And then… drumroll… the final result!

Once the sketches were done, we decided to keep working with the spray-can icon, and the artist moved on to choosing colors. Here are the options she came up with:

After a bit of tweaking based on the feedback and paintover, the icon sketches were ready:

Here are the small details: when lines converge at one point, it’s also something you can avoid by slightly shifting the paste. It’s important to avoid this so that unnecessary focal points don’t appear (when lines converge at a single point or stick to each other, a focal point is created, which can become distracting, throw off the composition, or simply trigger unwanted attention).


After the adjustments, the sketches looked like this:

Theme: Artist’s tools. When the first sketches appeared, they already looked great — cute and charmingly casual.

Task 1. Icons

Quite often, new artists join us after completing one of our courses to take part in an internship - a chance to experience firsthand how work in a real studio operates. Today, we’ll tell you how it all goes - from the first day to the final assignment (with plenty of art lead feedback,
of course!).

The internship begins with a cozy morning introduction to the art lead, the pipeline, and our studio guidelines (our secret treasure -
a document we’ve built over years!). After that, interns receive their first assignment and dive right into a process that’s as close as possible to how Redby Art artists actually work.

💫 Internship experience at Redby Art: how we help artists enter the industry

Also, I would darken the metal part next to the cap — right now it blends together in grayscale

After some adjustments, the sketches looked like this:

Feedback: Сердечко можно ещё крупнее попробовать, только чтобы не упиралось прямо в край. Можно еще вот так подчеркнуть грани и толщинку у этикетки, сделать темнее, а то сейчас она теряется немного:

All of them turned out great! For the final render the artist chose the blue icon and picked these clean, casual shades to go with it:

And then it was time for light and shadow:

Feedback: The heart should be made bigger, otherwise it will get lost at a small size. If you want to keep it flat, it still needs some rendering. You could add a gradient, or maybe try a hint of drips, or a broken/smeared edge, as if it’s paint. Just carefully though - this is more something to try rather than a must-do; it might turn out unnecessary, we need to see. The cap shape can be made a bit cleaner, like this:

Feedback: You can make the tea tag bigger so the icon looks more expressive. Let’s move the gouache jars a bit closer to each other to free up more space on the left and right inside the square. And let’s transform the watercolor so it’s less vertically stretched – basically fit it more into a square, like this:

Feedback: They should be placed within square cells. The watercolor tube, for example, is currently stretched too much horizontally — you need to think about how to compose it better. And the second-to-last tube can be tilted the same way as the top one. Once you place them into the squares, you’ll see where and how you can rotate them so the icons fit properly. And here are the clean sketches after the corrections:

Feedback: “Awesome sketches! Try starting with rough drafts for all icons first, then move on to clean sketches. In real work, it’s better to show quick drafts early to get approval - this saves time on revisions later. These sketches are very neat, but in production, they can be rougher. Avoid tight tangents where lines touch - it creates unwanted focal points.”

After carefully refining the occlusion, the result turned out like this:

And I also want to work a bit more on the shadows and occlusion, add some depth — here’s an overpaint:

the sphere has the following issue:

And let's increase the contrast between the dark and light areas on the yellow rim, and add some occlusion there as well.

A pretty interesting palette turned out:

A good start was made: soon enough, cute drafts of objects in isometry appeared. Let’s see what happens next.

Assignment 2. Isometry

At the next stage, the carousel already looked quite three-dimensional:

Feedback: The bushes turned out with sharp leaves like little hedgehogs. The leaves should be puffier and softer. You don’t have to draw every single leaf individually, you can draw one and copy it. Also, they are more contrasty and detailed than everything else, so they pull attention — which we don’t want, since they are an additional element, not the main focus of the composition. I think you should increase their size and reduce the number of leaves. Foliage and vegetation are a tricky topic, so don’t worry if it doesn’t work right away. You can also try looking for another, simpler stylization. Here, look — these are some examples I found:

Feedback: Great! Thanks, let’s move on now :)

Feedback: If the stripes on the roof are slightly puffy, you need to show that in the silhouette. And if they are flat, you should remove the occlusion on the edges of the stripes - in that case, you can paint the whole roof in one color and then add the stripes with correction layers.

Feedback: The wooden floor looks strange because the top plane is darker than the side one. That would make sense only if the light were shining directly from the side, and the roof doesn’t seem massive enough to cast that entire plane into shadow. Also, this part here needs to be adjusted so there are no tiny little fragments. Either remove them completely or make them bigger.

After fixing the tangents, the artist began rendering:

Feedback: I think the stripes on the lid need to be adjusted. In isometry we are looking slightly from above, so the back stripes should also be slightly visible. One of the yellow beads can be slightly changed in color - to something nuanced but still close to yellow (orange, for example). Three beads of different colors will look more interesting. I also adjusted the thickness of the sign.

And this is how the color selection process went after the adjustments based on the feedback:

Here’s how the sketch changed after refinement:

Feedback: Good, now let’s enlarge these parts as well. The text on the menu should be shortened — two or three lines max.

At this stage of the sketch, it was decided to stop and move on to choosing colors for the carousel.

Feedback: Right now there are too many tiny details. Really small objects should be avoided or enlarged. The thickness of lines should be increased. Lines can be curved to make them look soft and puffy, like this:

The plants also have too many tiny leaves — better to draw a few larger ones, like here:

Just look how cool your token sketches turned out!

3rd Task. Match-3 Tokens

We barely had time to blink before our artist completed this task!

Feedback: For the blue one, I suggest reducing the brightness of the reflection — it shouldn’t be brighter than the light, otherwise the shape will start flipping inside out. And I also think for the blue one you can shift the color scale of the highlight more toward turquoise, without whitening the light.

Feedback: On the orange token, the swirl will be lost at a small size, we need to highlight it somehow - maybe make it thicker? And on the star, you can add a bit of overall volume on top, like this:

Feedback: On the star shape, the distant rays should also converge toward the center just like the front ones. Let's fix this point and make the ray closest to us a bit thicker, and everything else is good. After fixing the star you can continue.

And here’s how the tokens looked when the render began.

The challenge was to replicate the ref's style as closely as possible, capturing every feature and detail. Let's look at how this work began:

Task 4. Interface

After the edits, UI has noticeably changed:

Feedback: The bottom border of the turquoise buttons needs to be darker than the actual shadow. Also, your shadows are currently different from the reference. Generally, in UI, it's best to use black, translucent shadows, always in Normal blending mode. Because elements can overlap elsewhere, and if the background color is different there, the shadow will be crooked, while a black one will look consistent everywhere, regardless of the background. And let's also match the font style as in the reference: white + shadow.

Also, it seems like the star is crooked; the center of the top point and the bottom depression don't match. Here's how to quickly create different stars:

Feedback: It hits the mark perfectly. I'd make the titles' backgrounds different to show that they have different meanings. The bottom background could be made less noticeable, and the bottom buttons could be centered.

After adding the text and making some edits, the work now looks almost like a screenshot from the game:

Phew! It was a challenging, yet incredibly inspiring journey. Our wonderful artist managed to complete
all stages of the internship and handle the tasks brilliantly!

So many cool and original works have added to her portfolio 💛
We wish you to be just as courageous – don't be afraid of challenges, see your ideas through to completion, and believe in yourself.

And we, as always, are here for you: sharing experiences, materials, and helping you take your first steps in the industry.

Good luck, guys, and see you at the internship! :3

Fina-a-a-al! This is what the darling looked like after the feed:

The choice fell on a funny pigeon, and it was decided to make a clean sketch with color for it, this is how it turned out:

The beginning of the render looked like this:

The artist solved the paw issue like this:

After the edits, the dove was transformed and became even more voluminous:

Phew! The final stage of the internship, a task that few manage to complete – a character!
Let's take a look at the chefs' sketches:

Task 5. Character

Feedback: The main issue I'd like to address now is the casual purity of the color.

• In some areas (the purple parts of the plumage, the legs, the grains, and the chest area of ​​the blue plumage) the highlights have a whitish tint.

• The rimlight in the shadow is too bright and creates ripples on the right wing.

• On the tail, the haze has a grayish tint, which also negatively impacts the color.

• The direction of the feathers on the wings and tail should be slightly adjusted for a more dynamic shape. In some places on the plumage, add some feathers that stick out in the silhouette.

• On the chest, the volume of the purple feathers is too rounded on the shape. This creates the impression of thick, purple drippings.

• If the volume were laid flatter, the shape of the feathers would be more clearly visible.

• Some details are too bright and create high contrast, standing out from the overall shape. For example, the beak and grains. They're small and very light.

• The wood texture on the ladle is too contrasty; light dark stripes would be sufficient. The high texture contrast created ripples and distracted the viewer from the character's face.I'd like to add harder drop shadows everywhere, and don't forget the subtle shadow from the ladle on the dove.

• The shape of the paws needs to be adjusted slightly; the tips are slightly more rounded, and the paw on the left now looks thicker than the one on the right.

• The pink folds on the apron can be shown with more volume; they will slightly overlap the beige part.

Note how the gradient lies inside the pupil; this will make the eye look more alive due to the light reflecting the "sky" at the bottom of the pupil. It immediately adds depth.

Feedback: I think the colors could be more contrasting and vibrant, so the tones on the character would alternate better. The cap could be brighter, the legs could be richer, and the grains could even be a cleaner, richer shade. If you poke around with the eyedropper, you'll see almost all the colors in that range. You need to go brighter, don't be shy. And to make it cleaner, use a wider hue difference between the shadow and highlight colors. Keep it over:

Feedback: Wow, great) we can continue)

Feedback: We need to come up with something for the fingers; we can just show some kind of claws. Look, the bird's feet are very simple, but they still have claws. The shape tapers toward the end of the finger, creating a claw:

2D Artist