My 80's/nostalgia inspired portraits!

[Hannah66665]

Last fall, I posted this thread here to show off a gorgeous character design I had received as well as my own take on it.
_{I was also given a lot of great name suggestions! I've still yet to find one that seems right for me and this particular OC, right now I've taken to calling them "Tender" but I may revisit the suggestions or keep looking...}

But anyway, I've since made more portraits in this sort of style. I'm not sure what to call it. Some of them are more 80's aesthetic than others, but all are soft and nostalgic. 

I want to share all of the ones I've done so far, starting from newest to oldest. I'd also like to take this moment to say I'm taking commissions in this style starting at $30 a portrait. 

Dream a Little Dream 

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My girl! She's been around for approx 12 years and this is the first proper illustration I've done of her myself. I'm super pleased with the result!

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Ruby!

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I painted this piece as a birthday gift for a friend. It's their character. They have incredible art too, so I want to give them a little plug! Their Twitter <3

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Shailatte~

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My 2021 Secret Santa piece for Shaiyeh!

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Kissy. 

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This is a fan piece of doekis' Kissy the Giraffe. They have fantastic artwork and character designs. If you haven't seen them, you really must! Here's their instagram!

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Next up is my Cloud!

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He's my very special boy.

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Tender (name may not be final...)

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Last but not least, I also wanted to include this piece. This character design is currently available for sale at $25.

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They're a Lop-eared Poodlecorn.  I may end up keeping this design if it still hasn't sold in the future.

That's all for now!

[Griffin]

Ooh these are stunning, I love this soft, 80s inspired style!

I'd love to know how you create that lovely background texture, if you don't mind revealing your secrets I mean the sort of grainy, watercolour-like texture you apply to the sky.

[Hannah66665]

Thank you! 

My secrets for the backgrounds lie mostly in all of the free resources that are included in my ancient copy of Photoshop Elements 5.0 that came on a disc I got in 2007.  I've been making use of the different backgrounds, textures and shapes it comes with and modifying them extensively. I also owe it to some of the amazing filters the image editor on my kindle has.

But overall my creation process is kind of a messy mishmash! 
For example, my newest piece of Dream a Little Dream was drawn first on my kindle fire using the free app MediBang Paint... but during the whole process I repeatedly transferred the file back and forth off of my kindle to my laptop to continue working in both PaintTool Sai and Photoshop Elements 5.0. For the most part I did the entire pony on the tablet, then made the background on photoshop, added them together and kept playing around with all the programs. To help with the softness I also use an effect on the program Photofiltre called artistic blur. Then I take the non-blurry and blurry version into a program with layers and stick the blurry one on top with very little opacity. Ooh, I know. I'll whip up a quick image showing some of the elements that went into the picture! Stand by...



Post Merge: June 10, 2022, 10:34:57 AM

Okay, here is a bonus collage that is just about as chaotic as my creation process.  https://i.imgur.com/tgjRrTf.png

[Griffin]

Thanks for sharing, I love reading about everyone's creative processes

[NanoRuby]

Oh these are absolutely gorgeous! So soft and pretty, they kind of remind me of vintage greeting cards. Or maybe the early Care Bears art style?

[fireglides]

Your art is simply amazing!! I can feel the 80s inspiration in the images. I especially love the Giraffe and horned Lion. Reminds me of Moondreamers a little bit.

[BlackCurtains]

These are lovely So soft and pretty. I can definitely feel the nostalgia. I'd love Raincurl in this style.

[sentimental]

your work is adorable!
i love the soft backgrounds, I still can't manage to get backgrounds to work for my pieces !

[Heart Of Midnight]

These are wonderful! Especially Dream a Little Dream!

[Ponybookworm]

Cute art!!! Love it

[Shaiyeh]

These are all absolutely lovely, and I adore my piece of Shailatte! She's so cute in your style! and all the non-pony characters are so cute ;3;

[Hannah66665]

Oh wow, thank you everyone for all of the lovely comments! I'm really happy with how these have been turning out and I'm glad others like them too!