I hope everyone is enjoying their spring break!

While over the break, I participated in an art trade with one of my friends! She’s an extremely talented artist (not biased) who I met during my time at the Career Technology Center of Lackawanna County. She’s so sweet and such a funny person and I’m so glad we decided to do this.

For the art trade, I decided to send her two of my original characters, Mai and Nyx, who she then could draw, and in exchange, she sent me two of her characters, which I planned to draw.

For one of her characters, named Elliot, she sent me a few reference photos for design and personality ideas. I took these photos, and with the additional information that he’s attached to the earth and plants, I started sketching.

From there I then did the line art and flat color. This is the process that took the longest due to me trying out a new art style.

After that, I adjusted the lighting and added finishing details!

I still plan to do her other character, Nightmare, later this week!

Overall I feel like doing art trades are an extremely valuable thing to do. In the process of both of us doing this, we had an opportunity to share the stories of our characters, talk about their designs, and it allows us to create art for others! I loved doing this with my friend over break and I want to do it with more people in the future!