Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Horses and Stuff

This actually didn't take long to color, it just took me forever to get around to doing it. Her coat is inspired by this lovely piece on Modcloth.

I also had a taker on my $10 Colored Commission Christmas Sale, and this is the cleaned up and slightly filled in line art of her character Oscar:


Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Someone Once Said Something

“Don't fear failure. — Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.” -Bruce Lee

Thank you, Bruce Lee, for that something. It puts my failure to complete 52 weeks of art projects into perspective because I certainly did try. In fact I made it much farther this year than I did the two years before. I think this means that the fourth time is a charm and I shall tackle my goal again in about three weeks when 2014 dawns upon us.

That being said, until yesterday I hadn't drawn anything since the middle of November besides some casual sketches. As it so happened, what pulled me out of my slump was a Netflix marathon of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I ended up drawing my favorite pony, Rarity, in a fabulous winter coat.

I'll color it digitally because the paper has so many smudges, but I wanted to show it off just inked... in blue. I accidentally bought a blue inking pen but it's growing on me.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Week 43 Finally

It's a good thing I finished this yesterday because if I hadn't it would have been time to cut my losses on move on to Week 44 whether it was finished or not. What am I going to do for Week 44? Nothing is set in stone yet but since I saw Thor 2 yesterday afternoon there's a great possibility it will be related to that.


Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Week 43 Has An Inkling

I'm surprised I haven't used that horrible pun for a title yet. And now that I have you won't ever have to see it again. Hopefully.


Sunday, November 10, 2013

Week 42 and 43 Squished Together

Due to National Novel Writer's Month and general business and a week-long slump, not much drawing happened when it was supposed to. Today, however, I finished a commission in one sitting that was going to be Week 43. Week 42, however, is nowhere near finished. So I'm switching them up. This is now Week 42:

This is a commission for a dear friend of mine of a little role play family that we write, and her late sweet kitty Thomas who died a few weeks ago. It's very sad and I wish I could make it better, but at least I could do this drawing of our way of immortalizing him.

This is what was originally meant to be Week 42. Yes, it's another couple dancing but I don't draw fanart of these two very often and I've never done anything colored or finished and pretty. So I dove in and then life happened as mentioned above. Hopefully I'll finish it within the next few days.


Saturday, November 2, 2013

Week 41 By the Skin of its Teeth

Even with no color on this drawing, it took me six days to finish. This isn't because it was a really difficult piece, but more because I've been side-tracked with things that I could have easily replaced with working on this instead. Oh well. I'm happy with the outcome and am already brainstorming Week 42. The answer to life, the universe, and everything!

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Week 41 Something Something

My coffee hasn't kicked in yet, so no witty title for you today.



I momentarily considered not giving Thatch pants but in the end decided that would just make his hands a distractingly obviously censor method. Also if I add the digital effects that I'm considering, the central part of the image will be his chest and that would detract from it.

The sketch isn't done, I still need to add the chains and maybe some shading and whatever else strikes my fancy. I know the angle of his face isn't totally accurate, but I like it how it is, so it stays.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Week 41's Inner Feelings

This image came to me last week some time. It's Thatch again, but with me attempting to make him expressive. I still don't know much of his back story as he hasn't told me, but I know it royally sucks and may have involved some human experimentation.

I'm unsure of whether or not I'll add some digital effects to it once the sketch is done.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Week 40 Finishes Late

This should have been done at least three days ago, but I was distracted with things and ended up pacing myself more than intended. All the same, it turned out nicely, though Bit's skin is a great deal darker than I planned. My lavender marker was dried up, and while I'm not used to her being colored quite like that, it does look interesting.


Monday, October 21, 2013

Week 40's Inking Job Actually Doesn't Suck

When it came time to ink this one I was determined not to ruin it like I've done so many times. So I focused, leaned a lot closer to my paper than I needed to, steadied my hands, and went for it. My focus and hard work paid off in that I don't totally hate it now that it's cleaned up and inked. The goal for today is to finish coloring and find some lazy excuse for  a background that doesn't look like a lazy excuse for a background.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Week 40 Is Smokin'

Well technically Bit is smoking. A week can't smoke unless someone lights a calendar on fire and then things just get messy.

Thus far I'm really pleased with how this is turning out. It's been a while since a drawing of her just "felt" right, and this one does. Maybe it has to do with finally having a job I love that also allows me the time and energy to be myself.

I will admit, however, that I am scared to death of inking and coloring this at the risk of destroying it.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Week 40 Rolls In

This is my third year doing my weekly art blog, but the first year that I've made it very far past the halfway point back in June. I may not be dead on with which week of the year it is, but if I'm not I can probably squeeze out two drawings a week once or twice if need be.

This week I'm attempting to draw Bit again, and so far she's being far more cooperative than last time. She's sporting some suspenders and a tie this time around (And yes, a shirt), because I wanted to draw woman looking confident, and Bit is probably the most confident character I have, male or female.


Monday, October 14, 2013

Week 39: The Role-Reversal Tango

For some reason I associate the Tango with red (possibly because it's the color of passion?), so there ya go. An incredibly red pallet. Incredibly tall woman leading because why not? And yes, Hetalia fanart. Listening to El Tango de Roxanne from the Moulin Rouge soundtrack on repeat certainly helped.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Week 39 Does Some Self Improvement

So after having another look at my inked version of this drawing I realized that just cleaning it up wouldn't be enough and the whole thing was sloppy. That being the case, I totally re-inked it digitally and it looks much better for it. Yes I inked it in sort of a burgundy because when I think of the tango I think of red, and I'm going to use an entirely red palette to color this.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Week 39 Gets Inked

I mean that in the literal sense. I inked it, and man is it still smudgy. I'm going to be coloring it digitally so I can touch up the smudgy bits and get bright colors out of it.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Week 39 Puts On Its Dancin' Shoes

It's been ages since I last tried a dancing pose, and the reason is mostly that they are not easy. References or not, bending your mind around drawing two figures in sync with each other is difficult. Regardless, I was bored of single-character drawings and also inspired by "Tango de Roxanne" from Moulin Rouge.

But just to throw a wrench in the works, the taller/lead dancer is female. The shorter one is the guy.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Week 38 and I Have Something In Common

And that is that neither of us is really in the mood to care. Though in my case, it's the job I will be leaving a week from Friday. On that day I will be done scrubbing other people's toilets and floors (hopefully forever) and go to an online job and hopefully a second part time job. Knowing that, however, I can't find myself motivated to do my best like I was before.

Anyway, this drawing is going through something similar. I looked at it again today and once again did not like it. Digital media being more forgiving than traditional, however, I spent all my art time trying to fix the anatomy rather than add any of the details that I want. Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive in the way I want it to.


Saturday, September 28, 2013

Week 38 Changed Its Mind

Last night I sat down to work on the sketch I had already started for this week and totally hated it. Something was "off" and I had no desire to start it again. Instead I broke out SAI a little bit ago and decided that instead I would try drawing my character Thatch again and attempt to get his anatomy and some of his scars down. Having a point of reference is always a good idea for characters that you plan to draw a lot more of.

Yes he is a skinny son of a gun. He was a drug addict for a while and that's what happens.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Week 38 Is... Something

I had great plans for this week's drawing, but I'm currently balancing two jobs (and will soon be leaving one), so understandably it's taken a while for me to have the time and motivation to start the actual drawing.

My original idea was to do something fun and action-based, but after a few pages of warm-up sketches I tried to start four different times and all of them were terrible. So no action pose. Just something... pin-up-y. Almost. This will be a drawing of Bit and she's not one for showing much skin.

Her arm's already suffering the "I have no idea what's going on" syndrome, so that's the first thing I'm going to change when I next pick it up. Also the image is really dark on Blogger and I don't know why.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Week 37: King of the Pride Lands

Finally done! I actually didn't finish last night, but just a few minutes ago. Once again I found myself remembering why I don't draw dreadlocks very often.

For the most part I'm proud of it. Seeing a few errors now but I'm going to leave it.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Week 37: Lion' Around

This is one of those weeks where I need to finish as quickly as possible before the puns become any more awful. Thankfully I should be finishing this tonight.


Thursday, September 19, 2013

Week 37: The Lion's Share

I finished the graphite drawing last night but didn't get around to updating this until now, and I've just started (and twice re-started) the digital paint-over. So because I want to show off the finished "before" drawing, I'll go ahead and include that and a progress shot of the paint job.



Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Week 37: Here Comes A Lion

I'm sure all of you are familiar with Disney's The Lion King and how it opens with a man yelling and then singing in an African language (Swahili maybe). It turns out the first lyrics mean "Here comes a lion. Yes, it's a lion." How's that for anti-climatic?

Anyway, the point of bruising your childhood was to introduce what I'm drawing this week. I'm trying a portrait of Mufasa as he's portrayed in The Lion King on Broadway by L Steven Tyler. I had the pleasure of seeing the show live at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center back in June and it was wonderful.

This is Mr. Tyler with all his adornments and such, though my reference is over twice the size of this image.
My drawing won't be nearly so... complex. I need to practice faces so I'm just doing head + neck and a little shoulder. And no headdress or face paint. I don't want to still be working on this during Christmas.
Already I see that his lips are off, and I've been staring at a distance for a while trying to figure out what else I'm uncomfortable with.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Week 36 Goes Deep

Honestly, I didn't think of that as a pun until I was typing it, and by then I decided to keep it anyway. This was done in one sitting earlier this week, Wednesday I think, as a result of frustration and over-all "ick" feeling. I am aware that others have it worse than I do, but I would like my subconscious to understand that and stop giving me horrible dreams about work that deprive me of a decent night's rest. I must find something else to do for work, but I can only hit the ball into other courts and wait, and that is frustrating.



All Prismacolor pencil

Monday, September 9, 2013

Week 35 Fin

Yep, there it is. His wild hairs in front look a bit odd on the left side, but they'll do for now. It's not a bad product for three days' work all around. Finally Thatch is in color in some form. Obviously neon green isn't his natural color. It ends up being dyed frequently, mostly while he's too drunk or stoned to remember what color until he sobers up.


Sunday, September 8, 2013

Week 35.2

This is turning out relatively well, actually. I was unsure of his hair (which of course is not its natural color),  but it's working out. I think besides finishing that and adding more reds and blues to his skin, this is almost done and finishing it by tomorrow night feels possible

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Week 35 Is Cheap

This was started today and done in more or less one sitting. I'm giving myself until Monday night to finish it. Looking at it now I realize that his eyes are too high, but thankfully that's all on it's own layer and can be easily adjusted.

I'm trying to draw Thatch again, whom I tried during Week 33. But since I was so slow about starting I figured a portrait-type drawing.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Week 34 and Happy Labor Day

Am I the only one who keeps wanting to call it Memorial Day even though it's not the same at all? Anyway, thanks to all the laborers! Enjoy your day off, and if you don't have it off I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Because this week was a redraw of something, I decided to add the older version for comparison purposes. I feel that the redraw is more emotionally impacting and just looks more complete all around besides the lack of speech bubbles. Those are for later but will say similar things.



Saturday, August 31, 2013

Week 34 Progresses More

This is the best way to spend a football game party - drawing instead of watching the game but still hanging out with family and friends, and lots of eating. I plan to work on this more after this post, but felt the need to show some progress before I finished it.
Note to self: don't do a blue background next time. This is the third one in a row I've done.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Week 34: The First Page

It's another late start but there's a long weekend coming up, so hopefully that will mean plenty of time to finish this and then move on to Week 35. Hopefully. This one is starting so late because work was exhausting this week and I've been warned that next week will be the same.

This is a re-do of the first page of the web comic I want to do; the one I did a few pages of for an assignment in the Fall Semester of 2012.


Sunday, August 25, 2013

Week 33 Gets Shady

The blog title is a terrible pun. I must be in good spirits.

I read a tutorial on digital coloring recently that insisted that shading with harder, less blurred brushes made the art look more confident and steady. I tried it out and find that I must agree. Just a different brush made this look bolder than my usual shading method. This is also one of the first times I've drawn arm hair.


I'm not sure what to do for Week 34 but finishing so quickly gives me time to think it over.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Week 33: One Day More

...is what I'm assuming it will take me to finish this. Not bad considering it took so long for me to get started. Inking was tedious but it looks nice and I'm happy it's done. My favorite part is usually adding the shadows and highlights and final details like tattoos and scars so the last step will be fun.


Friday, August 23, 2013

Week 33: Wherein I Suck At Titles Again

I am so bored with inking this right now that I can't think of a decent post title. That's probably and indication that it's a good time to take a break until tomorrow and finish inking it then. I'm being extra fussy and pacing myself with this one because I want it to look awesome enough to make up for last week.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Week 33 Gets Back on the Horse

After pretty much falling off the proverbial horse and then being kicked by it last week when I tried to create a finished drawing in SAI, I decided to dust myself off and climb back onto the metaphorical steed. Except this time I'm challenging myself with two characters interacting instead of one just... standing. Yes, it's a late start, but a start nonetheless.

So I present some brothers goofing off. Well, one is goofing off. The other is enduring it. I'm also uploading two progress images because I think they both look cool. I'm trying a new method of coloring as well because I often get bored with how I approach a digital drawing.




Monday, August 19, 2013

Week 32 Knows When to Quit

Yesterday was not a great day for me, and it grew worse when, as I made great progress with this drawing, I realized that I'd accidentally merged two layers. Unfortunately I'd done it too far back to undo it, which I discovered after undoing everything else I'd done since then. I then closed the program in a fit and didn't re-do my progress. Suffice to say, this drawing discouraged me. I never wanted to look at it again.

But today after a productive day of shopping, applying for a job, and cleaning my room, I decided to cut my losses, ink the rest, and call it good even with the purple sketch lines there to stay.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Week 32 Crawls A Little

His legs looked weird, so I need to rethink them.

Yes, he has one of those ponytails where the hair below a certain point on his head is shaved off. And he smokes.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Week 32 Slept In a While

I could have started this on Saturday or Sunday buuuut I didn't. I spent Sunday doing a craft project and wasn't up to drawing yesterday. So today I finally dusted off the tablet and my art mojo and decided to start. I'm going with digital media because several of my markers are drying out and replacing them isn't going to help my financial situation at the moment.

This is going to be another Rose With Thorns character, one whom I've only done sketches of up to this point. I did a nice pen doodle of him on Sunday, so maybe I should scan that and include it in the next entry.

Unsire of the pose but at least he's not just standing there.

Friday, August 9, 2013

Week 31 Gets Sharp

As per the suggestion of some of my lovely readers I removed the green and added some actual thorns. I'm not sure of the word "Thorns" looks quite right yet, but I felt like adding thorns to it would have been over-kill and made it difficult to read. Thoughts?

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Week 31, Maybe?

So I did most of this quick before work this morning. There's a lot about it that I like, but a lot that I don't. I never took graphic design so if there's some basic rules chances are high that I don't know them. So even though it looks done, I'm going to sleep on it and see if anyone gives me feedback on improving it and making it look less... I dunno, corny maybe?

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Week 31: Part of a Whole

This week is dedicated to more Illustrator practice. I'll be doing a logo for the graphic novel that is still very much in the planning phase, "Rose With Thorns", and this here simplified red flower will be part of it.

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

End of Week 30

Look what I made myself finish! I told myself no sleep until it was done, which may or may not have been to the drawing's advantage. In the end I had to use color fill on the computer for the area in the curtain because my pale gray copic marker fell in the line of duty completing part of the wall and Ivan's hair. Maybe some time later when I'm less tired I'll actually put something there.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Week 30: More of It

Riveting.

Anyway, after my last update I motored through drawing the actual clothes, started inking them and then... stopped for the next few days. Until this evening. Work was exhausting but the realization that I have until tomorrow night to finish this fueled my motivation. So tomorrow assuming that work does not leave me unable to anything besides lay on the floor and play Animal Crossing: New Leaf, this should be done tomorrow night.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Week 30's Got Some Body

I feel like after last week's boring titles and the lack of color I at least owe you guys something face-palm worthy.

His lower body is off-center and  a bit awkward, which I will fix, but thankfully he'll be wearing a long over-coat that will can sweep some anatomy errors under.

Also, happy 23rd birthday to my younger brother!

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Week 30 Commence!

Another week for traditional media, sort of a follow up to Week 27. Another Hetalia character in some regal get-up, but this one will be more accurate and actually have a background. This week is the personification of Russia, Ivan Braginsky. He'll be in some Imperial Russian clothing looking handsome as ever.