When Millie was a puppy she was a handful but great fun all at the same time. I wanted to capture her loopiness in illustrations, as she stole socks, hats, and glasses. She would stand just out of reach and dare me to catch her.
I started by drawing sketches, using her proportions with as much detail as possible. These sketches didn’t capture Millie’s energy and quirkiness as much as I wanted.
I decided to pare back the details in the drawings. I wanted a thicker black line for Millie’s main body. This was achieved by using a Procreate brush called Syrup. The thicker outlines when used loosely captured her energy.
I liked the feel and flow of the thicker lines, but Millie still looked like an older dog. I experimented with variations of Millie with bigger eyes and bigger ears, but she was still looking older.
Because I use layers in Procreate, I was able to have different features on the different layers, giving me the advantage of not having to change the complete drawing every time I wanted to change something.
Finally, to get the look right, I made Millie’s body smaller and her head bigger, easy when you keep each component on a different layer and that captured Millie the puppy perfectly.
I drew Millie in all sorts of situations, with a bigger head, thicker outlines, and her tongue hanging out. Finally, I added solid colours to capture the energy and craziness of Millie.
One important note on layers in Procreate. Check how many layers you can have on the document setup, the bigger the document size the fewer layers you can have. Also, the number of layers is dependent on the iPad Model. The newer and higher models of iPad will allow you to have more layers.
My advice to aspiring illustrators is that if a sketch is not working, don’t throw it away just yet. Try it with the different brushes built into Procreate. If you can’t see one you like in Procreate, check the web for the hundreds of custom brushes available. Be aware some will be free and others there will be a charge.
Get drawing, and I hope you enjoy illustrating as much as I do.