Drawing Lorkus (My Favorite Archon)

Today I’m sharing my version, based on the original artwork for the card. I don’t have professional-grade colors or expensive markers at home, so I’ll be working exclusively with graphite pencils on a plain sheet of white paper. There’s something very honest about black-and-white drawings: you can’t hide mistakes behind bright colors, but you can really feel the depth of the line.

I started by using my 2H pencil to make very light, almost invisible strokes. This is always the part that stresses me out the most because the proportions of a character like Lorkus are complicated. His pose is dynamic, with his hands raised, and I spent a lot of time drawing circles and guide lines so he wouldn’t look “stiff.” It looks like a mess right now, but every great drawing starts with a little chaos on the paper.

At this stage, the character begins to come to life on the page. I refined the shape of his glasses and that iconic mustache. However, you can still see the "ghost lines" where I had to erase the arm several times. It’s frustrating because the paper starts to wear out and get “fuzzy” from all the erasing, but that’s part of the process when you’re out of practice. I really struggled with the perspective of the floating letters; making them look like they’re suspended in the air without looking heavy was a real challenge.

Now comes the "messy" part. I switched to HB and 2B pencils to add the shading. Since I don't have a professional blending stump, I used my finger to smudge the graphite and create smooth transitions on her robe and skin. This makes the paper look a little smudged and my hands ended up completely gray, but it gives the drawing a much more realistic sense of depth. I had to be careful not to smudge her face, though I think I left a small smudge near her neck.