Hey Hive!
We're back again with another Art Attack! If you're new to the series, this is where I share my drawings and the process behind them. A behind-the-scenes look at my artwork, if you will. This is not to say that I'm very good at art, or that I'm a professional in any way. In fact this is the opposite, and serves as a reminder to how I first started, and lets me track my progress too!
It's time for more game-related art! This time, it's Stardew Valley!
So way back in October of last year I remember seeing a reddit post of this awesome piece by this guy named Axel Schmidt (@ads_illustrations85 on instagram):
Source: reddit
I'm guessing pumpkin was one of the prompts for inktober that year. But it looked absolutely amazing! He's truly a wizard with copic markers because man, it looks like it was digitally drawn and coloured.
But anyway, this piece inspired me to think of creating some seasonal Stardew paintings since Stardew Valley is all about farming through the different seasons. But I didn't want it to just be a normal painting. Well that and, I knew I could never paint anything remotely close to Axel's piece. So I thought about making a calendar instead!
If you're unfamiliar with the game, there are 4 seasons in Stardew Valley and calendars for each season:
Source: Scribd
The character heads indicate their birthdays and flags are special events.
I was thinking of drawing the calendar and having a seasonal painting to go along with it, kind of like how there are pictures that accompany themed calendars like this:
Source: The Cottage Market
That way I could do my seasonal Stardew painting but have it also be informational so I wouldn't need to keep checking the calendar on the wiki! Win-Win!
And I was thinking of what to draw for the painting portion until I came across this video by MalMakes!
I thought it looked so beautiful and peaceful, just like how Stardew makes me feel whenever I'm playing it so I thought it'd be cool to emulate hers but in watercolours. Of course I could never be as detailed as hers but we'll see how it goes.
This was my draft on the format:
Then it was time to get sketching! I used the biggest paper I had which was pretty much just drawing block.
But then I found out that I didn't have enough space for the full name Stardew Valley, so I had to get creative and join the W and V together. But I thought it worked out.
For the calendar I also added in what the easiest presents to get for the characters, since it's always a chore to remember everyone's favourite items, or you know, check the wiki while in-game.
And this was my sketch for the painting portion!
Mal was very helpful in the full video where she teaches you how to draw the farmhouse in perspective. After a few tries I think I managed to do it but unfortunately I completely forgot about it for the right side of the coop. And I didn't notice it until it was too late. Oops.
Anyway, this was the full sketch! Oh man, I remember it took quite a long time to get this done but I was so happy to get to this step.
Because then it was time to get to outlining!
I remember being pretty proud of how good the logo looked. I did trace it though so it's no surprise, but it did take some serious tinkering to get the scale and position just right and not have it looked too squished, especially considering I was tracing it off my iPad.
The calendar itself turned out alright. Other than Kent and Vincent's face; idk what happened there, so I decided to do over for them and just did a cut and paste. Literally.
Since most of the bottom portion was gonna be in watercolour I didn't want too many bold lines. So I only outlined the scarecrow, the farmhouse, coop and silo. And I did a light outline with the chickens since it would be difficult to paint them without reference lines.
Next was the exciting part - painting!
I started with the title and background first.
I tried to apply some of Mal's techniques to watercolour to see how it would look and it actually turned out pretty alright! The little foothills for the farm and the trees looked quite legit. And I thought the water looked pretty alright too. The perspective may not have been as clear as hers and mine might've come out a little flat and 2D-ish but I think it looked alright still.
For the background I decided to go for a morning springtime feel, kinda like the title screen:
Source: Amazon
And after painting the buildings, scarecrow and the character heads, adding a little sun peeking behind the mountains and re-outlining, this was the final piece!
I actually really liked how this came out. Other than the perspective on the coop and maybe parts of the riverbank looking a little off, I thought this piece came out great! It definitely had the feel of a calm sunrise in Spring.
I did have some trouble with this drawing block paper since it's not that absorbent and actually became quite flaky when I used too much water but overall, I think this piece still looked pretty good.
I still have yet to do the Fall and Winter calendars but I hope to finish them by the end of the year. Maybe.
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
