Partway through this piece, I realized that it’s been almost a decade since I last picked up a quill and tried to ink on bristol. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the results. I didn’t make any disastrous mistakes and this drawing hasn’t been digitally manipulated at all. The background is a bit bland right now but that’s because I plan on coloring this piece shortly to brush up on my digital coloring skill.
More fun with lighting
16 Sep
Here’s another half hour sketch I completed with a purple Sharpie to play around with blacks and how they change a piece. I don’t really like it much as there isn’t nice detail anywhere and the proportions are off quite a bit on the face. Still, it’s not terrible and proved effective for the exercise, as hair can be particularly difficult to sort when there is heaving lighting effects involved on a figure. I thought of backlighting the head a bit but that proved to be a bit much with less than 30 minutes to work and only a Sharpie on hand to draw the piece. Not surprsingly, it looks a lot nicer the more I shrink it down. Damn that blunted Sharpie.
A quick sketch in black
15 Sep
I’m going to start playing around with blacks in quick sketch form to see what I come up with in lighting. This sketch is rather mundane but that’s not a surprise as it will probably take me some time to get away from pure line art and start using heavy blacks to light a figure. I didn’t let this piece take longer than 30 minutes and even that is too slow, in my opinion. Next up maybe I’ll try a portrait with extreme lighting and hope my cheap-ass pens don’t give out on me halfway through the piece. By the way, this happens to be one of my favorite costumed characters, Moon Knight.
Batgirl doing what Batgirls do
13 Sep
I’m burning out on line art a little so this may be my last entry in this style… I should move on to different techniques to get back into the swing of things before I start practicing with quills on bristol board. Her anatomy is still off but at least this time I feel as if I got her shoulder width in proper proportion to her hips. Usually I draw women more athletic but in this case, I may have gone a bit overboard on young Batgirl’s bosoms.
A Dark Phoenix sketch
09 Sep
One of the first times I was exposed to comics books was during the legendary Clairemont/Byrne Dark Phoenix Saga. So, now that I’m aping old comic book characters to get back into the feel of things, I thought a Dark Phoenix drawing would be appropriate. I don’t feel that it turned out quite as nicely as the Strange sketch but overall, I’m happy with it because it’s been a long time since I even tried drawing a woman in skin-tight clothing. My eraser received a workout as I kept narrowing the shoulders and widening the hips in an attempt to get the comic book-y proportions correct. I’m running out of classic characters I’m interested in drawing.
It’s STRANGE.
08 Sep
Despite reading comics off and on for over 25 years and always being fascinated with the character, I realized that I had never attempted to draw Strange. So I decided to give it a go. He looks too young and probably not mystical enough but that’s partially due to my style… it’s not very good at depicting creepy or dark characters. Overall, I’m pretty pleased with it and may actually ink and color it if I ever get my Wacom tablet back and am motivated enough to give it a go.
Cutesy Friday
03 Sep
I had a little time this evening so I thought I’d post another sketch. This one is of another main protagonist in the book that’s been bouncing around in various incarnations for a little over ten years now. She appears later and isn’t really relevant to what I need to be working on right now but I wanted to draw her anyway. Those jeans are just a little high-waisted, though… the return of 80s chic hurts me.
Conductor, a protagonist… of sorts.
02 Sep
This is a new design of a character that originated in my seventh grade year. What you’re looking at is almost 25 years of character evolution and the umpteenth revision of this character. In the story, he plays the role of “Champion”… the man who the world looks up to and admires as he’s one of the first super powered humans to emerge during the early 1990s. He’s one of the few characters in my designs that wears something resembling a typical superhero costume, though his gear is slightly militarized to keep the theme of modern world super-humans grounded a bit.
Character design
29 Aug
As I’m working out the comic book details in my head (and on paper), I’m required to develop new characters along the way. Some require just a few notes in the margin of paper while others require a visual representation as I build the character’s backstory and flesh out the details of how and why he plays a role in the upcoming book. This is a slightly grunge-y amateur scientist who ends up playing a significant role in the first series that takes place in 1993 and introduces the world.
My hand is still very rough and my arm begins cramping up after just a few minutes of drawing at this point… but isn’t that the point of this exercise anyway?
Quick sketch of a tailgate
26 Aug
Did this for a friend’s sister who’s getting married in two months. It’s to be etched on a beer stein or champagne glass… not really sure on the details. Since this is my first post on the updated site, I feel as if I should enter more information. But, no, I don’t really see the point.