My process feat. Crash

People have been wanting tutorial thingies from me, and this isn't really a tutorial but it's something. I had the scans from that Crash pic lying around, and I thought I could make a step-by-step process thingy out of them. Here, I just explain the basics of what I do and most of the basics of what a pic involves. I knew at least that I could try to explain what I do, using these progress shots of a picture as an example.

But yeah- it's still not a tutorial. It gives you an idea of what creating a picture like this involves. This is only explaining one thing out of all the stuff I get up to. It's relatively easy to tell you what I do, but there are several things that are much harder to transfer. For example; Colour sense, colour theory, hand motion, methods of applying the ink to the page with hand and finger motion, knowledge of how light and shadows work, how I've developed my style, sketching skills, drawing instincts, idea generation, design, ETC. ETC. Teaching this stuff is very different from just... doing it. And way harder.

I've had five years experience with these pens, specifically with Copic Ciao Markers, and I've spent a lot of that time practicing, experimenting, working out how to achieve or replicate effects or colouring styles, trying new things and so on. Before these five years even, I've been drawing since I was a toddler. I looked at lots of other people's work, I took influence, I took style points, then I branched off and developed my art into the look I wanted it to have and it took years.

I can tell you the basics of how I do things, but I achieved all of this through experimentation and practice, and lots of it. The be all end all of being a good artist is skill, and to build skill you have to practice, practice, practice. 'What' I do in my process is easy to explain. But all of the practical knowledge and skill you need to be able to execute it well is gained with practice.

Also- I forgot to mention that I just use plain printer paper to draw on. And I have about 80 ciao markers to work with. And thirty fine liner colours...

I'm not trying to put you guys off with scary talk, I just really don't want to make the impression that all you need to do is follow these steps and they'll work straight away o3o this is why I'm wary of tutorials.