Dream Bedroom Miniature

 

I have always wanted to illustrate a childhood fascination, things that wowed me in my formative years. One such thing is miniatures. Mini-sized version of daily things are fascinating to me. This is the fuzzy concept I had in mind when I started sketching thumbnails.

Very quickly I realized how fuzzy the idea was. What miniature do I draw? At what angle do I present it?

I took inspiration from the manga "Yamada to Kase-san". There is a scene in which Kase went into Yamada's room the first time. So the miniature is a room... a dream bedroom. The camera angle is slightly high, high enough to display furniture and decorative items in the dream bedroom.

Plus, I instinctively knew I wanted to include a girl reacting to the dream bedroom.

Thumbnail sketch

In this thumbnail, I thought of an actual bedroom. I needed to add enough things in it to make it believable as a bedroom. So, bedroom, pillows, study table, chair, windows, school bag... I felt something was still missing.

I noticed I used straight lines in this thumbnail. The idea is a dream bedroom, so I used soft, round shapes in the actual sketch. The bed, study table and chair became rounded. Next, the bedroom is probably a girl's bedroom. So I added items that are more feminine in my mind: flowers on bed, plant pot, giant bunny plushie, sandals, mirror on table, and candle.

At this point the momentum of ideas was enough to finalize the sketch. Next comes painting colors.

I experimented with an almost monochromatic color scheme with a touch of complementary accent colors. Once I was happy with the colors, I started thinking about lighting.

I wanted the lighting to have a dramatic effect; on the other hand, I thought strong shadows on the bedroom would work against the fluffy cute feeling I was going for. So the bedroom got a diffuse lighting from the top, while the girl was backlit.

Finally, while working on the final touches I received some helpful feedback from friends in my community, I am grateful for that :)

Gardener Girl, a "Draw This In Your Style" Art Challenge

 

It all started in a dark, rainy day... YouTube recommended me a video by Mimimoo Illustration that day (which may or may not be dark now that I think about it).

I feel that sharing one's art journey is very personal and takes courage; and Mimi's journey was full of twists and turns. I was intrigued and thought I'd check out her Instagram page. As I scrolled through the artworks, I felt inspired. Finishing one artwork each day definitely made a big difference!

Something clicked in my mind while seeing all these cute illustrations: my art thought process was missing composition and background/midground/background elements. Thus far, I almost always drew a character on an empty background and found myself not knowing what background to add. This, I realized, is a wrong order! I should start with a composition in mind and add a character in it.

As it happened, Mimi was having a "Draw This In Your Style" challenge, so I applied what I learned and drew this.

Thumbnail sketches

Dino and Chicky in Reverse Hats

The idea for these began in October 2018 when I sketched cute animals in Halloween-themed hats, shown below. 

The starter sketch

I don't quite remember why a chicken and a dinosaur. Even then, I already knew that Chicky is a girl, thus the witch hat and wig, while Dino is a boy. I did not know what to do with them and simply marked the sketch to follow up someday.

In late 2021, I revisited Dino because I want a logo for dennyiskArt website. Below is my design process.

Dino design process

I wanted a quirky logo, thus the chicken hat and antique glasses on (1). Then I drew (2), a larger sketch of the head to find the head silhouette ("Sherlock Holmes hat") and refine the elements.

I liked (2), but it was too busy for a logo. I simplified the elements in (3) and tested the silhouette using a pumpkin hat. I preferred chicken hat, as shown in (4), and finalized the logo by adding a circle frame and a pencil holding hand.

I didn't use the image as website logo, but I thought it would be funny to pair it with a chicken in a dino hat. Accidentally, the circle frame was egg-shaped, a plus in my mind because both dino and chicken hatch from an egg.

Chicky design process

I sketched (1) around the same time a Dino's (1). I was not happy with it because the silhouette was not as strong as Dino's. Well, since Dino had rounded shapes, I thought I would use square shape for Chicky, as shown in (2) upper; and then soften it as shown in (2) lower.

After that, it was just a matter of adding details to get to (3). I drew (4) to match the circle frame and explored some variation in proportions. As the handwritten note says, I found (4) not cute. The final drawing, thankfully, was much cuter.

It was relatively easy to draw these because I love the idea. Painting was tough because I did not fully understand that look I wanted. I ended up taking a long time painting these.

"Dino" painting process

At the start I needed some time to find a cohesive color scheme. I needed to keep checking the saturation as well. I just revisited painting digitally, so I took around a month to finish the painting.

"Chicky" painting process

With "Chicky", I struggled with the shadows. Do I make them colder to contrast with the warm midtones? Are the shadows too cold? In the middle of the painting I decided to revise the shape of the shadows because I thought the nose part of the hat should cast more shadows on her face. Similar to "Dino", this took me a month to finish.

All in all, I am rather happy with these two paintings. They look cute and fun. What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments :)