Treehouse WIP

[patricialamas]

New here, and this is my second month doing Critique Arena! Suggestions welcome before I move beyond the sketch phase. Is the concept clear? I'm thinking about adding a couple characters eating pie, but am not sure if maybe that's straying too far from just a treehouse. Thanks!

[Valerie Light]

@patricialamas It's cute, and nicely drawn! I'd encourage you to add the pie eating characters, because that kind of cute storytelling detail gets everyone interested in your piece.

[Larue]

Cute idea, go for it! I'm still waiting for an idea to find me:(

[Henry Mosley]

Good idea and cool shading. I want to learn how to do it!

[AngelinaKizz]

This is so cute! I love your drawing.
The only thing I can pick out, would be that the size of the apples on the trees doesn’t translate into the size of the apples in the top of the treehouse. Maybe you could size them down and add more apples?

I also really like the suggestion of adding a pie eater. Such a cute idea. Can’t wait to see you render it.

[Kristen Lango]

I don't think that would be straying too far from the idea. I say go for it! Maybe you dig deeper into why this rabbit has a pie shop... Who would be coming to buy pies? Other rabbit or maybe other woodland creatures. And perhaps ask why is this pie shop a treehouse? Why is it in the trees and not on the ground? Maybe there are some nearby foxes who try to steal the pies, so the rabbits were forced to move their operation into the trees. Just bouncing some ideas around. The sketch is really well done! Can't wait to see it rendered.

[KatrinaF]

Awww! So cute! Can't wait to see it colored.

[patricialamas]

Thanks, everyone! I added more furry characters and did some editing to resolve the scale issue with the apples. That’s a fun suggestion to add some conflict with predators, and something I definitely wasn’t thinking about today when drawing foxes and cats sharing pie with the squirrels and rabbits! There is something a little sinister-looking to me about the raccoon climbing the ladder, though…

[AngelinaKizz]

@patricialamas I love the edits you have made! I don’t think you really need conflict in spot illustration that exterior design based. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think this is great!

[patricialamas]

Thanks @Henry-Mosley ! After what was said about the prompt on the critique arena zoom call, I decided I should get rid of the characters and focus in on lots more environmental detail and props to tell the story. I’ll start working on that next, but here is some progress on the color and lighting. I’m pretty new to Procreate, and this feels much more like my analog style than my entry last month when I was still struggling to figure out what brushes to use. Learning new software is rough!

[Asyas_illos]

@patricialamas I think it looks better without all the characters, less busy and procreate is great once you start to figure things out!

[Kristen Lango]

@patricialamas Very cute additions - though I don't read the raccoon as sinister. I can't quite see his face so to me he looks just as well intentioned as any of the other animals.

[Kristen Lango]

@patricialamas I love your color palette!

[patricialamas]

Progress on fleshing out the details. I am having way too much fun with this.

[PenAndrew]

@patricialamas I love the way your illustration is progressing, such warmth in the colours and the added texture works well along with the shadows. You make me want to get an I-Pad and work in Procreate.

[patricialamas]

@PenAndrew I held out so long on getting an iPad, and it made such a huge difference once I finally did this January! With my Wacom tablet and ancient computer I always felt like I was hitting undo more than actually drawing, plus the portability of the iPad makes it so much easier to hide from my toddler while I work.

[PenAndrew]

@patricialamas Yes, thanks for sharing the advantages, though I would say, seeing your work is the biggest encouragement to buying an I-Pad. My other concern with working digitally is getting too many headaches. What is it like working for long hours on the I-Pad?

[patricialamas]

Nearing completion now, but thinking about ways to make the scene look more alive without necessarily adding characters since that’s not in the prompt. Any ideas? Might do an open window in one of the dormers, a sandwich board with a menu, maybe some actual seating…

[patricialamas]

@PenAndrew I have to admit that there are such drawbacks! I probably don’t work enough each day to get headaches from the screen, but one major struggle is drawing at night. I don’t use the blue light filter because obviously it distorts the colors, and it’s sooo hard to fall asleep if I stay up late drawing.

[PenAndrew]

@patricialamas Thanks for this information. Do you work from the sketch to the finished work all on Procreate? And how long does an image from start to finish take roughly?