Stuff and things and other randomness
I've started experimenting with using colored pencils for sketching, so I can layer the sketch with different colors. In this case, by drawing the person in blue and layering on their clothes/armor in purple.
One of these is my WoW Paladin, Katilyn. The other two are fashion/clothing drawing practice sketches that I pieced together from several different references for the clothing. I created the pose references for all of these in DesignDoll.
I just reached a big milestone in my art making journey: I filled up my first sketch pad since I started making art again! Posted below are the last picture I drew in that sketchpad (I asked for suggestions on Twitter, and was told to draw "a dragon experiencing buyer's remorse after sending its horde to Cash4Gold"), as well as the first drawing in my new sketchbook. Despite using a pose reference, I don't think I got the proportions and perspective quite right on this one, but oh well. I'm happy with how the details on the jacket and shoes came out, though.
Oh hey, so this blog is a thing, huh? Whoops.
If you've been following me on Twitter, you've probably seen that I've posted several sketches and work-in-progress updates to my big Rogue painting that haven't been posted here. Let's rectify that.
First up, some charcoal sketches. Practicing drawing eyes, the Night Elf from the WarCraft 3 box art, and Johanna from Heroes of the Storm (aka the lady Crusader from Diablo 3).
Next, a pencil sketch of a harpy for @FallingStardusk and a birthday sketch for @Faebelina.
Practicing line art in Photoshop with a drawing of Lara Croft from Rise of the Tomb Raider, a graphite/charcoal pencil sketch of Slipstream Tracer from Overwatch, and a pencil line art drawing of a fashionable lady. For the Tracer drawing, I used graphite (which is reflective) for the glasses and earrings, and charcoal (which isn't reflective) for the rest, which gives it a pretty neat effect.
Finally, some progress updates on my Night Elf Rogue painting.
There, all caught up. I'll try to remember to post updates here more often so I'm not dumping a ton of images into one post again.
I decided to post a comparison between the sketch of my Rogue I drew today, vs the version of it I scrapped a couple months ago, to show how much I’ve improved just since then. I think my big breakthrough was getting myself to think of everything in the image as a physical object in 3D space, vs just shapes on the page. That, plus studying and drawing lots of anatomy sketches, so I have a better handle on how the human (er, Night Elf) body fits together, and a better sense of what makes for an interesting pose.
Seeing how much I’ve improved in just the last couple months has me excited for where I’m going to be in 2 months, or 2 years. That’s what’s going to keep me going, I think.
I've been doing a lot with pencil lately, so I'm switching things up and spent the last few days doing practice sketches in Photoshop. I've filled quite a few pages in my sketchbook with human figure/pose practice sketches over the last month or so, and I've improved to a point where I'm not embarrassed for people to see them. Comparing these to how much I struggled to draw the pencil sketch of my Rogue I drew a couple months ago (which is what made me decide to start practicing figure drawing) that practice is really paying off.
The face is an attempt to practice drawing clean lines in Photoshop, which is something I still struggle with.
The sketch of my Rogue is a second attempt at a picture I started drawing a couple months ago and never finished because I wasn't happy with how it was turning out. Again, the improvement I've made since then is pretty significant, which is really exciting. I'm probably going to try to turn this one into a finished painting.
So, I've been really inconsistent in how often I draw lately. Some days I'm just not feeling it, so I don't draw anything, which makes me feel bad, which makes me not want to draw the next day, which makes me feel bad again, etc. It's a brutal cycle that's holding me back as an artist. I have been doing a lot of practice drawing that I haven't been uploading, but even so, I haven't been doing as much as I'd like.
One of the artists I follow just successfully completed a "draw every day" project last year, and it's inspired me to try the same thing this year. So, here's what's going to happen: I am going to put pen/pencil to paper, or stylus to tablet, or whatever, and draw something at least once per day, every day during 2016. No exceptions, no excuses. Even if I'm super busy, or tired, or not feeling well, I can find the time and strength to at least draw a little doodle. There's no rule about what I have to draw, or how complex it has to be, I just have to draw something.
To kick this off, I drew a silly colored pencil doodle of Pepe wearing a BB-8 hat.
I'm trying to re-teach myself how to draw real people again, so I drew some sketches of Daisy Ridley's character Rey from the Force Awakens trailers. They're pretty quick sketches and a bit rough, but I feel like I've made some progress and learned some things while drawing these three sketches, which is the important thing.
I drew another assault android from Assault Android Cactus: Peanut.
No scanned version this time, because my scanner was blowing out the lighter colors too much, so you just get a photo taken with my phone. I bought some fancy new artist pens (Amazon link), and they're way better than drawing with a Sharpie. Having different size tips for doing bold lines and fine details is really nice, and the pens put down really dark ink that doesn't smudge or bleed through the paper, even in spots where I put down a lot of ink, like around the eyes and midsection. The colors are colored pencil.
I noticed when it was too late to change it that the hand holding the drill is facing the wrong way. Whoops, oh well. Who knows how an android's wrists work, anyway.
As always, you can find the work in progress shots in my Sketches / WIP gallery.
Quick sketch of a feathered T. rex. What a majestic and fearsome beast, hear her powerful roar.
I just finished a piece of artwork I've been working on for a few days: the Inkling from Splatoon, using the Inkling amiibo as a reference. You can find the finished piece in the Finished Artwork page, and a breakdown of the process of creating it, from the initial sketch, the line art, coloring and shading, to the finished piece, in the Work-In-Progress page.
This was the first time I've sat down to draw something in a really long time, and while it took me a bit to get my bearings, I have to say it felt really good, and I'm looking forward to drawing more.
The line art in particular was a learning process. I've never been very confident in my line art, and it showed in my first attempt. I decided I was going to teach myself to be more confident, so scrapped my first attempt and forced myself to start drawing quick, flowing lines. At first, I had to undo and re-draw every line a bunch of times until I got them right, but by the time I was done, I was doing that a lot less. Most of the lines in the legs and shoes, in particlar, were done in one or two tries. I feel like I've grown a lot as an artist just over the course of making this one drawing.
It's funny, because I've been away from creating art for so long that I was certain that my skills had atrophied, and it was going to be a long slog to get back up to the level of the work I was doing 10-15 years ago when I was at the top of my game and doing this stuff every day. I think that fear was a big part of what kept me away from it for so long. In a lot of ways, though, this picture is an improvement over some of what I was doing back then; certainly I've never done line art this clean. That feels pretty amazing. Not that I don't still have room to improve, because I absolutely do, but now I'm looking forward to working towards that instead of dreading it.
