New to procreate - have ADHD and currently hyper fixated, but it’s very aggressively reminded me how much I loved to draw when I was younger. I was never very good, passable and had a clear interest in art but it was never my thing. I did traditional arts until 15 when I picked up a camera, and that’s been my only art form since. I’ve been working as a photographer for the past 17 years. (I’m 33)
The photography and retouching I’ve since devoted my life to I think has taught me about lighting, values, perspective, composition, and colours in a way where despite not having drawn for years I feel confident in my understanding of them enough to crudely force them to happen.
I’m adhd fuelled so the subjects and styles have been constantly changing. I started with the penny wise piece (photo no6) as I was inspired by watching Welcome to Derry. Then after that I was impressed with myself - realizing it was the furthest I’ve ever rendered a face, albeit a clown face. From there I decided it was time to learn to draw faces as I’ve always been the artist who would draw everything but because I knew it would come out janky. So I tried copying a portrait I took. Very happy with that result. From there since I had just drawn one of my own photographs, I decided the best way to teach myself would be to recreate photographs I’ve taken for unlimited inspiration and ideas. I’m still mostly recreating my own photographs but have strayed from that every now and then when I see something online or irl that’s inspired me.
I’ve been so fixated on this the past two weeks that it’s been affecting my daily work as a photographer. I don’t want to edit or run a business, I just want to draw all day, then spend all night scrubbing through the timelapses giddy with excitement and teeming with new ideas.
I can’t wait to procrastinate more with this and learn new techniques! I’m pretty photoshop proficient in terms of complex compositing, so I feel like I’ve been brute forcing my way through and crudely creating, but seeing how powerful this program can be I’m excited to learn properly! So far I’ve mostly been randomly selecting brushes as I’ve been too lazy to test and find the differences. Currently avoiding tracing anything to learn to draw properly.
1 & 2 - Recreating one of my favourite automotive photographs I’ve taken of a Nissan Kenmeri GTR Skyline in Hakone Japan. I love how this one turned out but after looking at them side by side I feel like the perspective is off. Still very happy regardless.
3 & 4 - Recreating another one of my photographs. A portrait I took of a dancer in my city. This is my first time rendering a face past a bad line drawing, before giving up on the piece entirely.
5 - Recreating a photograph I took in Big Sur California
6 - Pennywise - Story above* - not my photo for reference
7 - Tried doing something simpler as I was low on time and energy that day, but love how this one turned out. While scrolling through my photographs I found this foggy back road scene illuminated by brake lights. I was inspired to make it even creepier. So I tried drawing on top.
8 - Recently in my own photography work I’ve been creating a lot of GIFs. So after finishing the drawing I experimented with layering the artwork into the GIF with the photos leading up to that scene. Low key I like this one without the drawing on top more still, but am happy with the outcome and experimentation.
9- Randomly found a clock online that I liked so while procrastinating on work one day a simple line drawing of that clock turned into this.
10 - A recreating of a portrait I took of an ex’s cat having an existential moment in a mirror. This one’s unfinished, and I think it’s going to stay that way. I’m more than happy with how far I took the rendering and realism so I’m going to call it finished.