"In The Catpit" - My project for course: Caricature Drawing with Infinite Painter

Hello!

This is the first art course I have taken in my life. I started my art journey not three months ago, on April 11th, 2024, without any previous experience.
(Today, on June 6th, 2024, I'm submitting my Final Project for this course.)

I decided to give art a try, and fell in love with the process, even if my results were what you would expect from a 3-year-old. I wondered what it would be like if I could make a great living by doing something I enjoy this much, and I started learning all the basics: drawing, color theory, composition, etc.

I figured digital art would be a great way to get me started, as it allows for an easier learning experience, and it is waaaay cheaper than traditional art. Then, not a week ago, a cartoon by Albeniz Rodríguez appeared in my IG feed, and it moved me very, very deeply. Turns out this course was heavily discounted, enough that I could afford it, and... here I am.

If anyone had told me when I first saw his work that I could do something like it, I would not have believed them. So, let me share with you the process of how I got to this result.

Below you can see the reference image (taken from the internet), then the rough sketch, the detailed sketch, and the color sketch, as covered in this course.

However, the process was not so linear for me. I had some obstacles to overcome. The first of which was that I don't have an iPad, nor a tablet with a screen that can run Infinite Painter... so I had to use an Android emulator for Windows and a graphics tablet (the kind without a screen). And that means I cannot use gestures to zoom in and out, or to move the canvas. So the process was very, very time consuming.

Also, I had to get some more experience with this method and its many techniques. So I used another reference picture (that seemed easier) and practiced making the colored shapes and how to caricaturize with that one. (See image below).

That made me comfortable enough with the techniques to go back to my original image and get the results you see here. But I would have to find and learn another drawing app to get there. It turns out that IbisPaint X runs on Windows AND it has the fill-brush feature. It does not allow the use of textures with the fill-brush, and it's a bit of a hassle to pick the colors, but I could make the colored shapes, and I could zoom in/out and move the canvas, which more than made up for the limitations. It was a trade-off.

So, once I was comfortable with IbisPaint, I got to the results seen in the color sketch (and you can tell the difference between that one and the other ones).

Next up, I had to figure out the caricaturization (is that even a word?) process. That is, the art of knowing what features to exaggerate, and much to exaggerate them.

You can see in the pics above that I tried caricaturizing at the initial sketch stage, then color it in. But it didn't work to well for me (as you can see).

After whatching the videos again, I noticed that Albeniz altered the features from the colored sketch, and I gave that a try. This worked much better for me, as you can see in the picture above. It was then just a matter of playing around with it for a while, until I found one that I liked better (the one on the right). Also, being able to see the different versions side by side helped me better understand what I liked and what didn't really work.

Once I had a version I was happy with, I went back and added more details to the color sketch. Then I moved on to the background.

I had an idea of what I wanted the background to be. So I searched Pinterest for pictures that would fit my idea, and found a few. From there, I selected four, and used them as backgrounds for my subject, to see which one I liked best. Here's what I came up with:

With these "composition sketches", I could visually tell what works and what doesn't. I decided on the second one because of the color contrast. I also like the third one, it has nice composition, but the colors are too similar. Maybe I'll do that one next and change the background colors.

So, from there, it was time to work on the background. I did so in a separate file. Just as the course says, I worked from a reference image, then onto a sketch. I had to remove the pilot and "fill in" some of the airplane from imagination, as I wasn't sure what would show up and what would be covered by the subject. (Originally, the cat was going to be smaller, but I decided to keep him closer to "the camera".)

I then worked on the color sketch for the background (sky and earth) using the color shapes technique, and got a sky and clouds I was thrilled with! I'd never painted anything this good-looking in my life! You'd think I'd been doing this for a while, but no! I learned this in this course!

Then I did the same for the "objects" (the cockpit and the fighter). And yes, this was my second attempt at the background. The first time around I messed it up: lost the horizon, didn't separate the background from the objects... and if I told you how many times during this course I did the work on the wrong layer... lol

But I was happy with my results:

I then put it all together until I was happy with it and rendered the final composition. Only to realize that I had not added the whiskers!

And I had to sign this, my first formal piece of art. So I had to choose an artist name. I decided on "Mokabi"... MoCA being my initials, with the C becoming a K in Japanese. And "Bi", which means "Beauty" in Japanese, from which we get Bijutsu (literally, the "technique of beauty"), which means "Art". So, Moka Bijutsu is Moca Art. But Mokabi sounds nice. Don't worry, it makes sense to my autistic mind. (Yes, I'm on the spectrum! Found out about 4 years ago, at age 44! but I digress...)

So I went back, added the whiskers, and exported my final composition again. Since I don't have an iPad, and thus I can't use Procreate, I used PhotoShop for the post-processing. Below you can see the raw and the post-processing images side by side.

I can't tell you how happy and thrilled I am with my results! Sure, it has errors. Sure, it's far from perfect. But never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I could do this! And I have no doubt that I'll improve lots and lots with practice. This is only the beginning!

This is my first formal creation. And I couldn't be happier. I now believe I can do this.

Thank you so, so much, Albeniz, for helping me make this dream come true! I hope I can become better at this and hopefully support myself from making art and bring smiles and joy to others. And I hope to someday be able to afford an iPad so I can use Procreate and Infinity Painter the way it's meant to be used. lol

I am a fan of your amazing work from the moment I first laid eyes on it. Thank you for sharing your techniques, tips and experience with us! This course is literally life-changing! Thank you!

If you have any feedback, I would be most grateful. Molte grazie, prof!

And if you read all this, whomever you are, thank you for your time.

Lots of love,

-Mokabi