Hey everyone! How are you?
Today, I wanna share the process behind my latest illustration, Last Resort, a piece I made for a contest on Twitter based on Squid Game. As soon as I saw the contest, I knew I wanted in, but I had zero ideas… Until BOOM! Out of nowhere, inspiration hit me. Lol, my brain works in the most random moments mmmm you already know!
The contest lasted 72 hours, I did the drawing in just 6. Started last night, finished this morning , yes literally with just minutes left before the deadline. I was super busy with other stuff and had no time, but I still went for it. And guess what? I made it! So yay, go me lol!
Now, about the name… I chose Last Resort for a couple of reasons. First, it fits the whole Squid Game theme. But also—it’s the name of a song I freaking love by one of my favorite bands, Falling in Reverse. You should totally check it out! Ahhh, but fun fact: it's actually a softer remake of the original song by Papa Roach (another band that melts me lol). Sooo, that’s how I landed on the name.
This time, I worked a bit differently (maybe I should do this more often? 🤔). The challenge was real—I knew I couldn’t waste time on unnecessary details, so I used a faster technique, focusing on composition and visual impact. The adrenaline rush from the contest kept me going, and as always, I ended up working right up to the last second… But I enjoyed every bit of it.
I made a video for this (you can check it out on my Twitter), but I’ll also show you the step by step process of how Last Resort came to life from the first sketch to the final touches.
I was thinking about what to do for this contest, and the idea just popped into my head while I was cooking ahahaha. But yeah! The thing is, right after that, the power went out (nothing new lol). So, I quickly sketched the idea in my sketchbook and later moved it to my PC, where I structured everything better. I rarely do a proper sketch, but this time I needed it I had to be 100% clear about what I wanted.
I made this drawing in Corel Painter, working on a single layer as usual. The only difference this time was that I left the line art layer on top (just so I wouldn’t lose it at the start), but I kept it subtle. Also, I didn’t work on a huge canvas this time. Oh, and I recorded a video, so you’ll be able to watch it later! mmmmm I started by laying down some base colors.
Something super annoying happened—I lost my progress 😭. I had already made a lot of progress, and since I was on a tight schedule, it really got on my nerves. But well… nothing I could do but move on! I kept “detailing” things (I say it like that because, since the canvas was small, the details weren’t as polished hmmmm without so much zoom to avoid seeing the image so large ). But that was the point! If I had gone full detail mode like I usually do, it would have taken way longer.
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Once I had a decent base, I started refining things a bit more hmmmm not too drastically, but just enough to give it more shape. And honestly, I was hyped because there’s something about contests that makes me feel addicted to the adrenaline or something lol. It’s like I always end up finishing at the last minute, so I push myself to work way faster than usual ahahahaha.
There’s some symmetry in certain parts of the drawing, but I didn’t want everything to look too perfect. I played around with it a bit, though—I used symmetry for specific elements like the mask and skull, just to get them right. But later, I tweaked them because I didn’t want them to look too robotic. You get what I mean, right?
After getting everything in place, I jumped over to Photoshop—mainly because I still don’t know how to use Corel Painter as well as I’d like. Also, for comfort—some things feel more intuitive in PS, while others are easier in Corel. Plus, there are some things I don’t even know how to do in either program lol. So, I often mix both softwares like I did here, and honestly, I don’t mind it’s a good combo yay
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From step 6 onward, I kept working in Photoshop mainly out of fear ahahahahahahaahhhhh. It has auto-save, so there’s at least some chance of saving my progress if anything goes wrong. Sometimes it doesn’t work, but YEAH , my hope is huge ahahaha.
I just had to refine some details, so I focused on that…
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