gloaming brush much better. At least for now. I keep learning new things, so I might move on to something else after a while. But for this sketch I liked this look.
Still Learning
As far as art goes, I am still trying to find my style. Not that I plan to be tied down to one style, but it is good to have a “normal” thing, even if you veer from it on occasion. I do like the cartoon-style look, and I thought I would try to explore that some more. So far, I have only gotten to heads. Bodies will hopefully come later on.
Did you know that there are all kinds of videos showing you how to do things on YouTube? You can search for “how to…” just about anything, and you can find it there. Some of the advice is not always top-notch, but some of it is. And you can watch it for free, except for maybe having to sit through an ad or two.
I like learning new things, and I feel rather proud when I am able to accomplish something new. It can be a good feeling, and that will encourage you to keep on trying even more. The best videos are the ones that say, “Hey, you can do this. It isn’t that hard!” No one really wants to watch a video where the guy says, “This might be hard and you might have trouble with it.” I am willing to bet that the people that say, “This is easy! Anyone can do it,” get lots more views than those who are not very encouraging. It is interesting how you can feel encouragement from someone you don’t know who most likely won’t even see what you are doing. But it does help!
If there is something you are wanting to learn how to do, just do a YouTube search for that topic and see what you can find. And then find someone who will encourage you in that task.
Seek out someone encouraging to learn from if you are looking to learn something new. And be an encouraging teacher if you have something to teach.
Bible Verse
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. - Ephesians 4:29
About the Sketch
I created this sketch on an iPad using the Procreate app and a digital pencil. Not an Apple Pencil, but it does many of the same things except for being pressure sensitive.
I like how Procreate has layers, as that is very useful for me. For this piece of art, I started off with a rough sketch to figure out what I was doing, and then I inked over it and colored in the inked version. Each color is on its own layer. That way, if I wanted to change a color, I could just turn off that layer and start over again with that color instead of having to erase while trying not to wipe out something that I wanted to keep.
If you are curious, here is the original rough sketch version:
It looks pretty creepy, right? But it allowed me to figure out the pose first instead of trying to draw it freehand. As you can see, it took me a few scribbles to figure out what I wanted to do with the eyes and nose. The final version is definitely much better than this sketch! But I did think it might be interesting for you to see what I started with.
