Since I decided that digital illustration would be a lifestyle—a very creative and fun one—I created several portfolios on the main platforms for artists and filled them with my beloved artworks.
Now, I believe that besides what I already do, I need to broaden my horizons and create different, more commercial pieces for my portfolio. I wanted artworks that could become paintings or posters but without losing my personal touch.
So, I had the brilliant idea of drawing popular quotes that I like. I made a list of the ones that please me the most: quotes from movies, thinkers, and popular sayings.
I started with the phrase “Home is Where your weed is!” This quote is very cute and fits well with my lifestyle. I thought carefully about an artwork to create for it.
So, I drew a relaxed woman smoking a joint in her living room with her cat. Not just any woman, but a happy and independent single woman. She’s sitting on the sofa in her living room, accompanied by a glass of wine, her plants, and her little cat.
Ah, the tranquility of that moment.
I started with the setting. My laziness led me to test artificial intelligence. I input exactly what I wanted to draw as a prompt, but I didn’t get any results that made me happy. Then I tried just the setting, and I also got bizarre results that didn’t match my idea. Using prompts isn’t that simple, and the results rarely satisfy.
However, I used one of the AI-generated images as a reference for drawing the sofa. Then, on Pinterest, I found a reference for the relaxed woman. The window and curtains are PNG images I got from the site PNGwing. I also used PNG images as references to draw the plants, including the cannabis plant. But I painted everything in my own style. I loved the result.
When it came time to draw the girl, I decided to make her a standard white girl because I got irritated with the AI that only made black women when I asked for a woman smoking. I found it racist, and out of spite, I made her white. After all, women who smoke do so regardless of their color.
She turned out beautiful; I did everything my way, including the eyelashes and mouth. For these details, I didn’t use references. And I was happy when I finished the artwork because it turned out gorgeous.
The quote was still missing. That’s when I had the idea to place it in the smoke she was exhaling after a puff. I drew the speech bubbles entirely by hand, then added the phrase. The cannabis leaves in the bubble are also a PNG image.
I was so happy with the outcome. The image turned out much prettier than I had imagined. Despite all the work, I was very happy.
Well, not entirely happy. Even though her being extremely beautiful, she is still a white girl. Many women will feel represented, but I need more. So, next time I intend to draw the black girl I wanted to create from the beginning but didn’t because of my spite towards the AI. Well, she will be mixed-race like me, to be more specific. It will be the same image in a new version that I will bring to the public very soon.
See you then!
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