The official topic of the newly 4th Black and White Ballet Art is finally here! All of the five pas de deux drawings have been finished, and now you can see them all fully painted in beautiful black and white in a completed digital drawing medium.

The final step, after going from rough drawings to clean-up drawings, was getting all of each five painted in black and white contrast, both for the backgrounds and characters drawn on Autodesk SketchBook. The art tools I used are the three combinations of paint bucket, paintbrush, and spray paint. The paint bucket tool was used to paint the background in full color, using the linear fill for a mixture of light and dark, or dark and light contrast together, and also to color one of the ballet dancers, for a quicker way to paint, but done on a solid fill. The paintbrush tool was for painting some parts of the dancers, in case if the paint bucket tool didn't paint onto the exact part of the drawing, where I want to (only if it paints the entire whole and one drawing, which meant both characters and backgrounds mistakenly), I will use the paintbrush to paint the exact color where it needs to be for the location of the drawing for a smooth quality. And the spray paint tool was used as a best quality to paint certain layers of shadows and light for each of one of the ballet dancers to give it more depth and making the drawings popping out very realistically. Actually, the best way to start coloring a black and white drawing is to use the brighter color first (white, bright gray, etc.), then light (light gray, medium gray, gray, etc.), and darker color at last (charcoal gray and black).

It took me about three days in one week for getting each five drawings colored in black and white, from Tuesday to Friday, going from July 27th through July 30th. For the entire project, meaning going from rough drawings, clean-up drawings, and painting to the finished look, I've worked in about a total of two weeks, from mid-July to late-July 2021, so mostly on the entire month. But it has been lots of fun, and great exercise, after working and having to share you all the process of making this art project, and now I get to share you all the finished drawings here on today's new topic. Either a way, it was worth it, and I'm very proud of it! These pas de deux drawings do look very beautiful in black and white, even the way these dancers are drawn in my animation look, but they have to look very stylized and beautifully at the same time. Each of the five main drawings share a really great representation on realism.

So I hope you will enjoy exploring all of my five black and white drawings, as I take you along and talk about the process and sharing my thoughts in an artist/cartoonist's point of view, and you can check out the art gallery towards the end of this topic. I also have left two links of each of the previous topics on this project, both of rough drawings and clean-up drawings, in case if you have missed it. You can find them each down below at the end of the topic, check out the drawings, and learn more about the beginnings of this project, step by step.

Pas de Deux Drawing 1

The first pas de deux artwork out of the main five drawings, drawn at 1420 x 1090, horizontal on Autodesk SketchBook.

I guess you can say that this pose is one of the popular pas de deux movements ever seen in ballet, but also photographed in black and white. Here we see two ballet dancers performing in this beautiful pas de deux with a ballerina posing in a very gorgeous arabesque, while her male partner is holding her straight. I find this drawing very beautiful and stunning, especially the background, the way I painted in black and white contrast; darker tone on top and light on the bottom. The background is all about the darker tone, but you can see bit of faded light on the left, while the dancers are being presented in light tone, but they do share a bit of dark colors, such as bits of their studio rehearsal costumes (ex. ballerina is wearing a black leotard, and her male partner is wearing a black workout pants).

These dancers were both drawn onto separated layers, when I first started on sketching the first drawing, starting with the male dancer first, and the ballerina last. That way I can move one of the drawings, sizing them up from large or smaller, and combined them by detailing them together. I don't know if you noticed something on the ballerina's white classical tutu, but I tell you one thing. I secretly drew bits of bright-gray lines on few parts of the tutu, only because since I used gray for shadows, which I used the same gray color for the outlines of the tutu, and you won't able to see any of the lines like they have disappeared. To fix the problem, I went back to the layer, where I did the full clean-up drawing, and traced bits of the gray outlines with bright-gray on the exact location for the shadows, save it, and go back and paint the shadows with the spray tools. Problem solve! 😉😉😉

The first drawing was completed by July 27th, 2021.

Pas de Deux Drawing 2

Second out of five, drawn at 1420 x 1090, horizontal on Autodesk SketchBook; the same length and size as Drawing #1.

Very much similar to the first drawing, which you do get another beautiful moment with a ballerina performing an arabesque, but different, only because you can see the male dancer holding on to both of the ballerina's hands altogether. From the way I see it, I can see that both the first and second drawing having in common together, which is pretty interesting!

The backgrounds are painted in more darker tone on top and less of light on the bottom (representing the floor); however, the male dancer was painted in dark colors, using mix of gray and black, but his skin and slippers are painted in lighter gray, and the ballerina was painted in very light colors, mixing with light gray, bright gray, and white since she is wearing both white leotard and tutu. I first sketching the ballerina, and then the male dancer, but not having to draw his arms first, only because once I get these separate drawings combined together, I can draw the male dancer's arms and hands, so he hold on to the ballerina's both hands, and dancing with her at the same time together, which I think that was probably really hard for me to work on. It fits though! ☺

The second drawing was completed on July 28th, 2021.

Pas de Deux Drawing 3

Now we move on to the third drawing, drawn at 1330 x 1090, horizontal on Autodesk SketchBook.

This drawing is about painted in a dark contrast, both for the characters and background. You can see there's more of mix of contrast between gray and charcoal gray and black, including darker shadows, and it's less of light, except for the skin, slippers, and the tights on the ballerina. Even the rehearsal costumes matched the contrast onto the background. From the start, I drew sketch of the male dancer, which I must've sketched the whole drawing of him, except for his arms, so I can sketch the ballerina, and then finished the rest of the male dancer by sketching his arms and hands, and that way I can draw him holding on to his partner, as the ballerina is about to do her turning and spinning. Pretty much similar the way I worked for the second drawing.

Drawing anything that has to have realism, especially in animation is not very easy, even if you wanted to make it similar the way you see it from any live-action reference or images, but it's the best way to picture it the way you can see it visually in your imagination.

The third drawing was completed on July 29th, 2021.

Pas de Deux Drawing 4

Let's move on to the fourth drawing, drawn at 1500 x 1080, horizontal on Autodesk SketchBook.

So here this drawing has a great example of showing opposite than the third drawing you just saw, which I meant this shows more of the light contrast than dark. More gray and less black, but it shows half of bright colors, such as white and bright gray. For one thing, the background has half and half of gray, such as gray on top, but you'll see much of faded light behind it, and charcoal gray down on the bottom, which of course, you'll also see bits of faded light down below, too. The characters also fit in the same artistic view as the background, meaning that they are showing the light contrast as the background does, but also having similarities to Drawing #2 - the ballerina is painted in very bright tone, and the male dancer shows little bits of dark contrast, but you can see bits of the light colors I added onto the drawing.

The ballerina was the first character to draw, so that way she has to hold on to her male partner's right hand, while raising her left arm in a perfect arabesque, and then later on, I can sketch the male dancer holding on to the ballerina's hand and they can come dancing in a pas de deux together. If you look at the ballerina drawing on the left, she has bright gray outlines for her hair, which I added into it, during the clean-up section. Basically, I painted the ballerina's hair in a lighter gray, because I made her hair blonde, if you can picture it in full color. Whenever I would pick and chose a color that I can turn it into black and white, I would take, what it's called on Autodesk SketchBook, the color editor - you can pick and chose any color you need for any drawing or painting in digital medium, either brightening or darkening up, and on the middle part of it, that's where you can change the color from regular color to changing it into gray or white. Thought I share you a cool fun fact 🧐

The fourth drawing was completed on July 29th, 2021; the same day as the third drawing was finished.

Pas de Deux Drawing 5

And we move to the final five out of the five main drawings, drawn at 1550 x 1080, horizontal on Autodesk SketchBook.

Once again, we've got another drawing having in common with Drawings 1 and 2, just because both the characters and backgrounds were painted in the most combination of dark and light contrast, from top to bottom. But I do really like how this drawing was painted in dark and light tone contrast, even for the characters, and it really fits for this particular pas de deux. Then again, another incredible example of drawing realism in animation, compared to the first drawing. The male dancer was the first to draw, only because he has to pick up the ballerina, and putting her by his left side, which is like the climatic or final movement of the pas de deux. By the time I was about to sketch the ballerina, I first drew about half of her, from the head to half of her body and her arms and hands, so once I am done sketching the male dancer holding on to her, I can go ahead and finish drawing the rest of half of the ballerina's body with the tutu to her legs and feet.

I think what I like about this fifth art piece that I worked on was the contrast of shadows, especially on the tutu. You can see such realistic detail of the gray shadows I painted onto the white tutu with the spray paint tool, even though tutus in black and white ballet drawings can be a lot of work on, from painting in color to shadows, but it was good exercise for me to put on amount of realistic details onto each drawings, as an artist, especially for black and white artwork.

The fifth drawing was completed on July 30th, 2021.

That is all of the five pas de deux drawings I have shared you all for this year's 4th Black and White Ballet drawings. I'm glad that I was able to share you all of the drawings from the past updates for each of a couple of topics, during the making of it. It does take a lot of hard work to do many drawings, but it has been a fun exercise, and a great exercise for me to practice on drawing pas de deuxs as realistic as I can. Ballet and animation, I think, go well together, because even it doesn't have to show cartoony-ness for comical relief, but there is something very beautiful and unique about animating dancers that they show you that these drawings can dance as any real-life dancers can do, either it's done in 2D or 3D animation.

Which one of the black and white pas de deux drawings is your favorite, and why? 🩰

If I have to pick and choose, I would pick Drawing #1, and I also liked Drawing #5, just because they're both beautiful, and I see lots of realism, especially well done in black and white. If you have a favorite, out of the five, please share your thoughts in the comment box.

Enjoy the art gallery, and hope you all have a fantastic first week of August! 🎭

🖤 Art Gallery 🤍

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