Conan the Cimmerian Sketch

Alright, today I got wind that Conan is returning to marvel comics ... it made my day. I've loved the stories of Robert E. Howard's Conan, King Kull, and Solomon Kane most of my childhood. The news inspired me to do a quick sketch of him on my iPad Pro 12.9 with Procreate. I've been using less and less of procreate of lately due to Clip Studio Paint. The brushes in Procreate to me don't feel as good as the brushes I've created in CS, but I still none the less love Procreates interface/drawing experience a little better hence I did this drawing with pure joy.

I always start my drawing with a loose, fat tip, pencil. I like the one I made is CS better than the one I used here, but they both work great for quickly getting the loose feel and shape of the image down fast.

Once the Super loose sketch is done, I change the color of the sketch to either a light blue (non photo blue) or a sienna orange'ish color. In this case it's the latter. I do this by using the color balance option in Procreate. You could use the hue saturation option as well but I find this this works better. A lot of illustrators and comic book artist draw in blue or red and then draw and or ink on top of those color lines. This technique allows for experimentation and helps with inking and drawing as shown in the video I posted.

Once the color of the lines are changed the fun stuff starts and you can draw uninhibited because the hard work is done (the form and structure of the sketch), and all that's left is adding the icing on the cake so to speak. The undersketch is the most important. Getting that right is paramount to the success of your finished drawing. Nobody is going to always have a great drawing all the time, but sketching loose, quick, and refining as you go helps make a better final piece. Have a great night fellow Steemers :)