Week 3 Employs the KISS Method

KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid, or Keep It Super Simple if you want to be polite. It doesn't necessarily refer to the fact that I would totally be okay with kissing this guy. Well, I would if he hadn't just been smoking. Cigarettes are disgusting, yet sometimes I think they add a lot to a drawing. Maybe it's a morbid fascination.

As I worked on this and became more and more involved with the sketching phase, I realized that erasing the sketch lines and trying to color it would just take away from what's there. Part of being an artist is knowing when to stop and not over-work something, so that was my route this time.

Week 3.2

Today I went through painstaking steps to adjust his legs and anything else that needed work. A lot of the time I'll realize some anatomy is off when I've already started coloring and it's too late to fix it. I checked a lot of sources this time so we should be avoiding that.

I haven't inked his face yet because I'm paranoid about screwing up. Too many times I've quickly drawn and inked a face and it looked... awful. I guess you could compare it to the feeling Spongebob Squarepants had when he was prepping himself to pain Mr. Krabbs' house around all his expensive wall hangings and spent hours mentally prepping himself for it. And then it turned out to be really easy.

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.

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.

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.

Week Twenty Seven All At Once

After obtaining SAI today, I decided to run myself through a crash-course in using it and enjoying it while I was at it. I also decided to do something rather... self indulgent... before I head back to the land of academia and creating according to the professor's orders.

That pipe he's holding looks awful, so just stare at the pretty man instead.

Ivan from Hetalia.

Week Four: The Time Has Come..

...to declare this drawing done! The only changes from last night are the lighting and some blur to make the background more background-y, but I was honestly too tired to be bothered with it last night.

This was good practice getting back into using my tablet, and a good learning experience. It also more than makes up for how plain last week's drawing was.

Next week will be a re-do of one of last year's projects.

Week Four: Backlash

Man, so close! tomorrow will be for adding lighting to the smaller background objects and playing with the lighting as a whole. Still too darn tired for a much more cohesive entry than that. Maybe tomorrow.

Week Four: I Must be Crazy

Oh hey, the parts came in to fix my computer so it won't crash with graphic-heavy programs! Turned out that buying RAM cards was all I needed to do, so no need to save $400 for a new laptop.

The idea sprang from watching an artist I admire work on Livestream. She was doing a sketch of the backs of characters and added tattoos. It was a quick sketch so their tattoos weren't overly complex, but since this picture will take a week, why not add a lot of detail? Also, since I'd like the character's face to be visible, I went even further and decided to do a mirror AND some detailed decorations. Like I said, I must be crazy.

Here's a 300% close-up of the nesting doll sitting on top of the shelves:

The other things are some porcelain Faberge eggs, books, a medal, and a portrait.