Daily doodles – weird gem thingies

I’m a huge fan of Steven Universe. I mean HUGE!!! One of the reasons I enjoy the show so much is because it reminds me of my childhood fascination with gems, minerals, and rocks. I can recall a few family camping trips when my dad took me hunting for rocks, and I still have some of the rocks we found.

I haven’t been rock hunting in decades, but I still love rocks and minerals and gems. So I decided to try drawing them on my iPad. Naturally, I did not make this easy on myself.

I don’t know why, but my brain insisted I draw these gems in Concepts. It’s probably because of my obsession with vector graphics. Concepts has a novel approach to vector drawing. There are no bezier tools or node adjustment handles to work with. If I want to draw a shape with straight edges, I have to use a guide tool in the app, or import a shape from another vector app or in-app library. Gems have lots of straight edges, so this can make things tricky. However, I believe I’ve been able to get some decent results so far.

Pink gems drawn in Concepts

Pink gems drawn in Concepts for the iPad

Bluish gem drawn in Concepts

Bluish gem drawn in Concepts

I’m wasn’t trying to recreate any particular kind of gem with these drawings. I just want to capture the image of something shiny and semi-transparent with straight, sharp edges. I made a couple of custom brushes to create the inclusions inside the gems. I ran the bluish gem through Snapseed to add some gradient effects and ramp up the color saturation.

Overall, I’m pretty please with the results. Concepts may not make it easy to draw straight-edged shapes, but being able to make and use custom texture brushes is a nice option. I’ll keep playing with it and see what else I can come up with.

About Cynical Woman

Cartoonist, Artist, Geek, Evil Crafter, Girl Scout Troop Leader and Writer. Also, a zombie. I haven't slept in I don't know how long.
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One Comment

  1. I really like your art. From one mom to another,I get it!

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