Sketches!

Sorry I am such a terrible co-blogger. Despite only being 2 classes, this semester is kicking my ass. I am such a wuss.

A wuss who is now posting a bunch of retarded sketches!

Challenge: Post some pages from your physical sketchbook!

OK... GO!

Female Face Practice

Here's a collage of face sketches I've done over the past week, with varying levels of sketchiness. Continuing the drawing faces from imagination with no reference thing, where my track record has mostly been "they look like dudes or horrible child/dude/woman combinations", or last time, with "her nose is absolutely cyclopean, and she is ugly" from a few people.

Regardless, faces continue to be one of the most interesting and challenging things to draw. I had fun with these, and I think they turned out better than usual. My goals here, aside from "draw better, it's fun!", is to be more prepared if anyone says "Hey internet person, here's $500, draw this science fiction/fantasy scene", as those types of illustrations almost invariably involve an attractive woman, regardless of hostile environment, plagues and malnutrition, the apocalypse, etc. So, working on filling holes in the portfolio.

Aside from likeness issues, I don't have problems making good faces from reference, so the current problems are from the lack of structures and features I have stored in memory, and maybe getting them mixed up with generic and masculine ones. I think more reference work is in order, but I'll pay extra attention to individual features like noses, as well as overall facial shapes, cheeks, jawbones, etc. And hair, since I have no idea what anyone's actually looks like. Also, I'll push more towards mainstream beauty, as my tastes tend to favor unique and strange faces that a lot of people don't like.

Let's see... #1 has huge features, giving her a slightly bird-like look. #2 is fine, but she looks like a highschool student and I got annoyed at her smile when I was drawing it. #3 and #4 were more challenging to keep feminine, with the long face, and then half-bald head. #6 and #7 are possibly too sketchy to say for sure. Also, I still get a little weirded out by doing this. When I stop and take a look at these, I get two or three impressions of real life people I've subconsciously based them on. It's usually an amalgam too. I can pick out about 12 people on this page for example.

Excuse the huge post. It helps me to write things down and think about it.

End of Semester Sketch week

Here's that value study/ figure drawing thing. It's kinda rough, but It's something new for me, and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Expect more of these over the coming week!

New Challenge!

Schools finally out, so it's time to start doing sketches again! Yay!

This time around, I'm focusing on skill rather than concept. I'll throw out a concept thing next week. It will be awesome.

This week is another "work on something you're bad at" week, but rather than one concrete piece, I'm going to do a series of little character sketches. I'm going to work on added values, cause I'm awful at that and hate it! However, I like drawing characters, so it's tempering dull practice with something fun! You can tell I'm excited because I'm using exclamation points!

Don't limit yourself to my model, that was just an example, however, if you're good at values and bad at characters, you could just do it in reverse.

Things I'm Not Good At

So I've been trying to develop a polished, cartoony style for a while. One of the main stumbling blocks is the overall lack of cleanliness in my work. So I taught myself Illustrator! This was a good experience, but resulted in my extreme lack of posts over the last forever. I also screen printed shirts of this. Who wants some?

Link to Inspiring Art - Wizard Fight

I did not make this, but I feel that it is one of the best and most glorious images I have seen lately, which may provide inspiration and/or amusement to others:

http://www.laurabifano.net/2008/09/wizard-fight.html

Things I Am Not Good At

This one might not fall under the challenge entirely. It's more like "here's two things I don't normally do/aren't that good at". Namely, lots of colors that aren't gray, and attractive women. (Most women I draw without reference tend to turn out looking a weird ambiguous age, or just plain masculine).

I guess I should make another for something I actively don't like drawing. Possibly feet and shoes, which could be made fun somehow.

Back in Action

Now I remember why I made this a sketch blog, and not a bloody finished image blog. I'm still working on that piece, and will post it eventually, but finished work takes me forever. Expect it to be posted just before the end of days.
Anyway, moving on. Another sketch week! Try drawing something, anything you like really, that incorporates an element you really really hate to draw. Try and mix one of your favorite things to draw in there with it, to make it less terrible. I for example hate drawing rocks, or anything textured really, and clothing, particularly drapey things. I like drawing the human figure, also robots. How will I ever incorporate elements I love and others I hate?

Finish Something - Alchemist

Still not sure if I'd call this completely finished. I could rethink the whole composition and add background and foreground elements, spare limbs, wiring, an alembic, calcinator, etc, but I've procrastinated enough for now.

Week 9- Finish something

I'll be busy the next couple weeks, preparing to move back up to Tallahassee, so I'm going to propose another of my total cop-out topics. I say we go back to one of the sketches we've done, on that shows extra potential, and try and work it up to a new level of completion and polish.

Mount - Carrion Rider

This is kind of a rehash of an older image from 2004. I'd liked the idea of a sort of scavenger cleanup crew picking over a battlefield riding giant flightless vultures. The older version had bird "arms", giving it a vaguely praying mantis/hydralisk look.

Mount

This was a lot of fun to work on. I may even color it, if you can believe that.

Week 8- Mounts

I somehow feel that's it's kind of cheating to make a sketch topic something that I've done an entire series of drawings based on, but I do love it so.
Draw one thing using another thing as means of transportation. Have fun with it.

DEAREST ALL:

My name is Erin Wilson. and I am now a member of this blog! Deal with it!

I want to apologize, Garrett, for not being such a good fearless leader lately. The project has been something larger than I can touch right now, for several reasons. One of those reasons being my first me planned and organized art show!

to those working on the film: don't worry, it's beginning. I sent you e-mails. Let's do this. We can!!!

LOVE,

ERIN

Cauldroni

The Cauldroni, or "Boiled One's" are truly an abomination, even among the ranks of the living dead. A great heap of corpses and assorted body parts are unceremoniously thrown into an enormous cast-iron cauldron, and boiled until all the flesh and bile has reduced to a foul stew of gore and angry spirits. The bones are animated by this concoction of magic, misery, and meat. The tangled bodies writhe and gnash, but cannot escape the cauldron. To move, the bodies must drag around the tremendously heavy cauldron, only adding to their anger.

Had fun drawing this, and actually got close to a level of finish.

Science Lich

This is a sort of reanimated scientist or alchemist who modifies his skull with watertight seals, so that he can pump nourishing chemicals to his eyes and brain to prevent decay and aid in neuro-electrical activity. He uses wiring to interface with borrowed limbs for locomotion and manipulation. Not entirely original, as he's a bit Frankenstein's Monster-ish. Other ideas involved his whole skull being in inside of a liquid-filled tank or hood, but that's probably been done even more by others.

I still need to catch up and do a walk cycle animation some time this week, and I'll try to post some stuff I'm working on.

Let's Call it Week 7- Undead

This weeks topic is Undead. The internet is rife with the cultural flotsam surrounding undead. I propose we do something a bit more interesting. Try to go beyond the basic undead types.
Just going off the cuff here, but you could try a vampire who rather than feeding off of blood, sucks the bones out of people, leaving them a structureless blob. Or a zombie, who rather than eating brains due to some mindless hunger, does it because of a love of knowledge, gained through some magic zombie stomach osmosis, or something... I'm sure you'll have a better idea.

Also, let's get some more people than just Colonel Heliostat and myself contributing!

Week 6ish

This is a bit of character design from something I'm working on. You may see more from this project in the future. Click on it!

Week 6ish- Group Updates

I'm out of town for the week, and too busy to think up a sketch topic.
This week, I propose we show some of the other projects we've all been working on. Show us something impressive. Also, maybe some other people would like to suggest sketch week topics. I promise I won't be terribly judgmental.