MONKS

B, I finally updated, yo!

Your turn!

Garrus, you are lucky I love you.

I know I'm way behind on my Pathfinder challenge with B, but I haven't been feeling it.  Also, I was working on...

SHEPARD'S ANGELS

It took a bit of time, and looking up ref for Garrus damn near infected my work computer with a virus (ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL), but in the end it was worth it.  I'm not sure if I'll take this any further, or just leave it as is.

Also, I mainlined all of Season 1 of Rizzoli and Isles, a show on TNT.  I'm pretty sure iTunes loves me, since I bought all of the episodes off the iTunes store in one night.  I also mainlined a ton of R&I femslash fic, because that's how I roll.  If anyone is interested in it, check out RizzlesGirls :D

Rizzoli and Isles, and a Random Warrior Woman

Yeah... so I've been mainlining femslash fic like biotics mainline EEZO, and I got sucked into the Rizzoli and Isles fandom without watching a damn episode.  In fact, I pre-ordered the first season "sight unseen," as it were.  Then I cruised dA, where I saw many hilarious takes on Kate Beaton's brilliant fanfiction/comic, "Ooh Mister Darcy."  I ended up drawing this:

What.

I also drew this, before I "wrote" "Ooh Detective Rizzoli."

It was a lunch break doodle.

Anyway, I'm off to forage for food!

My Bith Likes to Party All The Time

B and I did a lil' something different for our challenge this time around - we started them "live," so to speak, when I was visiting him!  I was nervous as all get out, especially since he told me the subject matter whilst I was driving to visit - BITH from Star Wars!  Of course, I misheard, and thought he said, "Sith!"

I sucked it up, though, and cranked this out in about 2 hours (I think) while we were chillin'.  He had ref for me to nab, so I did, and I went to work.  I did a warm-up sketch that isn't super relevant to this discussion, so I left it out.  Here is my final one (compare and contrast with his awesome Bith Jedi! I'm so ashamed!)

I did some other random stuff since then - I didn't scan all of it because there wasn't much to scan.  I was out of town for a few days, and I didn't have much time to sit and draw much.

Here is a page of random studies, and a totally not-scary monk:

Here is a page of random heads (I cracked open my figure drawing book from Michael Hampton again):

And here are some random perspective/background attempts I did yesterday during lunch:

I can't do much sketching during lunch today, since I used this time to get this stuff posted, but I think I'll try to crack some studies and stuff out once I get home tonight.  Hopefully my apartment isn't an oven when I get home!

/kellz

Half 'n half

Bryant beat me to the punch this time - with awesome results!

My challenge was to draw half-orcs from Paizo's Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.  I didn't put a restriction on classes, so B originally told me he was going with a dual-classed accountant/lawyer or somesuch.  I decided to go with a bartender - a suave looking half-orc bartender for a swanky establishment.

You'll notice, however, that his apron has some stains, and that barrel of ale has a weird logo on it...

Also, the bottle opener on his hip looks a little shady.

This took me about an hour and a half, I think - worked on it during lunch, and again when I got home.  That's all I have for right now... just waiting for the next challenge idea from B!

-k

Edited to add: Also, a little Dragon Age/Portal piece - I did it to test out my new sketchbook paper.

SPOILERS (and SCIENCE!)

What a difference a year (and 3 months) can make

Yesterday I marked up the last page of my cheap 70pg sketchbook from Target.  It's a picture of Renegade!F!Shepard from Mass Effect 2.

As I was drawing it, I realized I had done a similar picture about a year ago... and I was pretty sure I had posted it on here.  So I went through my "archives" (lolz) and found it - the influx of studies, Dragon Age fanart, ME fanart, and other assorted stuff (the post is here).

The picture I was thinking of was this one:

The styles are pretty different (although I'd recognize my heavy lines no matter what), but it occurred to me that I was going for more realism in both pictures when I drew them.  It's amazing what a year+ of practice can do. 

(also, I'm pretty sure that the one from my moleskin too me longer to draw than the one I drew yesterday)

I'm not sure which one is "better" - they both have their strengths and weaknesses.  The important thing is that I'm making some progress, even if it looks like I'm taking steps back sometimes, instead of just resting on my laurels.

Han shot first, but I still like 'em as a whole!

B's challenge this time aound was RODIANS from Star Wars.  I started grabbing some refs, and... it kind of got away from me >_>

Here's my first (and only!) sketch:

I grabbed ref for the guns and some of the clothing, and his face (duh), but all in all it took me... maybe an hour and a half?

After talking to B about it via email, I decided to try giving this a background of some sort.  I made a photocopy of the pic at work and spent another 50 minutes drawing the background elements on a piece of copy paper.

I'm... pretty proud of this.  For now, at least :D

I need to think about the next assignment now!  Well, I need to think about it after work, I suppose, when I'm not celebrating Mom's birthday, or playing Portal 2, or whatever.

-k

Some doodles

I've been drawing a bit more often than usual, but I'm lazy and don't like scanning my studies.  However, I did take my lunch break to draw the last three pages I worked on in my sketchbook.

The first pic is a poor sketch of Hellboy.  I used almost no ref (and it shows), but the main purpose of this was to put my anatomy studies to use.

The second pic is a random superhero-type flying in the air.  I used a picture of a diver for the pose and threw on the anatomy (the diver was all kitted out in diving gear). I want to get back into drawing superheroes, like I did when I was in high school.

This last pic is a piece of fanart for Dragon Age 2 - it's the end of the duel between the Arishok and F!Hawke (who happens to be a rogue in this picture) in Act 2.  I used ref for the Arishok's armor and F!Hawke's armor, but the rest was from imagination.  Hooray!  This took me about 2 hours total to draw.

And that about wraps up my lunch break today... I hope to post more soon!

I hate being sick. So. MUCH.

It was my turn to give a challenge for my art exchanges with Bryant, so I decided on women warriors.  It should have been easy-peasy - I like women, I like armor, and I like women.  I should have had this in the bag, right?

Right?

Well, between Dragon Age 2 coming out, beating that once and starting a second playthrough, getting the influenza and being down and out for 5+ days, and trying to recover from that and/or a secondary cold/sinus infection/whatever that hitchhiked its way into my body, it ended up taking a lot longer than I thought.  Like, 2 weeks longer.

First off, here's the final version:

 

I used ref for the armor, as the goal (for me, at least) was to draw a female warrior with armor that looked solid, useful, able to protect, etc etc.  The pose and face and stuff was from my imagination, as was the sword and the lazy shield.  As ridiculous as this sounds, the part I'm most proud of is that I added her head after I drew the rest of the body... and it looks decent.  I usually have to start drawing the head first, or it gets all messed up later.  I started using 2H lead to lay stuff out, and then solidify the lines I want with H lead.

This was my first pass:

Boring, huh?  I used ref for the armor, but I didn't like pretty much anything about it.  So I tried again.

I liked this one a lot more, but my lines were so heavy and dark that I got frustrated from lead smearing all over the place, so I thought I'd just start over again.  I think that worked out in the end.

I did some other sketches while working on this - here's some Dragon Age 2 fanart I did while sick:

Random faces - there's the Arishok, Isabela (twice!), an elf, and a shitty dwarf face, along with some other random crap ('sup Frank Castle?).  Also, there's a mini-Qunari-Blanka fusion.

This second batch of faces includes Sebastian Vael, a Desire Demon, F!Hawke, Loki from Thor (kinda), and some other random people.

We have an elf, a dwarf, two F!Hawkes, an alien thing, and some other faces.  Oh, and a torso.  Hawt.

I also have two sketches of F!Hawke (I picked the mage class for my second playthrough).  I love her default face.  LOVE IT.

Anyway, this first sketch is F!Hawke resting after a hard day.  Yes, that is lipstick on her cheek :3 (I romanced Isabela ASAP because she's just so much fun)

This is a sketch of F!Hawke getting ready to fireball the darkness.  Pew pew!

I have some other sketches too, but they're all studies (and two of them are kind of NSFW), so they'll stay in my sketchbook for now.

I heart lamp.

Bryant picked ornate lanterns for our challenge, and then shit hit the fan for me, haha.  Still, I scratched this out between a trip to the ER for a migraine, being without my car (or my apartment) for 2 days, and trying to meet deadlines at work LIEK A BOSS.

 I don't have any process shots - I just looked at some ref on the web, got to drawing, and there it is.  This was my first draft.  I don't know.  I'm pretty meh about it, but at least I got it done.

Shortly after I finished the lantern, I drew a silly sketch of Lady Hawke from Dragon Age 2.  She's sporting a French 'stache.  Yeah, it doesn't make sense, and it's not supposed to.  The 'stache is an inside joke from my D20 Modern group... >_>'

I used a screen grab of her face from the prologue and slapped a mustache on there, along with a worried ghost face.  Yep.  That's what I do - draw crazy shit that makes no sense.  /high five!

Finally, I decided to try participating in the local comic book store's sketch challenges.  The past week was Iron Man.  I kept mine pretty classy, don't you think?

We have an hour limit... I used 50 minutes, with some ref for the armor.  Yeah, I drew it on a backing board.  That's how the challenges work >_>'

It's 9pm on a Sunday night, and after canceling a few plans this week due to not feeling well, I think I'm going to prep for my doctor's appointment tomorrow and go to bed.  Night all :D

Random shite on Harmony

I'm working on the next challenge, but I thought I'd put this up for lulz.  I drew this on http://mrdoob.com/projects/harmony/#chrome in a few minutes while at work.

I also forgot to post up my pic of HAUNTED BANANAS that I did as an art trade with @everydayfoxlife:

Now to return to a crummy week of migraines, high blood pressure, and destroyed rear bumpers!

Worgens represent! (and other stuff, too!)

Well, shit hit the fan right after I submitted this challenge to Bryant, and we both ended up delaying our submissions :/  Anyway...

Here's the "final" - the cleanest line art I had for Zakarial.  He doesn't look much like a Worgen from Wow, does he?  Between the face and the armor (I nipped that from Dragon Age: Origins)... it was still fun, though, and a learning experience!

I did a few studies to get to the final product - here is my first worgen... um, yeah... back to the drawing board!



So I worked on some leg studies first, because the worgen legs were giving me fits.

Also, the faces were messing me up too. I've never really drawn anthro... well, ANYTHING before. So, I hit up my copy of Blacksad and went to work!  I basically copied the faces, and then tried to reconstruct them myself.

I felt confident enough for a second try, so I sketched up a female worgen getting frustrated with a fishing daily.  Instead, I got frustrated with her hands, and gave up.

Finally, I drew up Zakarial (the first image, haha), and printed it out so I could hash out a possible background.  I used the Tudor housing from the last challenge as inspiration.

And, as promised in the title of this post, here is the other stuff!

Random dudes using the gesture drawing tool by Pixelovely:

Then another random dude while watching Dave Rapoza's Livestream (bonus content - a random M!Hawke face from Dragon Age 2!):

I got bored at work one day (I had to stay late) and I sketched this up in between searching for graphs. I used ballpoint pens and some Copics I had in my backpack.

And finally, something from yesterday's lunch break. It was supposed to be a warrior woman with a huge claymore, but that kind of failed (my layout was poor), and it ended up being a hapless male adventurer holding on to a rope >_>

Whew!  I think I'm done with this post.  Now I'm just waiting for the next assignment... (I'm talking about you, Bryant!).

-k



Tudor housing

Another challenge from B... this time it's Tudor cottages.  Seeing as how a) I'm a noob, and b) I never draw actual backgrounds and such, I kind of freaked out a bit.  After getting some refs from Google and the Fable 2 artbook (B suggested looking at that for some more inspiration, because some of the images I found on Google were crazy complex), I got down to srs biz.

First off, the final:

It clearly still needs a lot of work, but I'm pretty chuffed all the same - it's my first house I've ever drawn... ever, really (well, since I got out of high school, anyway).  I fudged the perspective, which is another weakness of mine, but it helped to draw a giant cube that the house would "fit" into - that gave me a bit more guidance than vanishing points that ran straight off the page.

Here's the notes/rough sketches I did when I was looking up images:

See what I mean about crazy? What's up bay windows and whatnot? Q__Q

And my rejected first pass:

The reason I rejected it is because I messed up with placement on the page, and the roof pretty much vanished into the coils of my sketchbook. Woot.  Also, the perspective is a lot more wonky.  Awesome.

Well, back to work for now >_>'

BLAM BLAM BLAM

It's round 3 of Random Assignments with Bryant, and I picked guns this time around.  He pushed me for more details (we wanted to avoid the vagueness of "trees"), so I picked 19th century hand guns :3  So, without further ado...

This is the "final" version - I didn't spend much time on it because I was getting sleepy (was doing laundry at Mom's house, and I actually just got home a short time ago).  I did the values for the wood stock in grayscale, and slapped an overlay layer above it to lay down the colors ('sup, cheater?), but I did the rest of the coloring with a normal hard, round brush.

Next up, the pencils:

I kept the background color when I saved this so it wasn't just a glaring white picture.

My drafts/practice drawings:

'Sup, Zangief?? >_>

And finally, random shit and feet!

I was doing some studies, so I thought I'd just include them on this post.

And now I'm really tired, and I'm having company over tomorrow, and I still need to clean, so I should probably hit the hay.  Good night!

Eff you, trees!

And eff me for being impatient!

I'm going to try and redo the color tomorrow night...see if I can get them to look okay.

In the meantime, I'm going to clean up my Wacom. I just sneezed over it like a moron.

(Curse you, Bryant!)