Dabbler

Dabbler, from Grrl Power by Dave Barrack.
[link]

I wanted to feature Dabbler because she is easily the most unique and original character I have seen from a webcomic.

So when I started drawing her I realized that I was doing this back-and-forth between very loose styles and very defined styles. Dabbler is very defined; I didn't need many reference shots to study what she looks like.

But trying to recreate the shading that Dave Barrack uses is tough. he mentioned later the process he uses, which certainly wasn't what I tried to do. I wound up basically painting on some various shades, gently and meticulously. But the stripes made that a pain, since I was only painting one color at a time. So then I had to go back and paint the stripes again, trying to match what I painted earlier, and then paint the stripes yet one more time to cover the lines I had inked on paper.

As much as I tried to duplicate Dave Barrack's style, I think this came out more as a reflection of my own.

When I drew her on paper and inked it, it looked pretty good. But because I draw that way, my lines were too thick. I painted over many of them to thin them down, but those lines are still quite visible in the right places and defeat my attempts to look more authentic.
It's not bad effort, but it's just not what I hoped for. Barrack's color technique is really hard to duplicate without using the proper tools.