MM0252, Hecate

September 8, 2024 • greek mythology • magic • mythology • witch • woman

Hecate (Hekate) is the Greek goddess of witchcraft, magic, the moon, the night, and necromancy.

Idea Sketch

I start with a rough and loose sketch using the Procreate symmetry tool. I know I want to draw Hecate but I’m not sure where I’m going yet. I get a basic composition out and see what I come up with as I go. I search the web for images of a woman’s head to get some basic shapes down but I don’t follow any reference material exactly.

In the beginning, I was disappointed with the sketch. I didn’t like the composition and I felt like my ideas weren’t interesting enough. I wanted to scrap it many times, but, I often have these feelings with all of my illustrations so I usually have to push through them. If I stopped working on every rough sketch I start I wouldn’t have many finished illustrations.

I ignore my urge to throw the sketch out. I know that if I just keep going I’ll eventually come to something I’m happy with. When I was younger I would quit many of the sketches I started, partly due to being disappointed with my skill level and partly due to lack of motivation. Daily practice sketches are important for improvement but now I try to avoid giving up on a sketch that I intended to make into a full illustration.

Sketch Continued

I look up some information about Hecate on the internet to see if her story sparks any inspiration. I often take some creative liberty when drawing things like this. I don’t always follow the source material exactly but this time I'd like to add a few things from the lore.

Hecate is associated with dogs. I added two dogs at her side but I used images of wolves as the reference material. I love the shape of a wolf’s head best, and sometimes use them as a reference for any dog or dog-like creature.

I use different colors to help me make sense of all the shapes in my sketch, at this stage things can get pretty messy and it will be hard for me to understand what’s going on later if I don’t keep the sketch organized.

I’m happy with how the sketch turned out. Next, I just need to merge all the different sketch layers together and start working on the clean line art.

Line Art & Flats

The line art is the easy part... well, mostly. The process is straightforward but it can take a few tries to get that perfect line. Drawing on the glass surface of an iPad can be a little tricky. Stabilization settings on the brush can help!

The color scheme was a struggle. I always seem to fuss over colors. I ended up on settling on nighttime colors.

Rendering

I decided to spend some more time rendering this one. My art process usually depends on how much energy I feel like putting into a piece. Some of my artwork is more about the idea and I keep it simple with flat blocks of color for the shadows and highlights.

This time I want the illustration to have more details. That means I need to take it a few steps further by adding softness to the blocks of shadows and highlights with the smudge tool and adding gradients to the different blocks of flat color.