Sketchbook Tour | The "Purple File" (2016-2018)

Hi everyone! It's been a little bit since I added to the Sketchbook Tour series, so I thought now was as good a time as ever! Today we're taking a look at something I never quite know where to fit in my art timeline haha! It's a purple file full of artwork from 2016-2018! Unfortunately, I was bad about dating the pieces in this file, so I'm going to have to guess about an order.

I also wasn't able to record a flip through video - because there's no sketchbook to flip through haha!! And there's less art in here than a normal Sketchbook Tour. But I need to share this art at some point - so here we go!

Here's the file we're looking through! Again, the artwork in here is from around 2016-2018 (best guess). The art is mainly using watercolor (either my Reeves or Artist's Loft sets at the time) and Canson Watercolor paper. There's also some assorted colored pencil and alcohol marker artwork.

These first 3 are, to be honest, from totally unknown times using unknown materials. Based on the art styles, I'd say 2016-17. I think the first one was made with felt tip markers but I'm not sure why. Look at that hat haha!! Second is of an original character I had at the time named May, you'll see a little of her in this file because she was a favorite OC of mine. Her design was constantly changing though, so I'll have to identify her 🤣 Look out for that dorky star necklace as a giveaway. The third was done with crayons and a ball point pen on the back of a restaurant menu. So yeah, some high quality artwork here.

Let's get the May dump out of the way:

This one is Definitely one of the older pieces in this file, I can just tell by the overall style of it. I guess I was playing around with a more angular face for May because usually she's pretty rounded. I can also tell this is probably 2016 because of the dumb usage of white out, which I would then attempt to color on top of. (This doesn't work, btw..) I can still remember I did this with a dark brown copic, mainly prismacolor markers, and a grey "souffle" style gelly roll. Odd choices.

This one's actually not too bad! Look at me, drawing side profiles! My guess would be 2017 on this one. I was using colored pencils I ordered off Amazon, which I unfortunately cannot remember the brand of. Definitely not name brand. It really bothers me how her leg that should be behind the other is in front. My ideas of anatomy were still really basic.

First Watercolor piece in here! I think this one was done with Reeve's watercolors. I'd say this is 2016. This was my favorite piece of May for a long long time. I actually redid it in maybe 2018, but that's not in this file. You can actually see that redraw as one of my very first instagram posts! The galaxy here is so rough, haha!! I also find it so odd that I didn't tape off the paint or even make it straight with a ruler. It looks even more off center and uneven in real life. It's also just floating at the top of a normal piece of Watercolor paper I decided to not cut down. Odd choices all around. But I still have good memories with this piece, haha!

Here's another watercolor piece from around the same time, with another character from the same story as May. I actually can't stand this piece and I find it really cringey now haha, but it's actually kind of okay anatomy somehow? The colors are a different story. I hate that greenish-gold color I used as the frame, but it was the only metallic gold I had at the time. My insistence on not centering things really bugs me.

This has got to be done with Prismacolor Colored Pencils, I can just tell by the more waxy texture. I kind of can't believe I've had my prismacolors for so long! I think this was 2017. I had a few random pieces of toned paper I found, and was playing around with them. I'd love to get a toned sketchbook one day for pencil art but I've never gotten around to it. Something of note: HOW SMALL HER WRIST IS. I think her name was Thalia.

Ooh, I actually like these!! I was attempting to redraw in the Disney style. This was a lot of fun and I really like drawing in the Disney style, I've always enjoyed it ever since doing the Animation Classes that used to be at Walt Disney World. My favorites are the one I highlighted with a blue background. This was done with a blue col-erase pencil and a mechanical pencil for detailing. At Disney World in the art shops, I realized that's how the animators tend to draw it (blue pencil for a base sketch and then darker pencil on top) and wanted to replicate that style.

Was going for a different style with this one. I was playing around with those "pacman eyes" with the little slit like in old cartoons. I still think it's a cool idea for an art style but it's something I faded out of using after a while. For some reason I did this using alcohol markers on watercolor paper, which is kind of a no-no because such textured paper will eat marker ink. Lesson learned.

Wow, this is ugly! Just kidding. Kind of. This is Kathy, an old OC from a webcomic idea I had back in maybe 2017. I was playing around with a style I thought would be easier to produce a comic in. Kind of funny how similar it turned out to my comic style now! What I really can't stand about this is how long the legs are!! Just look at that! And also the white out patch on the arm. What.

Ah I have such good memories of this piece!! I spent a lot of time planning this piece, and I was really excited to use this piece of blue plastic I had found to make a holographic effect. It really didn't work how I wanted, but ah well. I like the robot dog design, it's kind of got the same mouth design as my dragon Vesper from my Webcomic! This was another victim to white out use above the dog's ears. I always thought, maybe THIS time it will color over the white out. Trust me, it really won't. You could maybe apply acrylics on top of white out, but alcohol marker is never gonna stick. It's also so streaky, I remember all my gray markers drying up on this one! This would be a fun one to redraw some day!

We're getting to mostly watercolor art from 2017 now, which is some of the better art in this tour! I loved this one for so long, my first ever drawing of Moana! I love Moana's design so I had a lot of fun with this one. I like a lot about the simplistic style of this one, I would change a lot now, but I feel pretty happy with it for 2017 artwork. Especially the subtle shadows!

An Alice in Wonderland themed piece. I remember being really into this aesthetic at the time, even though I was never a huge fan of the actual movie. Just thought it looked cool I guess. This piece isn't too bad I suppose, it was definitely one of the most detailed pieces I had made so far. I kinda don't mind the composition honestly.

Oof, a rough one! Unfinished art of Rory Williams from Doctor Who. With no hands. Not really sure why I didn't complete this one, but I'm kinda glad I didn't put too much time into it because it's not the best. Don't love how he's just staring off into the distance. But I did put a little detail into the armor so that's nice. Tried this again during Inktober 2018, you can see that on my Instagram a way back. (Any 2018 art in this file is still from before my Instagram, but I think this is from 2017 still.)

This was from my aggressive Great Expectations phase, so of course we have an inaccurately dressed Estella Havisham. I wanted the elements of this to pop off the page like a pop out fairytale book, but I didn't use enough paper in between the elements AT ALL. So you can't even tell I tried that. This was a mix of colored pencil and watercolors. Kind of a cool Illustration Though to be honest. I like the colors, and the spooky magical vibe.

This was my favorite art for so long! Giselle from Enchanted in the scene where she falls down the well. I loved that scene growing up, it's still a really cool screencap in my opinion. I'd love to draw it again. I used lots of liquid glitter on the dress and background and added real jewels on top to be the little glowing orbs. It annoys me how the lineart is smudged, I obviously didn't wait long enough to paint it after inking it. But ah well.

Little pieces I made on scraps of watercolor paper. The Tessa Violet piece is genuinely the only way I know most of the watercolor art is from 2017. I was a big fan of her music at the time and actually drew her a lot, I really liked that piece. First is one of Pocahontas and last of Merida. I was really just trying to use up the scraps. But these are actually some of the better pieces in my opinion!

I believe we've entered 2018. This was another Moana piece on my very last piece of toned paper. I wanted to do a series of different characters with sort of tapestries behind them, which I still think is kind of a cool idea. I did this entirely with Prismacolor Colored Pencils and a white gel pen. I think it's probably one of the best colored pencil pieces I've done, I've never really been great at using just colored pencils but I put a lot of time into this one. I mostly use pencils as a way to detail marker art.

We're getting to the very end of our tour! I don't remember why I made this exactly, but I think it was with alcohol markers. This was definitely from 2018, haha!! I was very excitedly playing Animal Crossing New Leaf + Happy Home Designer at the time so that spawned this art for sure. And a lot more.

These sets of watercolor New Leaf art are my favorite in the whole file! There's six in total, and even though I'd draw it differently now, I still think they're pretty cute. They have a lot of good memories of meeting Isabelle that first time on my galaxy print 3ds. The good old days! Anyways, here's Isabelle and Digby outside of Happy Home Academy. I loved how Digby had a rain outfit in NL so I gave Isabelle one to. The perspective is kinda weird but still cute.

Another one of Marshall! Probably my favorite villager. One day I'll meet him, it has to happen. I like the gradient in the sky, suprisingly smooth for me at the time haha. I also think these were with my artist's loft watercolors because it just LOOKS chalky. It's so hard to use those so I'm pretty impressed with how smooth I got it.

Lottie from HHD! I wish she'd come back, such a cute character. Anyways the perspective on this one is WILD. Look at how the window ends after the wall?? Huh? But I was focused on making Lottie look cute so. Unrelated but I strongly want Lottie, Lyle, and Brewster to come back to New Horizons. And we should be able to see Resetti, tsk tsk.

The villager Portia walking through the city area of New Leaf. I definitely had her in New Leaf, I might have had her way back in City Folk as well? She was a favorite at the time because it was so hard to get good villagers in those games!! At least she was cute enough. I never got my "dream" villagers until New Horizons, still hunting for Marshall though. Who's a villager you've gotten attached to that you probably wouldn't have if you didn't get to know them? I love Bam the deer, but his design is a little iffy, haha! This one's perspective actually isn't that bad, I just dislike the grass texture. Looks almost.. fluffy.

Another favorite at the time, Lolly! I think this one's just really cute. Love the leaf umbrella, music notes, and the shapes in the grass. It just feels like Animal Crossing to me. I actually passed up Lolly as a campsite villager in NH because nowadays I find her a tad generic, plus I already had 2 Normal villagers on my island. That didn't excuse me from picking Lily the frog as a third later on.

Come on. It's LILY.

And my favorite of the set, and one of my favorites from the whole file. Sable and the Nooklings! I always thought it was cute how she'd mention them in New Leaf. I thought

this file was a perfect one to share now because it's actually the Animal Crossing 20th anniversary tomorrow!! That's so fun! I made special art for it which you'll see on my Instagram tomorrow (April 14th 2020) .

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I hope you guys enjoyed this one! It was a bit shorter than some, but I thought now was the perfect time to share it. Let me know below: Which one of these would you like to see me redraw the most?

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