An exciting day that I am really looking forward to share you all a couple of new beautiful art drawings, focusing on ballet, all drawn and painted in a very stylized digital drawing medium. These are my very first full artworks of the animated version of ‘Diamonds’ pas de deux, taken directly from the modern, abstract ballet created by George Balanchine, Jewels.
Last time I did a post on a drawing that was from the ‘Diamonds’ section from the ballet, all done in watercolor, and that was actually for the Watercolor of the Month topic I recently published last Friday, posting it as the 26th Watercolor of the Month for this year’s April. If you may recall, for those who have seen it, I mentioned that I have been working on two drawings on the ‘Diamonds’ pas de deux in full digital drawing medium, and will save it for the first week of May. And guess what? It’s finally here today! Yay!!! 😄
In case if you have missed the 26th Watercolor of the Month topic I posted on April 30th, featuring the first ‘Diamonds’ watercolor drawing from Jewels, you can find the link down below at the end of this topic.
Let’s talk about the two digital drawings! These drawings were both drawn on Autodesk SketchBook, but actually, I drew each drawing on the exact same page in scale size at 1270 x 1080; however, each of them were drawn on the separate layer, going from rough pencil drawing to clean-up drawing, and painting in full color, one-by-one, including adding the one-and-only background painting. But once they were finished, I saved the drawings in separated copies, so I would know which one is drawing #1 and drawing #2. I even did the same thing, whenever I would save them in JPEG form, in two separate copies.
Besides sharing these drawings for today’s new topic, I will also be work more pas de deux drawings from Jewels, which is gonna be one of the newer ballet art projects. After ‘Diamonds’, I will be doing two more pas de deux drawings of ‘Rubies’ and ‘Emeralds’ for each. I’ve already gotten the sketches drawn and finished, right after I’ve already done the first rough sketches for ‘Diamonds’, so I can save for each to work on in full digital drawing for next time. I will admit – I’ve already started on the ‘Rubies’ pas de deux drawings on Autodesk SketchBook, from rough drawings to clean ups, and I will be finishing them in full color this week. And as for ‘Emeralds’ pas de deux drawings, I’ll save those for next time, because I need to get back to work on finishing the Autistic Animator’s Desk pencil test this week, too. It should be exciting, and I can’t wait to see it when it’s done! It’ll be as amazing and stylized as the ‘Diamonds’ pas de deux drawings you’re about to see now.
‘Diamonds’ pencil sketches/Background Painting
Down below are the very first sketches of the ‘Diamonds’ pas de deux movements, drawn in pencil on paper. Before working on sketches, the important for me was to watch a clip of the pas de deux in ‘Diamonds’ from the ballet. I went to find it on YouTube, watching the Royal Ballet’s version of Balanchine’s ballet, about a 4-minute clip. The goal for me, as an artist, was not only watching the pas de deux, but to pick and chose the most signature movement that represents ‘Diamonds’ in history of the ballet and George Balanchine himself.
Besides having to watch the YouTube clip to study live-action reference, one of the most EXTREMELY important parts in animation, I also go and find few pictures from Google, just for research on poses, for me to pick and chose, not copying any famous dancers, but drawing with my own animated ballet characters, and drawing the poses in caricature. Even when I was working on the digital drawings for each, it was important for me to use one of the live-action images for color keys, particularly on the male diamond dancer, so that the colors can slightly match as the diamond ballerina, including the detailed patterns on top of his costume. This was my very first time drawing the male diamond dancer dancing with the lead diamond ballerina in the pas de deux.
First Rough Sketches
I first worked on the sketches in near mid-April. The first one on the left was done on April 10th, and the second one was drawn on April 13th. Actually, the second drawing wasn’t one of the main pose I tend to draw. I originally drew the second pose on two dancers intertwining together, which was one of the exact poses that’s part of the Balanchine choreography, but from the way I draw it, it didn’t look really good. So, I changed my mind, and drew the different pose that’s the one you just saw on the right corner, and I liked it a lot better. It makes sense to me, because I feel like the way I redesign the second drawing, the way I see the pose, I can see that this is one of the most signature movement in ‘Diamonds’.
Whenever I was about to get started working on the drawings in digital drawing medium, I saved the drawings on my computer into the files, so I can use them as a guide to do the drawings on Autodesk SketchBook for each. I did two drawings in roughs, clean-ups, and color, both at the same time (ex. I started rough drawing for drawing #1 first, and draw roughs again for drawing #2, in separate layers).
Let’s look at the background down below here! 🎨
During working on this project, right after doing the clean-up drawings for each two drawings, the next important step was to work on a painted background. There was no use for research, in order to make it look a lot like the set that was used for ‘Diamonds’ on stage, but the important for me was to make the art style as staying true to the look and design of George Balanchine, as well as choreography, in animation caricature. I used the paint bucket tool to paint the whole page in vibrate tone from dark on top to light on bottom, using the silver-gray color, in both dark and light.
After that, I painted the diamond patterns, making it like little stylized chandelier, but more abstract, and copied and paste it about two times, so I can one on the left and the other on the right, and when you have the first one in the middle, that’s when you’ll get three patterns sticking onto the background. Later on, I added dimmed white sparkles around the dark background, using the spray paint tool to create glowing and sparkling tone, kind of like how we see stars sparkling up in the night sky through outer space.
‘Diamonds’ Pas de Deux Drawing 1 💎
Even though this is the first drawing of the pas de deux, I would say that this is the most beautiful, stylized drawing I ever worked on, and perhaps, the most signature pose in history of this ballet. This is definitely one of the great examples of realism in both animation and ballet art.
I think the tricky and difficult part of making this drawing was getting the drawings of two dancers, although they were both drawn in separate layers, together; not too big or too small for one of them, but getting them in perfect eye contact, looking at each other while they’re dancing in the duet quite beautifully.
The diamond ballerina was the first character to draw, so whenever I was able to draw the male diamond dancer, he has to hold on tight to both of her hands, coming together, and the reason why I had to draw two characters in separate layers, for both each drawing, was because I can able to enlarge it, shrinking, or stretching out the drawings, which is easy for me to do, and making sure that they have to be in the right size together, just exactly the way they had to look like in the first sketch.
‘Diamonds’ Pas de Deux Drawing 2 💎
I find this pose as extraordinary, but it’s also a wonderful one to pick for the second drawing, a lot better than the original pose I was going to do.
I drew the male diamond dancer first, on separate layer #2, so once the drawing was done in half, I can work and draw half of the diamond ballerina, enlarging to shrinking one another, and putting them together, not too big or too small, but in the exact size as how it should be from the original sketch. Like the first drawing, getting the drawings in contact is very important, so they can all come together.
Once again, this is another realistic movement in animation drawing, especially the way we viewers see it in full color.
And there you have it! These are the first two of the ‘Diamonds’ pas de deux drawings from Jewels. It was a combination of lot of work, but a very fun project. The way you would look at these ballet drawings drawn in the beautiful animation look, it’s like watching an animated film, turning one of the most popular modern ballets by Balanchine for New York City Ballet into a dazzling animation artwork. So the next two pas de deux drawings I’ll be working on directly from Jewels will be ‘Rubies’, so I’ll be saving it for next time, whenever I’m ready to go back to that.
Which one of the ‘Diamonds’ pas de deux artwork is your favorite, and why? Is it Drawing #1? Or Drawing #2? Please share your thoughts in the comment box down below.
For me, if I have to choose one, my favorite will have to be Drawing #1, because like I said, the way I worked on the first drawing, this is just one of the greater examples of animation is drawing characters in a very realistic way.
Take care, everyone, and I hope you’ll enjoy! Keep on shining like a diamond! ✨💎✨
Link:
The Autistic Animator's Desk 
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