Drawing 100 Animals in 4 DAYS + Ohuhu Markers First Impressions!

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Hello , everyone .

It's Jess Hero .

Welcome back to another video and this one , we are going to be tackling another 100 challenge .

And I decided to do 100 animals in four days .

If you've been watching my channel , you know that I have already tackled the 100 heads challenge .

I also did the 100 Hands challenge as well as 100 eyes safe to say that I have sort of a little series going here and I'll have the videos linked below just in case you haven't checked them out yet .

Now , when starting any challenge , I always like to give myself a few rules setting intentions will help you always stay on track .

So here are the five rules that I gave myself before beginning this challenge .

In the previous art challenges , I created them in my sketchbook .

But this time I decided to create a full illustration on this super long hot pressed crescent illustration board .

This was actually a huge piece left from my food head series and I thought it would be a great shape to fill with 100 .

And since I knew there was going to be 100 of them on this board .

I made a plan by dividing four sections equally for 25 animals per section .

And then I spent a significant amount of time doing some research as well as finding my references for this illustration .

I decided to revisit my love for markers and ou who kindly sent me this 168 marker set for me to try .

They're celebrating their five year anniversary on ou dot com .

So , what a better way to paint up your inspiration .

I have never actually used these before .

So I'm super excited to try them out from first glance of opening them up .

They look incredible .

I've experimented with other brands before , but I haven't used theirs yet .

So I'm really excited to see how they are going to perform .

They are alcohol based and they also have a brush tip along with a broad chisel tip on the other side .

The super comfy carry-on also comes with this clear sheet to prevent any bleed through .

And it also includes these color watches for all of your colors .

And as a bonus , I just wanted to show you guys some old marker drawings .

I did .

This is 2016 sketchbook .

I've never actually ever shown these .

I used to do these portraits using markers and it literally has been five years since I've really used them .

So I'm really eager to revisit my love for the alcohol markers .

So now that you guys got a sneak peek of some really old sketchbook drawings with markers .

Let's move on by trying out some swatches since this is my very first time using these markers .

I really wanted to get a little familiar with them .

So I just took a look at how they named their colors as well as how they looked inside the carry on .

And I was really surprised on how well these felt in hand .

And here's a look at how the brush tip looks as well as the broad chisel tip on the other side .

Since I'm going to be drawing 100 animals , I really want to make sure that I'm familiar with the kind of medium I'm using .

So I just quickly decided to do some swatching so that I can really feel how these markers work as first impressions .

I really felt that the color is laid flat and I was actually able to layer them and I saw that they were super sensitive .

So immediately when I would put down a mark , it would automatically activate .

And this set had a lot of like little pastel colors which I was super excited about and just to stay personally organized , I grouped them into color ranges .

And that way I was able to find the color because there were so many markers and then therefore easily swatch them .

This took quite a bit of time , a few hours actually .

But I was really , really interested to see how the colors would turn out on the actual swatches .

And I actually had the time to get familiar with them and see how they perform on paper .

And a little fun fact , I actually love , love , love swatching things as well as my water color .

I'm always really curious to see and have these as a reference chart .

And after completing the swatches , I actually reorganized my little bag of markers by color range of pastels , yellows , pinks , greens , blues and grays .

And now that the workflow was all set up , it was time to begin drawing .

I decided to incorporate some mixed media into this .

So I'm going to be using some colored pencils on top and mixing them into the challenge .

But since this was a long finished illustration board , I knew I had to sketch out with pencil and the first one , it was a lot of back and forth of sketching out the right position I wanted for the dog .

And I guess it comes with the pressure of starting out a piece .

You always think you have to have a certain level of perfection to achieve .

But you know , you have to get used to making mistakes .

And after trying out a few poses with the pencil , I came up with the right ones .

And when the gears got moving , I was able to continue drawing without changing the pose for these first few animals .

I was a little nervous starting out with the markers .

So I decided to sketch a few out before I felt comfortable and bold enough to start with my markers .

And I had this idea of all the animals kind of fitting into the negative space of one another and then making up one huge long composition .

And here we go , I decided to do the first five and then color them in with markers .

I just , I told myself I'm going all in and if something happens , I can always just restart or cut off that piece .

But everything went really well .

And I was really loving how the markers were performing .

I had to switch gears from my painting that I've been doing recently and go back to remembering how the alcohol markers perform .

But I really loved using them as a base and kind of seeing how they can blend by adding a little bit of light colors first , then adding some dark and I also played around with some brighter colors that they have in the set and using them for some brighter highlights as I'm doing here .

I actually really loved using a lighter pink on top of the gray and it actually started to bleed through on its own , creating this really nice texture .

And of course , while drawing the cat , my sweetest Matilda is just sitting on my lap watching me draw .

I feel like she genuinely actually likes to watch and this is how she likes to lounge around and cuddle while I'm filming and drawing .

But initially , the very first few animals were sort of experimental because I didn't really know what to expect .

And I was going along with trying out a few animals at a time .

I was also doing some mixed media back and forth with some colored pencils and I think they were layering and performing so well together and I'll talk to you guys more about what I learned throughout the video .

As I'm drawing , I want to discuss a few pointers on how I stay motivated during an art challenge and why I start one in the first place , the benefits and how I choose the inspiration and actually manage to finish it .

This month .

I actually challenge my patreons to start the 100 challenge along with me each month , I send out worksheets and tips for them to stay motivated and for them to stay creative .

And all my patreons have started the monthly challenge and I'm really excited to see what they create .

Everyone chose their own topic and we're sending each other critiques on our private Discord server .

And honestly , it's been really awesome seeing our little community grow .

So shout out to you patrons .

You guys are awesome .

Now , can we discuss how I made the decision to do 100 animals on this really long illustration board ?

And then eventually realized that all of these small animals have to be really , really tiny and they are almost like a miniscule size .

So , so some of these had to turn out really , really small , but I guess that was part of the challenge for myself .

So first and foremost , let's discuss why starting a 100 challenge is beneficial and why I enjoy doing it personally .

I believe that your skill builds up with practicing and practicing and really studying and learning how to see and observing , putting in the time and hours really is beneficial .

And the best way to put in the time is to start a 100 challenge .

This way , you're drawing lots , you are doing what you love while practicing and improving your skills .

It's also really awesome to see it completed as a whole .

After completing my 100 heads and hands and eyes , it's a really beautiful series that comes together which then motivates you to continue and keep going and the feeling of actually completing it is really irreplaceable .

Many of you guys have been tagging me on Instagram showing your challenges that you've begun .

And if you have finished one , you know , the feeling of accomplishment when you finish , I'm also super grateful and happy that I have inspired and pushed you to grow and practice your skills and start a challenge of your own .

But once you set these intentions and constraints for yourself and really dedicate yourself to completing something that alone will motivate you to keep going and really inspire you to continue .

Now although I set myself some pretty tight deadlines , like 10 days or four days , everyone's can be different .

But setting those and writing it down and actually sticking to it is super important because that's going to push you to do it the next day .

And the fact that you made that decision ahead of time , you'll have no excuses , but to stick to the rules that you created , of course , you can alternate and shift some things as you go on .

But setting a true time frame is what matters .

Now by all means , you don't have to set such a short deadline .

You can set a deadline for a whole year or a full month .

I just enjoy challenging myself to work quickly to see what I can create .

And that's just a personal challenge that I like to set for yourself .

I'm always going to repeat this .

So just make sure you're setting realistic time frames and expectations that will work best for you .

Everyone works differently .

So just make sure that you decide something that you're comfortable with and then go for it .

Now , another important aspect is choosing the right topic that inspires you .

Everyone has different interests and passions .

So choosing the right topic that you love will help you stay on track when you're creating .

And on the contrary , it's also helpful to choose a topic that you are not familiar with because that is actually going to push you to learn about it and push you to see it in a different perspective .

For example , I have actually never drawn some of the animals that I drew in this challenge and I was so happy that I did it because they are so exquisite .

And animals have really been inspiring me lately .

I've always loved drawing birds and stuff in my sketchbook .

You guys know that , but really exploring the vast variety of our animals in our beautiful world , really was such a great feeling and drawing .

These was so much fun and I definitely want to explore doing a lot of these in my sketchbook .

And as you start , as you go on , you get all these ideas and inspirations .

And just beginning is the most important part at this point in the challenge .

I've done a few of the animals and I was building up a little groove for myself and I noticed that I was improving with each and every animal .

And I know that 25 animals per day may a lot to build up to 100 some days , it was a little bit intense .

But as soon as I set that goal for myself , I made sure to reach it at the end of the day .

Of course , there was times where I really wanted to spend an hour on each animal , but I decided to do as much as I can in a certain time .

So I'd actually timed myself maybe five to 10 minutes max per animal .

And I think that as I was going on , I was shortening the time to make sure that I'm not taking forever and I just looked back and made sure that my intention wasn't to create a super finished drawing .

It was more like to create a full illustration of sketches and colorful animals all together in one composition .

The options of goals and intentions that you can set yourself are endless .

So like I said , assessing what works best for you and then going from there is what will work best and honestly and not knowing which animal I was going to do next was actually pretty fun because then I get to explore a new one that I can create and seeing each new animal come to life was one of the most greatest feelings .

It was also really great to get back into markers and mixed media .

A part of your challenge can be to try a new medium or focus on a medium that you really love and want to improve on .

And this section of the illustration was one of my favorites because I really love how the little piggy came out .

And the toucan along with the shark , I just started to form things where I would really love what I'm creating and just using colors that were coming naturally to me and it was all coming together slowly but surely .

So just to talk a little bit about composition I was using the outside negative space of each animal to see how those shapes can act as a compliment for the animal that is beside it , it was a little tricky at first since I had to really pay attention to how much space I leave around the animal as well .

And I had to maintain it throughout the whole illustration , but this was all sort of like a little vision that I had and it's been in my head for quite some time .

So I was really happy that I can finally put it on a beautiful illustration board and make a little mini finished piece .

I always really strive for a nice balance in my work and also in my compositions and the balance can come in factors of color shapes and the different sizes that I include .

And I think that playing around with the different sizes of some small animals , some little insects and some larger animals really helped balance out the whole piece as I was choosing the animals for my piece .

It was so interesting to study the different shapes and colors that exist in the world .

And I was just speaking , some animals that I really love and find super exquisite .

I know I was including a lot of birds and sea life as well as insects , reptiles .

But I just wanted to kind of include them all in one composition in one piece because they are a part of one world .

And it ended up making a super colorful outcome .

I also decided to stylize the animals a little bit so that I can give them some character and of course , a unique expression as far as my process goes and how I chose to use the markers and color pencils together , I essentially use the markers as a very solid base to my drawing .

I chose either a bright color as the mid to or just a mid to color that I noticed in the animal itself .

And I actually cover and either gradient the whole animal at first .

And then I begin to introduce some more shadow colors and then I go back in and add more of those mid toes to blend it all together .

And here's me taking a short break to assess how far I've come with the challenge so far .

But as you can see , I'm laying down the very light blue as the initial kind of mid to color .

And then I sort of lay in the colored pencil as like little details that I can add on top .

And since this was such tiny drawings for each animal , I had to go in with a 0.3 fine liner gel pen so that I can get those really intricate details because both the marker and the color pencils were not thin and fine enough to get in those details .

So as I established this plan and workflow of the way that I added color to each animal .

I was able to complete each one in a timely manner and just kept moving forward when using the Coase pencil to sketch out .

I was using a very , very light pressure to make sure that I'm not pressing too hard on the pencil to make sure I'm able to erase it just in case .

And once I had a nice foundation that I was happy with , I was able to go in nice and bold with the markers .

And I noticed that since I had the marker base , put first , it actually made the color pencils almost brighter when I applied them on top .

So definitely an awesome combo that I'm going to be using more often now , especially in my sketchbook .

I feel like markers are a great fast way to get a beautiful base down to your illustration and look at how bright this pink was .

I really loved this peachy pink that was in the marker set .

And then once I was able to put the color pencil on top , it gave that feather texture and then I actually applied marker back on top of the color pencil and it sort of like sealed it .

So this is something that I started to experiment with as well .

All righty .

So here is what I have so far .

I always like to take a moment during any piece that I create to take a step back and assess how far I've come it's always great to give yourself a compliment and positive feedback .

You guys know , I always preach positivity .

So today I inspire and motivate you guys to look at your work and give yourself a compliment .

If you're doing a 100 challenge of some sort and you , you're up to number 80 compliment yourself on getting this far .

Keeping a positive mindset is what will help you move forward as well .

And a quick side note , that is the list that I add to every time I complete a drawing .

So I would complete one animal and then I would take my pen and go back to my Lucy paper and make sure that I took note of the animal .

I just drew .

This helps me keep track of how many I have done and also prevent any repeats .

As I was continuing to draw all the animals , I really feel like I was falling in love with the piece more and more , the more that I was working on it , I don't know about you , but seeing animals and just looking at photos of animals just always brightens up my day and makes me smile .

And this was just a flood of happiness and emotions .

When I was drawing and creating this , I feel like animals bring such a soft spot out in humans .

And there would be times where I can just watch an animal video and I would obviously get emotional , but in a good way .

Of course .

And that's why I'm super happy .

I chose this topic because it just brought joy and smiles to my face .

Every time I was drawing and even researching the photos of the animals was so fun because there are so many different um environments that they live in .

Every animal has its own characteristic , their own way that they carry themselves .

And I don't know , it's just so special and makes me feel so warm .

I also included lots of sea life in this piece because I think sea life is so beautiful .

The great thing about drawing out different topics is also you begin to learn and inform yourself about different facts and things that you don't know about .

As I was drawing some animals like this polar bear , I ended up sidetrack to some different articles and reading about the animals themselves and different facts .

I got a little distracted with reading certain articles and finding out new information , but see things like this help you grow and discover new and interesting information for some of the animals just to throw into the bunch .

I actually searched unique animals that basically I haven't heard about before .

For example , that taper on the top , the little blue one with the long nose .

I have seen it before , but I just never knew that was the actual name of it .

But hey , we learn something new every day .

I hope you guys are enjoying the little process of each animal that is added to this illustration .

I did my best to keep this video as concise as possible and each animal is fed up because this video would be super , super long .

But this is a good time to discuss how much time I gave myself for each animal .

Exactly .

And how much time it took overall to complete this piece .

If you've ever completed a challenge or on for many , many hours at once , you know , that it's extremely time consuming and patience , of course , plays an important role .

When I was first starting out carefully and experimentally with the animals , I was taking a little bit more time to make sure that I have the right flow going .

But eventually I noticed myself taking about 20 to 30 minutes for each animal .

And I felt like that was a little bit inefficient and too long for each one only because I give myself a short time frame .

But eventually , as I had a nice flow going , I actually pulled out my timer on my phone and I made sure that I was timing myself a certain amount of time .

For example , at first I started off with 5 to 6 minutes , but then I felt like it wasn't enough .

So I was giving myself a little bit more leisure time and then for these smaller animals , I was able to finish within 3 to 4 minutes and then the larger ones I guess , compensated for the extra time that I had left .

It was sort of like a little game and puzzle for myself to make sure I'm staying on track and I always can't help but notice little things I want to add and unify to my piece .

So I take a step back and can help but add a little bit of more to certain animals .

I made sure to be strict with myself .

And as soon as time ran out , I moved on to the next one because I always knew that I can always go back and kind of add a little bit more details .

Towards the end .

I noticed myself getting stuck on some animals because I really wanted to render it out and make it super crispy and detailed .

But I ended up trying to really loosen up and play around with colors and more scratchy sort of loose lines and sometimes setting that time frame for yourself and shortening the time that you spend on a piece is actually beneficial .

I remember when we were drawing from models in art school , one of my professors was timing us 30 seconds seconds to one minute to fully get the figure into our paper from life drawing .

And at the time , it was so difficult and sounded completely crazy , but I ended up actually learning so much from that because it really forced me to focus and just hone into the subject .

And of course , it's different when you're taking your time to complete a finish illustration .

But I always like to practice that time frame and constraint when possible .

So as I was finishing up the last 20 animals , I was up to number 80 I was actually feeling like I had run out of ideas and animals to draw , but I stayed confident and positive and knew I would find ones that would fit perfectly to the end of the composition and the ending can get a little bit tricky since you want to make sure that everything fits for me specifically , I had that 40 inches with of this illustration board and I had to make sure that I wasn't going over because then I wouldn't have fit all my animals in .

But thankfully to the plan that I made ahead of time to do like little quadrants of the 25 animals per every fourth , I guess that was really helpful and I knew where I had to kind of stay into that border and make sure that I have that amount in that section .

If you guys really look , the little birds and insects are actually smaller than my fingernail , it's so so tiny , but it was really interesting to actually try to draw super small with the markers .

I had to be super delicate with the amount of pressure that I apply onto the marker and pencil itself .

Well , look at that little fly .

It came out so cute .

If you are still here .

And watching the full video , I want to say thank you so much for being here and I really hope you're enjoying it so far .

Now , for these last few animals , I decided to plan them in with my sketch .

Same as I started with to make sure that I have all of the animals up to 100 fitting towards the end of the surface .

And then I went in with my markers and colored it in all the way through .

And at this point , I was at home stretch and felt really accomplished , but also excited to finish because I was exhausted and it was a lot of work , but it was all worth it at the end .

And it was a bittersweet moment because the last few animals meant that the piece would be over .

And I actually got pretty sad also .

Um But , you know , I always have my sketchbooks and can keep practicing , keep drawing and keep creating .

Do you guys ever experience that ?

I feel like I get sad and it feels bittersweet when a piece is done and I can't draw it anymore .

But I just like to put my heart and soul into what I do .

And when it's over , I'm like , oh man .

But anyways , that's a little rant on the feelings that I have towards the end .

And hey , we're up to the last little beaver .

And once I finish all the animals , I always take some time to include some touch ups to really solidify the whole thing .

Bring it together , see what I have to add little tiny details to really finish it off .

And after a little amazing journey with lots of colorful animals and hard work , it was time to show you guys the finished piece .

All right , everyone here is the finished outcome .

And as a surprise , I couldn't help but create these into beautiful large poster prints .

They are now live on my website .

So if you'd like to grab one , go ahead and check them out .

After scanning the finish at high resolution , the finished product of the print came out phenomenal .

I'd like to say thank you so much for watching this video .

I really hope you guys enjoyed give this video a thumbs up if you did and comment below which animals you loved the most hit that subscribe button if you haven't already done .

So stay tuned for some new videos and announcements on my Instagram coming up shortly .

I hope you guys are staying creative and happy and I will see you guys in the next one .

Bye .