Bilby Youngsters - Australian Easter Bunnies Final

When I created my little mouse digitally with Artrage https://cgcookie.com/image/i-love-leftovers/ the feedback I had was that it looked like it was made with the real media coloured pencils, which was my intention. I had a request by a beginner with the digital media, if it could be possible to reproduce the same natural media look with Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, with its default brushes and, tools. But my little mouse was made with Artrage and, Artrage is a very good program to reproduce a more natural media look. It was a challenge. So, I followed the same process that I followed with Artrage to create my Bilbies. I used two layers, on the lower layer I applied the base colours using the brush charcoal, it’s a brush with a texture and, on the top layer I used the brush pencil 1 which is actually a round tip brush squeezed with rotation and, random spacing. I used this brush for the fur and, the details. I had as a background a pastel coloured layer. And, I used a limited colour palette, about 50/60 colours. It’s important, if you want to achieve a more natural media look to work with a limited colour palette, if possible with samples of coloured sets of the real media you want to mimic. Again, I worked, as if I would have been working with the real coloured pencils, stroke after stroke, a slow process with no digital convenience like the fill tool or fur/bristle brushes. I’m quite happy with the results using Sketchbook Pro. So, it is possible to reproduce the natural media coloured pencils look, not only with Sketchbook Pro but, with any other program that supports some basic setting for the round tip brush, like space, roundness, rotation and, layers. I wanted to create - just to be on the same page with my Artrage’s creation - a small furry animal. Last year, I received an Easter Card picturing the Australian alternative Easter Bunny, a Bilby. I didn’t know about this small, cute, omnivore creature with long ears. It’s a desert-dwelling nocturnal marsupial unique specie. Bilbies are slowly becoming endangered. I was touched when I found out that in recent years Australians are trying to popularise the bilby as a native alternative to the Easter Bunny and, they developing a national recovery plan to save these little animals. A BIG KUDOS, to Australians for that. I wish many other countries will follow the example of Australia and, make movements to preserve their natural treasures.