Drawing Rocks (+tutorial)

You wanna know something? I still struggle with style. I’ve been illustrating professionally for over two years and I don’t feel like I’m anywhere close to figuring it out. Of course, I have pretty conflicted opinions about style in general, so it stands to reason. How are we supposed to do work that truly reflects our artistic core if we don’t have a clear vision of what that looks like?

Case in point: I was working on an illustration that was all set up for smooth sailing. I’d worked through my thumbnails in black and white and color, I had my lines tight, my perspective right, and I’d even made new Procreate brushes to get exactly the soft pencil look I was going for. But then I hit a wall. A rock wall.

The image in question features kids at the top of a steep ravine looking down, and for the life of me, I could not get the face of the cliff right. No matter what I did, it just felt off. It wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t what I wanted. I tried to tell myself it was okay…that people draw things in different ways and maybe this is just how I draw cliffs. But I wasn’t happy.

So I stepped back a bit. And I tried to draw a rock. And then I drew another one. And another.

And you know what? I realized I can draw rocks fine! Just maybe not with my soft pencil brushes.

So I made some new brushes, and I painted some new rocks.

I’m happy with the results. But it got me thinking.

Perhaps I’ve been struggling because I’ve been forcing myself to use the wrong tools—maybe I’m just not a soft pencil kind of gal. I’d gotten it in my head that that’s what I’m supposed to be. And not even for a good reason…because an art director said something about someone else’s art two years ago that made me rethink my own.

I’ve had cause to look back over my art since then and I can see how it has edged away from what truly speaks to me. I’ve been forcing myself to use tools that make it harder to do some of things I really love (like dramatic lighting!). Don’t get me wrong, I’ve learned a lot as a result. It’s all part of the journey. But I’ve lost some stuff, too. If drawing rocks has taught me anything, it’s that it’s important to step back from time to time and focus on the simple things.

So I’m gonna let go for a bit. I’m gonna stop worrying so much about the final look of a piece and start focusing on the process.

In the meantime, here’s a tutorial of how I draw rocks. I hope it shines some light on your own process!