Lofi Zac-Hop?!?!?

 Hello Once Again,

I have been diligently plugging away for this project the last couple days for you guys and have created something I’m very proud of. So without further ado… My most recent character… *drum roll* you already know from the title… Lo-fi Zac!!!

As I wrote about in my last blog post I wanted to create Zac an avatar for his lofi hip-hop music (which is his 20-time project) and the classic lofi hip-hop avatar is the stream on youtube with the anime girl studying by a window. Zac has a great post on his blog about this stream and generally about lofi hip-hop. Last week I asked Zac what he thought about a lofi girl version of himself and he loved the idea.

I first got to work with just a reference image of the lofi hip-hop girl and looking over at Zac every once in a while. I went with the same pose that the lofi girl is in with the hand under the chin and a hand working at some kind of homework. I decided to have Zac in this same pose with the room behind him having the same layout as the original, so it would be more recognizable as the lofi hip-hop girl, but just redesigned to look like Zac. I started out with a basic, almost stick figure drawing of the pose I needed for this piece with the back slightly hunched and the hand under the chin. I remember learning this from an anime drawing tutorial I tried a while ago, and I find it really helps to know where you want the character’s appendages and how they are positioned. Next, I sketched out the sweater Zac would be wearing and his head. I wanted to make his sweater be just as baggy as the original lofi hip-hop girl, but I found it hard to get that big sweater feel as well as his arms looking like normal arms. The head was probably the most difficult part of this character (as it usually is). I did a pretty good job on Zac’s hair but it took me a while to get the eyes and side profile just right. I’m absolutely terrible at drawing mouths on my characters so I just covered up that whole area with a mask. I think it’s pretty appropriate for the times and makes my life much easier. Afterwards, I created his hands, which are also a very difficult part of humanoid characters, but I powered through and I think they look pretty good. Then, I went to work on the background, trying to keep the same sort of busyness yet control that the original lofi hip-hop girl has. I put homework and a binder on the desk, a bookshelf in the room, the Toronto skyline out the window, and I tried to replace the cat in the original with Zac’s dog Arvo. After that, I moved on to colouring in the drawing, which I’m also not great at, but that’s what this project is all about. I used these alcohol-based markers, they're supposed to be the best of the best when it comes to markers and it makes it much easier to blend colours. I went with the outfit that Zac was wearing when I drew him in class, with the beige sweater and the silver necklace. I didn’t have too much trouble with the colouring portion of this piece but I still think I could do better (maybe a project for next week).

And here it is! With and without colour! Zac as the lofi hip-hop girl. I’m super happy with how this piece turned out and glad that I was able to challenge myself in new ways.

That's all for now, Stephen.