Rafael Garrigos

How do you improve your skills? Daily practice. If you want to take one day off or more, that is okay, but please do not neglect for a long period of time. Procrastination is not cool, really. The results are fruitful when you are self-disciplined with your practice.

“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”
― Leonardo da Vinci

In the same token, I find what appeals me as artist while I explore my style with different mediums. I enjoy drawing animals and fictitious characters that I like. For example, Link (The Legend of Zelda video games), Spider-man (Marvel comics), and Squirtle (Pokémon).

Since I am studying how to draw a horse, I plan to draw Link riding Epona. See? Something leads to something when you practice daily. My last drawing for this month is a horse that became the culmination of hours of studying on how to draw it. Drawing a horse in full body is my next step to reach my goal.

My other goal is to draw my original characters, so I am studying a book by Andrew Loomis. I know that to stylize my character is important to understand the fundamentals. Proportions, anatomy, perspective, etc.

And you guys, what you would like to improve? Which are your objectives to reach your goal?

Don’t forget to check my other artworks in Instagram and Facebook too.

Have a great weekend!
Rafael

I regularly find myself analyzing my sketchbooks, wondering what I can learn from my visual development. Today I am writing to share with you my insights about what I created on the past weeks. Let us start on how is growing my fondness for pen, ink, watercolor, markers, and colored pencils. Ink was an intimidating medium that took me a while to loosen the flow of my marks that result in smooth lines. Sometime later, I followed some artists in YouTube that fed my confidence with pen and ink.

When I looked on my drawings, I realized that colors lean more towards warm and bright. In that case, I choose the brightest color that complements with my warm palette when working with cold colors as blue. By the way, the subjects for my drawings tend to vary from time to time while I experiment with some mediums. I dabble between Disney movies’ characters and The Legend of Zelda video games’ Link. Pokemon and Marvel/DC comics too.

I love to render textures, but I cannot wait to design good characters with more than a plain background. Next weeks I will study about those in the hope that I can render original characters with confidence. Sky is the limit!

Fellow creative individuals:
Wat are your insights on your latest creations?
What did you learn about yourself or your creations?

Wish you a creative week,
Rafa

Here’s my thoughts on doing Inktober by the first time, even though I missed a few prompts. What matters the most is the learned lessons over the course of the month. By the same token, my interest on watercolors and colored pencils grew further.

• Let it go! Don’t be highly attached to your expectations because it will only frustrate you further.
• Experiment with different mediums that mix with pen and ink. Not everything is black and white.
• “Don’t worry, mistakes are good.” This phrase from one of my English professors resonated on my mind when I needed it during this art challenge. Keep a genuine interest on to learn from your mistakes.
• If you are interested to pursue a career as an artist, use the art challenges to explore more on how to use your new skills and creations for future projects.
• Don’t stop, just don’t! Keep creating even when an art challenge is over. If there is another that interests you, DO IT, NOW! The only things you will miss are a new body of artwork that is important for your creative growth.
• “Style”? “Voice”? Stop to overthink about them. Just keep creating. Don’t waste your time on reaching them overnight. Use your precious time to create.
• Fan art? Yes, go ahead! Not only you show appreciation for someone’s work, but also you get a chance to learn and apply your skills.
• Keep your mind open to new ideas, techniques, mediums, Hint: It will feed your Creative Bank Account.
• Don’t let your inner critic to jeopardize your creativity. Please, have fun! Even so Albert Einstein said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
• Stay accountable. I never knew the value of it despite of I got a longstanding experience on casual blogging. Yes, I missed a few prompts to get some personal space away from the screen. In that case, I returned with some new creations to share.

All right, that’s everything for now. I wrote this in the hope that other artists try any art challenge that interest them. By the way, thank you to those that have been supporting my artistic journey. If you are no subscribed to my blog, you can sing up on the bottom of this post.

Cheers,
Rafa

Domino, one of the 101 Dalmatians from Disney, is simple and sweet to draw. Learning to draw what I see is a skill I am working out without stressing on be perfectionist. I’m certain that my style will develop by itself if I draw daily. I keep on mind the importance to be patient during the process. From the initial drawing to the coloring.

Thank you for following my art blog,

Rafa

This time I added more than the subject: the grass, two sleeping red foxes, and a black boot. Well, the truth is that the drawing built without an outline, it was more spontaneous than planned. My satisfaction was not fulfilled with the swing, then my dog snuggled on my couch, and an image of a sleeping red fox popped out on my mind.

The idea of coloring some grass I considered while I placed the creatures. The boot? Just as I tried draw a flower with my brush pen, so a smudge messed up under the swing. Lesson: Use your creativity to fix the mistakes!

In the long run, I enjoyed this drawing I created out from my imagination without specific references. I am enjoying the thrill of Inktober!

Until the next post,

Rafa

Tiny Tim is one of the characters from the Mickey’s Christmas Carol movie (1983). This film is based on one of the works by Charles Dickens. Seeing that winter holidays are closer, I wanted to draw a character that corresponds to the season: Tiny Tim. Really, it’s Morty who is one of the Mickey Moise’s nephews, and he portrays as Tiny Tim.

I notice that from time to time, I keep drawing whatever association I do with a random word. Such as today for the word “frail,” which is one of Inktober 2019’s prompts. My patience, by the same token, remains resilient through the process. As can be seen, some drawings are showing some progress because of my patience. Clearly, patience is an important soft skill as artist. With this on mind, I will add background of my next drawings. Let’s see how far I’ll go!

Wishing you a good week,

Rafa

Tiny Tim is one of the characters from the Mickey’s Christmas Carol movie (1983). This film is based on one of the works by Charles Dickens. Seeing that winter holidays are closer, I wanted to draw a character that corresponds to the season: Tiny Tim. Really, it’s Morty who is one of the Mickey Moise’s nephews, and he portrays as Tiny Tim.

I notice that from time to time, I keep drawing whatever association I do with a random word. Such as today for the word “frail,” which is one of Inktober 2019’s prompts. My patience, by the same token, remains resilient through the process. As can be seen, some drawings are showing some progress because of my patience. Clearly, patience is an important soft skill as artist. With this on mind, I will add background of my next drawings. Let’s see how far I’ll go!

Wishing you a good week,

Rafa

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Have a Husky Weekend!

Rafa

Today I did not feel to draw something frozen. I chose do something simple and cute. Well, sometimes is nice to say hi.

There we go, another fan-art of The Legend of Zelda franchise, this time to take part of Inktober. I chose this scene from Link’s Awakening remake for Nintendo Switch because well, is just so cute to resist lol. I did with colored pencils and ink.

Again, thank you for following my blog,

Rafa