Illustration: pride dansers

 The boy is from this year, he was marching with the black and white drawing dancer I posted not long ago. The Drag on stilts was from last year. I have been unable to decide what to do with her. I started as a colour, then though maybe a loose watercolour but couldn't get into it then made a detailed outline and that is where it stands now. 

Illustration: Fierté 2024 (1)

Pride was sort of a bust this year. The parade was cut in 2 by protestors which made it seem like it was only an hour long which made a huge part of the crowd leave early and not see the second half. On top of that the usual people coming late and just standing in front of those who have been there a coupe hours making it impossible to take photos or even see what is going really got to me. It's too bad, I might not go again. I like the march and I like to take photos of the dancing people for reference in drawings. There are not many chances for that. 

That said this was not from a great photos. he was off to the side and at first just walking with 2 other guys when he broke ahead and started dancing, twerking... getting the crowd going. He was also, like his pals covered in solid gold glitter paint which if know that I think explains the shading in this drawing. I wanted to use pen and ink, black and white only - no tones - like my older drawings on paper. It's an artistic challenge to simplify to two colours but since I use stipple to represent skin and this guy was ALL skin the cramping in my hand was constant! 

I am also including the sketch because I decided to not make a super detailed sketch as a guide for the inking but instead use it to see if I could keep the "aliveness" (is that a word?) of the pose by using something less rigid as a guide. 

Illustration: Fierté 2023, danseurs sur la rue

I started with the top on, then moved on the the second that had more colours then put them together which I can't decide if that looks good or not. All 3 made with Affinity Photo on the iPad pro and I am getting more used to it. I do like things with material folding and bunched up in for some reason. It was always a big challenge when i was only doing pen and ink drawings and once I got a feel for it I just took a liking to doing it. The guy with the hat actually looks like him. maybe he will sue me! Not that more than a few will see these! 

Illustration: Danseur Montréal Complément Cirque

 I isolated a dancer in a group from an old cirque presentation because, while the photo was pretty middle of the road, I thought that isolating a single figure would bring out the drama I saw on stage better. 

I used the New Krita 5.02 and was I happy with the update! Saving a project always took far too long and now it's rapid and doesn't slow down my work. While Procreate has been great on the iPad I missed the brushes in Krita and this took full advantage of them. I was able to mimic the pattern on the dress very closely - even the sparkly bits.

The dancer was male but the costumes were unisex robes with everyone wearing the same makeup so it it had a very androgynous feel to the dance number. I hope this gives that same feeling. I used to dread doing cloth when I started drawing and now it's something I seek out doing more of. 

Illustration: Pride dancer (2017)

 

More inspiration from old photos. This time it was a dancer in the Pride parade in 2017 I thought might be a good challenge. To make it more interesting, I decided this would be my first colour Procreate painting. Procreate is missing dodge and burn tools that I use to darken and lighten areas, particularly with clothing and I had to work around that. How round can I make those butt cheeks look? Pretty round it turns out! I have to say the new Procreate update didn't help much in this project. The stabilization was nice but I didn't use the colour cards and while the 3D additions are interesting, they seem gimmicky for a drawing and painting program. It does show that higher end 3D files can be put on the iPad som maybe someone else will pick up in that and I can do 3D work on the device someday. I found the small previous update that allowed me to go from 4 to now 88 layers on this sort drawing much more exciting and useful. 

Back to the illustration. Despite missing a feature I use a lot, I still got some roundness and dimension I think. Procreate blending is all done with the smudge tool and it's workable but nowhere close to the multiple types of blending brushes I have in Krita. Despite the limitations I will do more colour work on the tablet without a doubt. The portability of it outweighs the inconveniences and I hope this proves I can get similar quality while on the run. 

Illustration: David dance o2

 This was different sort of challenge. The reference photo was a scan from a session I did almost 30 years ago of a print that had been damaged by water. The negative and the prints are long gone and the paper used was textured so while I loved the pose, it wasn't something I could use anywhere. So I thought turning it into an illustration wit Krita might be a good way to "resurrect it". 

Another challenge was that the reference was black and white and I wanted it to be colour. Luckily the dancer was a good friend and even rented my spare room for a time so I had other photos of him that showed off is skin tones to work from. 

The graphic element in the background seemed make him stand out more than just a solid colour would.