Editor's Note: Tiffany Dang is an Electrical Engineering freshman. She draws "Birdfeed," which runs as a standby comic. Her art is layered and incidental, sketchy but present.
Before I start working on an art piece, I usually do several studies of the subject to familiarize myself with basic form shapes and movements. For example, I might start with something basic and cartoonish like figure 1, then move to a semi-realistic sketch like figure 2, and finally a drawing like figure 3. The comics series that I work on, Birdfeed, first started off as a series of figure studies of different kinds of birds. Figure 4, for example, is a series of harpy eagle studies. Eventually, I move on to more detailed drawings, like figure 5, based on the studies.
A lot of times, however, I do simple sketches without going through the motion of practicing with figure drawings. Figure 6 is an example of a few quick drawings that were done unplanned and on-the-spot.
My favorite media are watercolors, ballpoint pens, and sharpies.
Figure 1: Sketches of people, bleedy pen.
Figure 2: Sketch of elderly person, bleedy pen.
Figure 3: Sketch of person, pencil
Figure 4: Sketches of harpy eagles, sharpie, reference images used.
Figure 5: Sketch of red-winged blackbird, ballpoint pen.
Figure 6: Sketch of zebra finch, watercolor; sketches of people, bleedy pen and sharpies.