sacruna - Tumblr blog

sacruna · 3 years

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As far as I remember, it went like this:

I bought and built a new pc;

Took part in a private game jam where we bit more than we could chew;

Was expecting a surge in productivity after the jam but instead I discovered online gaming

Fast forward a few months and I realized that I've been pretty deep in self sabotaging behavior which had me stop drawing at the peak of my motivation and productivity

Ah, and art block of course

Today I'm trying to go back to creating again as well as working on my self worth and confidence - which are probably the reason of self sabotaging behavior.

Usually I distance myself to lick my wounds so I disappeared from social media. Even thought I think I'm back, I won't be doing it in the same way as I did before. Social media makes me anxious af and I want to protect my motivation and joy in creating at all costs so, if I need to take a step back and take things slow to recharge or unknot something, I will.

Thank you for your patience and yeah: more art soon! :)

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sacruna · 3 years

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Pet commissions are the best. Also a great opportunity to try to figure out fur without drawing each hair.

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sacruna · 3 years

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T A L E S O F O U R T I M E

Making of the cover illustration. It was my most ambitious digital illustration yet and I think it felt short. I was constantly feeling overwhelmed and not really sure where to go from there.

I tried to follow the normal steps for an illustration like this: sketching, thumbnails, color studies, then start on the background, build it from big shapes to small details without forgetting the line of focus, composition and dept.

Divided like this seems easy, but each phase felt so incredibly hard and overwhelming. Everything felt bad and ugly, but I had to have something like this on my portfolio so I pushed on.

There were more things at play beside inexperience, I made this in a time when I was drawing around 14H per day. I was neglecting my health and was exhausted mentally and emotionally. But I have to deliver it. And I did. Not was a cover illustration but it's purpose was still important.

In the end I'm very d*mn proud of what I accomplished in 4 weeks and it was a constant war against my perfectionist nature, especially when I found myself happier by finishing stuff than by creating pretty stuff.

This is why this illustration is very important to me, not because it's pretty - cause it's not - but because it's finished and it serves as a stepping stone that I'll one day look back on and see how much I've improved.

I hope.

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sacruna · 3 years

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T A L E S O F O U R T I M E

X - Cover

This is the cover for the project. At least that was the plan.

The prompt was something like: the kids are playing in a creak near a massive piece of abandoned technology.

I wanted to transmit the mundanity of robots and machines that is often present in Simon Stålenhag’s illustrations for Tales from the Loop. Robots exist everywhere, making them boring.

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sacruna · 3 years

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T A L E S O F O U R T I M E

IX - Videoclub

The hideout of our group is the school's videoclub, an old storage room.

This not really canon but rather part of the shenanigans I kept imagining after our campaign was over:

The Videoclub originated after the 4 kids were sent to detention and had to clean up an old storage room filled with junk. At the time they didn't really know each other except Jonas and Karl who had been friends since they were little.

After several afternoons spent in the dusty room, they found a huge box with old films and an old projector. Jonas quickly fixed the machine and the rest made space for their first cinema session. Little cleaning was done ever since and the principal only found out that the had been slacking off months after the club had been unofficially created. He didn't really mind and let them to their own devices.

The canon part was that the principal still sent some kids in detention to that room, but now he believed that films and friendship made them less prone to misbehaving and more focused in class.

The videoclub is a crucial part of the campaign, it's where the kids prepare their adventures, it's their meeting point once they get separated. It's where they feel safe, so it made sense having different areas and objects belonging to different kids.

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sacruna · 3 years

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Definitely flexing but look that difference! The last one isn’t as polished but in terms of shapes and expressiveness, there’s a huge difference.

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sacruna · 3 years

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T A L E S O F O U R T I M E

VIII - The end of an adventure

Another moment that happened during our campaign, probably the heaviest one. It was when we tried to bring Karl's father back to his life by creating a clone with the same memories.

We failed on our final dice roll and - after an explosion - what came out of the old cloning machine was a grotesque figure that looked like its short existence was lived in agonizing pain. It did not speak and could barely walk properly.

Karl got up and left the room without a word, Jonas followed. Anders forced Edward out as well and minutes later rejoined the group. No one asked, but everyone knew what had been done. It was not the first time Anders sacrificed his own sanity to save his friend's innocence.

Anyway, all of our characters have PTSD for sure.

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sacruna · 3 years

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T A L E S O F O U R T I M E

VII - Scenes

This particular project was aimed for animation so having scenes like these made sense.

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sacruna · 3 years

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T A L E S O F O U R T I M E

VI - What's in their bags

One thing I love to do is to imagine what's inside a character's pockets/bags. It's a way to show their personalities without showing who they are.

Edward' stuff shows how chaotic and messy his mind is, he has no problem digging in the dirt to pick up a shinny marble. At the same time, he doesn't really value material stuff like most people do - his school book is very important to him, but isn't really cared for.

Karl' stuff shows how obsessive he his with learning about extra-terrestrial life and how opposed his values are. He doesn't care how he presents himself to the world (his mom still picks his clothes) and is rather disorganized, but his books are kept spotless.

I believe it's their food that tell the most about their family lives. For example, Ed's parents are somewhat absent: his dad is always working and his mom, well, we don't talk about his mom. So his lunches are messy and unhealthy.

Karl is the opposite, his food was prepared with love.

And then we have Anders who secretly lives alone, he has no one in his household that cooks therefore he has no lunch bag and makes due with cafeteria food or snacks (with a dubious origin).

This is the kind of stuff I looooove to think about. The tiny details that make a character feel real.

But as much fun I had planning this, I found it super boring rendering it all, especially all the different types of materials. But yeah, it's still important to show your idea properly. I just have to find a way to make it interesting.

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sacruna · 3 years

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T A L E S O F O U R T I M E

V - Meet the adults

Tales from the Loop has this really interesting thing where adults are kinda useless in the sense that there is no point in asking them for help, it falls in the kid's hands to solve the problem/adventure.

They can only have a supporting role, for example, Anita (the lady with the green binder) is Ed's anchor and the broody pretty boy is Jonas' anchor. Often times our characters turned to them to heal but they weren't be there when they found aliens and probably wouldn't even believe them if they told them.

Btw, the guy in the blue overalls is Peter ("the boy who died") 30 years later. We only had a short scene in the end of our campaign where he showed up. Hopefully there's gonna be much more of him if we continue this story and we'll learn what the f happened to his arm and why was he about to unplug his father's breathing machine.

The bottom 3 are: Anders' rude neighbor, Mike 5 years later and Edward's mom 5 years before.

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sacruna · 3 years

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T A L E S O F O U R T I M E

More expressions, this time with our main group.

Because our 4 characters are a package deal, it made sense having them interact with each other or in interesting situations.

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sacruna · 3 years

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T A L E S O F O U R T I M E

One thing I really wanted to do was this long cafeteria table with all the kids in the campaign interacting with each other. I didn't finish in time for the portfolio, but here it is now.

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sacruna · 3 years

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T A L E S O F O U R T I M E

IV - Meet the other kids

Here are some other kids that showed up during our campaign. There's classmates, adventure companions, forever rivals, imaginary friends...

I remade them recently for Instagram, because they were super small on my portfolio and I had a ton of fun doing these fast brush strokes for the lines.

Usually my lines are really thought out and precise and I'm trying to get away from that as much as I can.

I guess this habit comes from years of working traditionally, gotta get used to that ctrl+Z.

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sacruna · 3 years

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These are the ones that made it to the portfolio and a quick thought process.

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sacruna · 3 years

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T A L E S O F O U R T I M E

III - Expressions

Here are some expressions for the kids I made a few months ago. With each one I imagined a situation that would make them react in certain way - happy, angry, deceived, bored, etc. It really helps give shape to the character's personality.

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sacruna · 3 years

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#art #illustration #drawing #sketch #painting #study #statue #black and white #digital #digital art #artwork #digital painting #digital illustration #digital sketch #digital drawing #portrait #meds50headschallenge #behind the scenes #bts

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sacruna · 3 years

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#art #illustration #drawing #digital illustration #digital art #digital drawing #timelapse #process

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