Raven creates art digitally because it is easier for her neurodiverse mind and her visual and physical disabilities. Being able to use layers and the UNDO button are critical to the way her mind works. Being able to zoom in allows her to see details her eyes cannot. Holding a tablet is much easier on her arms, wrists, and fingers than working on a traditional easel or table top.

She uses a 12.9” iPad Pro with an iPencil 2.0 to create her work. She uses a variety of programs including ProCreate and Sketchbook.

Raven is firmly against the use of generative AI for any reason.

When creating a piece, Raven often begins with the background and works her way forward. For example, in this piece of the left, she created the forest background first, working from the sky/forest color toward the front trees in layers. She often will adjust the transparency of layers to get more interesting effects.

After the background is complete, she will often do several layers of rough sketches of what will take place in the foreground. How many sketches tends to depend upon how complex the foreground will be and how easily she is visualizing what she’s drawing.

She then begins painting the foreground. This part usually consists of anywhere from 10-30 layers. For example, the face colorization is one layer. The eyes are their own layer, with the eye lashes (when those get painted) being yet another layer. The lips are another layer, and so on.

As the painting continues, Raven will continue painting the face until its completion.

Hair is hard work and is often one of the last parts she paints when doing any character artwork.

This is still a work in progress but after the hair, she’ll work on the clothing and anything else that needs to be in the foreground.

She will often use the equivalent of a digital dry brush to blend everything properly and other digital brushes to add texture or anything else she decides as she goes.

Lastly, she’ll go in and fix/add more shadows and highlights to ensure she didn’t mess anything up in the initial painting.

Below you can see the piece in its various stages.