Behind The Scenes with Oana Befort

Royal & Langnickel Ambassador Oana Befort is a freelance graphic artist, focusing largely on watercolors and sketch work. Her beautiful pieces always feature intricate detail and she’s given us a behind-the-scenes glimpse of her process creating one of her latest illustrations with her favorite Royal & Langnickel brushes. Find more of her work at oanabefort.com and at her Etsy shop.

Almost all of my illustrations start with a simple pencil drawing in a sketchbook, a scrap piece of paper, or directly on the watercolor paper. This specific illustration I started directly on watercolor paper. I used a very light pencil (H4) so that the lines would be easier to cover once I add color.

Outlining in pencil

Once I was happy with my drawing, I used two of my favorite Royal & Langnickel brushes: A no.4 Nocturna and a no.1 Pure Red Sable for the thinner lines and details.

Nocturna L6000

Pure Red Sable L650

I started by painting some of the lighter color areas of my illustration and then I slowly move on to the darker ones and add details where needed until I was happy with the whole composition and the color palette balance.