Introduction
Creativity is one of those skills that can be quite useful (sometimes even fundamental!) in almost any industry. This is especially true when it comes to marketing, and Summit is no exception! Our department features all kinds of talent between writing, design, graphic art, and even illustration. That’s why, this month, we want to highlight two members of our team: Katy B. and A. Porter, who both possess a keen talent for digital art!
In this Q&A, you’ll get a brief glimpse into our artists’ methods, backgrounds, and drawing preferences. Art can seem like a mystifying process, but the two of them lay out their different methods, approaches, and influences to help shed light on what’s involved! They have also provided a curated selection– a portfolio, if you would– of their art for us all to see. Please join us in perusing their little digital gallery, all while learning a bit about how they became involved in the hobby– and keep an eye out for their work in March, when they’ll debut the Summit Story in comic book form!
Illustration Q&A
Katy B.
I probably first discovered my love for drawing back in grade school. A lot of projects back then were pretty simple. One of my earliest memories was a self-portrait around 2nd or 3rd grade, with my teacher praising me for good work. It kind of opened my eyes to the venture of creating in general. I feel like I have always had a natural artistic tendency but even at that age, it wasn’t a very substantial skill to have.
Looking back on the archive of drawings I do have (my mother has saved everything, no joke!), It’s been around 15 years since I began drawing. Most of it consisted of my own imagination, while other drawings would come from school prompts. Obviously, my art has changed and grown with time, but I would say that I had really started doodling on assignments and spare pieces of paper since I was around 7-8 years old.
For the most part I was self-taught, it wasn’t until middle/high school when I had the opportunity to grow through my art classes. I had spent a lot of time working on my own and drawing characters from the books I read in or in-between class or just some doodles of things in my head. Eventually, I enrolled in my high school’s independent study program for graphic design, and it helped me further my skills on paper and the computer.
It was also at that point when I connected with those who could also draw, and we would usually spend time together and give each other tips for our pieces. Some of those friends have stuck with me since then and we still talk and draw together!
I guess I really enjoyed the simple pencil, paper and colored pencil since that was the easiest medium to get when I started. Working with pencils and paper created a more sketched out effect to me, and it created a more intimate feeling when carrying around my sketchbook.
However, going through high school and college while getting my degree in graphic design (and other digital arts) have transitioned me into drawing on my iPad and computer, which is now my preferred medium.
Digital Art vs Traditional Art
It really depends on the piece I work on. Mainly when I work on my iPad, I will sketch, line, and color all in the same program. If I am working with pencil and paper, I will usually spend time sketching in my sketch book and then either line with a fine point pen or transfer it to a digital canvas as well.
My favorite things to draw can vary. My friends and I spend a lot of time playing Dungeons and Dragons, which involves a lot of original character designs. Most often, I spend time drawing my own or other’s original characters in our specific campaigns. I really enjoy bringing those ideas and concepts to life! If were talking in a less serious sense, though, I would draw a lot of giraffes… They are my favorite animal and were the inspiration for one of my pieces in college.
School project illustration
TTRPG character art
I think the most complicated drawing I have worked on was a multi-drawing project I had done as a fundraiser to a local animal shelter. The project involved taking people’s pictures of their animals and transforming them into a detailed sketch. I consider this my most challenging since I typically work with my own drawing style rather than photo realistic. Overall, each drawing I did took around 2-3 hours to complete if there was only one animal to draw on a piece and I had completed around 45 portraits.
Pet portraits
I have a lot more incomplete drawings than finished but counting all completed works I have done; I would have to say around 80-90 pieces.
A. Porter
I’ve always been interested in drawing, but for the most part I only doodled without any skill or did pixel art with a mouse and keyboard. Many of my friends are professional artists (some are animators!), so I always felt outclassed by the very talented people around me.
I only became serious about trying to draw around 2019, when I got an iPad and Apple Pencil for the first time. My father has always been invested in trying to help me explore new hobbies, and he got me the Apple Pencil to encourage me to experiment with digital art. When the pandemic rolled around in 2020, I began working from home, and most of my social life evaporated or was replaced with online hangouts. This gave me a lot of time to focus on and grow my illustration skills—and, more importantly, it helped me relax and process my stress. It’s been one of my main methods of relaxation ever since.
I’ve been seriously practicing my illustration skills for about 3 1/2 years now, starting around June/July 2019.
Completely self-taught. I never had the chance to take any classes in high school or college. Instead, I’ve been learning by watching process videos and tutorials, as well as by studying what ‘stands out’ about my favorite artists’ styles. As my skill increases, my understanding of the medium grows as well. It’s been very exciting to see the progress I’ve made in the last few years. I still have a lot to learn, though!
Example of my growth through independent study. This is the same figure using two different line styles, one from 2019 and one from 2021.
Digital. I use an iPad primarily, with Clip Studio Paint as my program of choice. I also have a Wacom tablet and Photoshop on my desktop for any polishing. I use mechanical pencils and paper for gesture drawing and anatomy practice, but I don’t do any finished pieces using traditional mediums.
I start by warming up with practice gestures on my iPad. Then I do a couple of skeletal sketches or composition layouts before committing to a concept. I tend to do 2-4 sketch layers, refining each one, and then I do my polished linework using vector layers. It takes a lot of time; this is where I am focused on increasing my skill and my speed.
If I plan to color, my coloring process normally involves a flat base layer. I paint the shadows, highlights, and details on masking layers above it. I’ll often export it as a Photoshop document at this point and adjust or correct any colors and details on my desktop computer.
The stages of my illustration process
I do a lot of character art because I play in and run a lot of tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), such as Dungeons and Dragons or Vampire: The Masquerade. However, my favorite things to draw are monsters and horror art, which works well with some of the more horror-oriented games I’m involved with.
My favorite part of drawing is the line art. I love the process of refining a sketch until your initial concept emerges from it.
Character art for a TTRPG game
Line art illustration of a sea monster
I’ve completed some illustrations involving full environments or scenes, which can be quite complex. It involves a lot of skills, like color balance, a good understanding of light and shadow, and the technical ability to draw objects or features you may not normally.
Completed scene of someone’s TTRPG character
Several dozen. I don’t finish as many as I start, and a lot of the time I open a canvas just to practice rather than commit to finishing a piece. I am also not very fast, so many of my painted/colored pieces involve over 10 hours of work—sometimes much more.
Character illustration for a TTRPG