Sinkin' on Blues

Hello Hive! At last, I finally clambered up my reputation to 60 from my last post! Thank you so much for all the votes and reblogs :) Anyways, it's been long since I last made a content about inverted art, so in this blog I'll be doing another inverted drawing!

_{I really liked the reference photo for this one so I decided to make an inverted drawing out of it. I'll be mainly using canary yellow, yellow ochre, sunburst yellow, orange, poppy red, and lush pink to color the drawing. Also, I'm using Pixlr to edit the wip shots and to constantly check the inverted version while I'm drawing - so I'll make the tones and values right.}

A unique take on traditional drawing.

You might think, how did it look like that? It looks edited and all - the blues, is that a filter?

That's an inverted drawing. The way it works is by drawing the complementary (opposite) colors of the original image to produce a certain effect. White become black, blue become orange, as examples. When the art is finished, a negative effect needs to be applied by editing effects to show the real colors back.

Inverted art takes less time compared normal drawings, if you get used to it. For me atleast, since I've already drawn a lot of inverted drawings for years. It's my favorite artsyle actually. You really have to pay close attention to every part of your reference. In this technique, paying close attention to colors is important to get all the value and tones right.

So how to start doing inverted art?

The key here is finding the perfect reference photo. Usually, photos having pitch black background are the ones that get used the most on inverted art. Black becomes white so the main subject can be easily drawn on a white paper or canvas. I like playing around with colors and pick subjects that are bright and saturated to see how it inverts to another eye-capturing complementary color. I got my reference photo from DynamicWang on Unsplash.

After grabbing a reference photo, I imported it to Pixlr (mobile app) and added a negative filter. Saved the photo to my gallery, and started drawing using that. The color palette of the photo is composed of blue shades. So instead of blues, I used shades of oranges in this piece since orange complement blue. It only took me about 3 hours to do this drawing but could have been shorter if I wasn't taking progress pictures along the way.

Materials

Mechanical Pencil
White Gel Pen
Kneaded Eraser
Prismacolor Colored Pencils
8x5" Limelight Journal (Plain)

Process

Opening up my journal, I lightly sketched the face of my subject. There aren't much detail so I just made loose strokes to shape out the figure. After drawing a light sketch, I took my kneaded eraser and gently dabbed it to the sketch to erase some pencil strokes. Once I made it even more lighter by erasing, I resketched the lines using the lush pink/light pink pencil. This way, the grays from the first sketch will be covered and will not show up once I add more colors later on. I defined some details and shapes as I traced down.

After the sketch, I made some indents to the white parts of the face using the white gel pen. Indention is making grooves on the paper using an empty pen or any sharp tool. It will leave a white in the paper when rendered with a pencil. This way, the eyebrows and the lashes will be automatically defined when I layer my color. Also works well when doing the hair strands.

Next, I decided to fill out the background first. I layered down the lightest yellow as base - which is the canary yellow, pressing down lightly on the paper while also evenly rendering. Then I added orange on the lower half, fading it to the upper area. Using the sunburst yellow, I blended the layers and burnished the entire background to create an even fade and to also smooth out the layers.

I began to color the eyes by using the canary yellow. See how it instantly left defined white marks on the lashes and eyelines as I rendered. That's what makes indenting technique so good. I colored one eye after another, then proceeded to the nose, then the rest of the face. Layered down sunburst yellow after the canary yellow base, then I burnished using the yellow ochre. The canary is the lightest color, followed by the ochre, then the orange. I finished up by adding poppy red - or just red orange to the saturated areas of the face.

_{Here's how it looks when inverted:}

Before proceeding to the hair part, I filled out the lower area first. Using the sunburst yellow as base, I rendered the entire lower area, pressing down lightly and evenly. After that, I added a light layer of poppy red and blended the layers out using the orange. I burnished using the sunburst yellow to finish up the lower area and the sides as well. Also creating a light yellow-brown gradient along the center left curve. I rendered the lips after that by making small indents first then filling up the area with yellow ochre and sunburst yellow. The lip texture will be added instantly by the indent marks.

In drawing the hair, I started with creating some indents on the bangs first. Using the white gel pen, I made hair strand lines starting from the top to the bottom part of the hair. Also curving it towards the sides on then left. After indenting, I began layering the canary yellow, followed by orange, then I lightly burnished with sunburst yellow. Added poppy orange for some saturated hair strands. After the bangs, I repeated the same process on the right part of her hair.

Finally, I refined some details and fixed some parts of the drawing. I wasn't actually able to draw it as exactly as the reference though. It's okay, since I was just aiming for the look and feel of the photo and I got it nearly close. After fixing the drawing a bit, I started taking pictures of it outside for a better lighting.

_{Here's how it looks when inverted:}

I've compiled the work in progress pictures below - both normal and negative versions. I had to do a lot of editing and ajustment to the inverted version to really capture the exact saturation and contrast. Anyways, here are the wip shots:

Normal Progress:

Inverted Progress:

**The Artwork:**

Thank you for dropping by!

What do you think about inverted art? Have you done it before as well? Leave a comment and let me know about your thoughts! If you like this blog, I'd really appreciate a reblog :) I might also make more inverted art content soon so stay tuned by following me. Have a great day!

Below are some of my Inverted Art blogs. Unfortunately though, some images don't show up anymore for some reasons. Maybe because of the old steem network. Still, feel free to check them out for some reads!

_{Painting an Orange Using a Negative Reference Tutorial}

_{Inverted Painting of a Jellyfish Using Coffee (Process)}

About me: _{Hello! Just wanna share a piece of me. I'm a graphic design student who loves both art and crypto. Art is life to me - it's the only thing I consider myself to be good at. I even lack the best writing skill - sorry for that, but I always try my best to improve for content's sake. Also a big fan of quality - it matters a lot to me.} _{Most of what I do with my art revolves aroud the metanet. Crypto is also life to me. I've been involved to the space since I was 17. Obsessing with art alongside bitcoin, yes that's me. I'm 21 now and still hasn't achieved anything yet, but I believe things will fall into place for me at a proper time. Life isn't a race right? So I'll just keep going and enjoy what I do at the meantime. Leave a follow to support me! Thanks.}