I’ve done a fair bit of artwork from the always-enjoyable Post Atomic Horror podcast over the years, including its logo. (
Once in a while, I tell myself I should practice. It’s fine doing something with a goal like #26Characters, but in addition to more structured projects, you do need to spend some time just mucking about.
Here’s the results of today’s mucking about, done in 15 minutes. I tried as best I could to get away from the dreaded “every character looks 28 years old” syndrome that affects many illustrators. It helps to pay attention to these sorts of common pitfalls, and nothing better than random sketches to exercise & exorcise those demons.
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It’s fairly uncharacteristic of me to go a whole three entries in any project without drawing a woman. Well, here we are at #26characters 4th entry, D for Dejah Thoris, and you will not be surprised to note that I spent a lot of time getting this one right.
Ms. Thoris is the princess of the empire of Helium on Barsoom, sometimes known as Mars. Despite this she does not, as far as I know, speak in a squeaky voice. Mars has very strange weather too, because everyone wears skimpy clothing, yet all of this clothing is made of gold (anyone who has actually worn a gold chain in hot weather knows that it’s the most horrible feeling ever).
I’ve never actually read Edgar Rice Burroughs’s series of Martian novels. I did consider reading the first when the recent John Carter movie came out, but I neither saw the movie nor read any of the associated literature. I know, I’m a rebel.
I have, however, ogl–um, appreciated so much art based on the characters over the years, from pretty-much every major pulp and fantasy illustrator of the last century. So I approached Dejah with a lot of osmotic knowledge of what she and the world is supposed to look like. I wish I’d been more intricate with the jewelry, but I think three hours — yes, three hours — is enough time to have spent on this.
I’m happy that I’ve started to approach these in a more considered way, hewing rough gestural sketch without committing to a finished pose, and then working off that. I even made a half-hearted attempt at being more painterly with the colouring. It’s not great, but it’s a start. The column is a complete botch job, though.
Oh, here’s a little animated GIF of the basic process.
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I’m trying to do #26characters more often, or we’ll be here forever. 🙂 Swiftly moving on to C, with the ever-lovable C-3PO, the true hero & romantic superstar of George Lucas’s Star Wars movies.
Mr. 3PO — C to his friends — was born (some say constructed) on sunny Tattooine by a young & talented boy named Anakin Skywalker, while he was suffering from a passing bought of the midichlorians. Growing up a nudist, C soon came into money after single-handedly saving the colourful backwater of Naboo from… uh… somebody who was working for somebody else who had a plan about something. He got a gold body.
Anyway, he’s been everywhere and done everything. He is fluent in several languages and can run most moisture vaporators.
Bit of a quickie, this one, but I’m trying to get a handle on just drawing a line without having to re-do it several dozen times. I exaggerated the robotness of him a bit more than he is in the movies (where being played by a man in a suit does impose some restrictions on structure). Onward and upward.
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PS No, I have no idea why he has a handbag either.
The #26characters project continues with the letter B, and of course, I couldn’t help but do Batman. The answer to most problems is Batman. If you ever find yourself at a crossroads, the answer is probably also Batman. If you ask yourself who you love the most, it is Batman.
Batman Batman Batman.
Batman is the alter ego of Bruce Wayne (or is that the other way around?) a caped crusader against some of the most vicious and wonderful villains of comic books in Gotham City. Do I really need to tell you Batman is?
Still at the very earliest baby steps of learning how to do this, but having fun with it.
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I’ve never, ever really tried to paint. In school we had to as part of Art class, and I never took to it. A year ago a friend of mine moved to a new apartment and requested some pop art for his wall. Initially I considered making a computer-printed artwork, but at some point hubris got the better of me (“How hard can it be if they taught it to us in primary school?”) and I ditched that idea in favour of a painting.
A large painting. 4ft by 2.5ft, to be precise.
So anyway, I hid from it for a year, but since it was his birthday I decided it was time to finally get down and see if I could. The results are not bad — for a first-ever attempt at painting on a canvas, that is — and it was a real learning experience.
I’ll probably stick mostly to pen & ink drawings, and art on the computer, but I think once in a while I may attempt a painting like this again.
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Despite having a graphics tablet for around 10 years now, I’ve never, ever practiced with it enough to learn how to properly use it. While I have been drawing much more than I used to, over on Today’s Doodle, I like to reserve that space for hand-drawn, pen & paper sketches. So, as a bit of a mini project to just get to grips — no pun intended — with a stylus, I’m going to draw an alphabet of characters.
The first entry in #26characters is Arjun (or, if you’re pedantic, Arjuna), mythological hero of the Mahabharata, master archer and all-round nice guy. I’m not particularly happy with this but I decided to start out simple with the kind of skills I have, which is basic linework and flat colours. It’s okay, I guess, for a couple of hours work, and as a beginning it’s not too bad considering my weakness with the stylus.
#26characters will be added to whenever I get the free time & headspace. Stay tuned!
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Well, it’s done, for now. Quite happy how this turned out, considering how little planning went into it.
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Foreground inks are done on my Train Station image for Today’s Doodle. I use a Zebra Calligraphy pen (aka my favourite pen ever) to do the figures. The calligraphy pen gives a nice bouncy, organic line that works well for living creatures. The thinner lines such as the fairy’s wings and the anatomy that shows through from behind it was done with a Uniball Pin 0.05 fine liner. I’ll be using this fine pen more as I get farther into the background, and of course for detail work later.
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(I’ll be posting work-in-progress and quick process updates here more often now. You know, what my blog was supposed to be about.)
The latest drawing for the Today’s Doodle site, on the subject ‘Train Station’. I’m quite surprised that I not only managed to pull this off without any pre-sketch or thumbnail, but also within an hour. This sort of thing usually takes me two-to-three hours or hemming and hawing over every little detail.
On to the inks!
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Over at Today’s Doodle, I and a bunch of others have been drawing for the last six months. We’ve been tackling a number of topics, and I’ve really improved my skills (it’s not much to brag about, but it’s a huge leap over where I was when I started).
Most of the work I’ve been doing has been in black and white, but once in a while I do try to colour things. I need to work a lot more on this image, Mandala, but I just wanted to put up this intermediate flat-colour version to show you that even a quick session with the paint bucket tool can result in something good. The black & white original is below.
A few months ago I made this image of a Guitar Devi on a whim and it proved to be quite popular. Recently I changed my profil epic on twitter to match it (I get tired of looking at my mug now and then) and was reminded that some people would like a version specifically made for their iPads. So here you go!
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