What’s up, peeps? So I finally finished a drawing… sort of. I still feel like I’m losing ground due to not being able to draw enough, due to working my butt off, due to trying to maintain my lavish lifestyle

But this one has some good qualities. Hopefully more will follow soon. And if anybody’s interested in the brushes, I used my markers (available here) and also some custom-made bristle brushes. I can upload the bristles if anybody wants them.

Whether you’re drawing with a pencil or with vectors, some of the same ideas apply. In my vector drawings, I used to try to be very precise, drawing the finished lines and shapes exactly. Then, after I started learning to use brushes, I saw that I could make much more fluid and interesting shapes by following a larger and looser process. Here are a couple images to show the technique.

• First, I draw with big loose lines, defining the lines of motion, and worrying about intersection points, but not too much about end points of lines.
• I try to create relationships between different lines so that they complement each other.
• Then I add some detail to pull it together. Even with the detail, I don’t worry about defining endpoints very much. This is how a good artist would draw with a pencil, so it makes sense to do the same in Illustrator.
• Once the rough drawing is done, I copy it and start cutting, masking, and applying brushes to bring it closer and closer to a finished drawing.

That’s a big part of my drawing strategy right now. Sometimes it’s hard to sort out all those loose and crazy lines, but I think the result is worth it–a little bit of unique style and a lot of cool in-progress images!