Misc Sketches & Art

Posted on by Bri
Colored digital drawing of a pink tiger with swirling darker pink stripes. She has a silver crown and is wearing a dark pink flowing suspendered blouse with a white puff sleeved blouse beneath. The black lace belt holding the suspenders has a teal candy on it. The tiger is saying "Stay Sweet, Meowgical!" and the bottom describes the character as "BriBri the Tiger" with a personality of "Uchi" (Sisterly) and a style of "Cute"

Drawing and creative pursuits have always been a major area of interest for me. The ability to express myself online is one of the reasons I became so interested in graphic design, web programming, and later programming proper and UX design!

While I can draw digitally, I’m much more confident with a pencil sketch as a picture on a base layer, then digitally inking and coloring that.

This image started as a joke sketch given how much my partner and I enjoyed the Nintendo game Splatoon. I liked how the sketch came out so much, I worked to digitally ink and color it. This was one of my first “full” pieces of digital art!

Digital colored drawing that shows a male and female inkling driving a jeep along a highway, with a license plate that says "Bri (heart) Nate". The female inkling is driving, has pink hair and is wearing a school outfit with a heart hairpin while wielding a splat roller weapon out of the vehicle. The male inkling has teal hair and is wearing a visored cap and aviator sunglasses alongside a Hawaiian shirt while holding a deco gal weapon. The land around them is mostly sandy with some low lying shrubs, and mountains in the distance. A giant purple ink tornado is behind the vehicle, and text is added to the front of the image that says "We Can't Stop Here, This is Splat Country!"

I found a challenge on Instagram to create your “Villager Persona” from Nintendo’s Animal Crossing, and after discussing with my partner and friends regarding what animal and type I would be, I set to work on my sketch and enjoyed it so much, I wanted to see it in full color. Below, you can see the before of initial pencil sketch to the final, digitally inked and colored result.

A digitally colored and drawn sketch of a woman's face with messy hair surrounding her. Shading is done in various pastel warm tones and shadow is done using purple.
Colored digital drawing of a chibi stylized avatar with her hair pulled to one side, wearing a purple to orange gradiated kimono style outfit. She is holding a fan and has chopsticks in her hair that have flowers on them.

While I may prefer a pencil sketch prior to m digital inking and coloring, I’m not completely lost if I’m without the ability to get a pencil and paper sketch as my base layer!

While I was still working to learn shading techniques in digital art, I sketched a quick female face with wildly messy hair to practice shading using not just shades, but various hues.

When hanging out on tradition BB style forums, I really enjoyed having art in my signatures. I sketched up and colored this quick “chibi” cartoon figure of my site avatar to use in a forum signature.

Sketching has certainly been an up and down road for me, but I am happy that I never gave up on it, and am always surprised at sketches that turn out well even after months of time away.

I have a long way to go as an artist, but I’m getting much stronger at dynamic posing and creating a sense of presence with facial expressions and movement.

This image of myself as a magical girl inkling from the Nintendo game Splatoon is one such sketch where I’m proud of it breaking away from stiff posing. I hope to ink and color this one soon!

(and hopefully one day, I’ll be better at drawing hands)

Drawn sketch of an inkling from Splatoon 2, wearing a magical girl scout outfit and a crown. The inkling has their tentacles in a heart hair tie to form a ponytail, and is smiling with its hand to its forehead showing a peace sign. Its other arm is at its side, holding a splattershot weapon that is dripping ink.

Often when I’m in a meeting or sitting and waiting, I tend to doodle away. As I’ve gotten older, it takes commitment to sit down and really commit to a fully detailed and fleshed out sketch. Regardless, I’m happy that I can continue to grow in my drawing skills, and I’m happy that digital art has provided me even more opportunities and intrigue to continue honing my skills!

A digitally colored drawing of a heart shaped perfume bottle with a silver crown cap. The bottle contains a dawn-gradient colored liquid that is bubbling up, and the bottle has wings on either side. A purple vintage air puffer extends from the cap. A ribbon across the bottle is purple with skull and cross bones on it, and a seal on the ribbon is a masterball from Pokemon. The image is meant to represent a poison gym leader badge.