Char.022

Character 22! This guy is kind of a firefly inspired space cowboy. I suppose he lives in some cold system that requires him to wear heavy furs, I drew them to add some interesting texture. He's a scruffy down-on-his-luck Han Solo type. :p Sketch took about 30 mins, scanned and spent about an hour laying some rough colors down.

Char.021

Okay, so I guess the title of this show is changing from "Character a Day" to "Character every so often". At any rate, here's another - she's a spring/forest elemental of some sort. She was supposed to be the spring counterpart to the Autumn girl I did previously. She was about 3 hours in photoshop plus an hour or so in sketch form.

Char.015

Is the one i messed up from yesterday. Still pretty sketchy, but I think i'll end up spending way too many hours on it if i try to detail out all the tech. She's got some kind of crazy propulsion device. Anywayyys. Did like a 30 min thumbnail and then spent an hour sketching over the top of the thumbnail.

Char.014

She's an armed escort! Get it? Nyuk nyuk.
A different steampunk char was taking a little too much time, maybe i'll post her tomorrow, so instead tonight i did this doodle of a steampunky redheaded western brothelgirl, kinda based on an old character. Took about an hour in photoshop.

Char.010

Char number ten! Inspired by Seventh Sanctum prompt and also an old catguy character I had. The prompt was like, a confident anthro-cat spaceman. Mine looks more skittish, meh. Took about an hour and a half blue sketch + photoshop. I think my line quality is finally starting to go somewhere, although I don't like this one as much as the last two.

Char.008

Number 8! She's a half-demon soldier. Guess I went the more friendly-demon route. Generated by S.S. Took about 1.5 hrs for sketch + inks. Pencil and photoshop. Trying some different things with line weight.

Char.007

If Puss 'n Boots were El Gato con Botas :) Apologies for any inaccuracies or stereotypes with the costume, I know nothing about authentic mexican costume/culture :< Inspired by a book of fairy tales at borders. 1 hr spent sketching a few poses, maybe two hours inking/coloring in photoshop.

Clothed Figure = Love

HOW MUCH do I love clothed figure 2? Thiiiiiiiiiiis much! I feel like Clothed Fig 1 did a great job preparing me, and now I'm moving on to more fine-tuning of my drawing techniques.
So, today we had this model I haven't drawn before, Robert or Bobby or something, he was great, and we played with a mobster kind of theme, and I had a lot of fun drawing him. I probably mentioned this before...but I think today was similar to the pirate day where it's easier for me to have fun (and therefore, draw better) when I really get into the character and storytelling. Also? LOOK AT THOSE HALF-LOCKS. YEAH BITCHES.



Okay, I really shouldn't be that excited about a fold. But do you ever just get that ridiculous rush when you finally "get" something, or when a particular technique "clicks"? Yeah. I dunno.

Also, we got our first largish Clothed Fig 2 assignment handed back today, which was to take clothed figure reference and turn it into some kind of character or creature. I took pictures of my buddy Mark (who must be tired of me soliciting him for help with my art school homework) and drew him up like a leperchaun type guy. Who makes shoes. Leperchauns make shoes. I read that somewhere.



Also, have managed to hit up a *few* workshops so far this semester. I'm really bummed that I can't make it to Bill Sanchez's clothed figure workshop on Fridays, but well, I work Fridays, and I need to eat. Sorry Bill, you'll miss out on my occasionally awesome halflocks for another semester. Tragic.
But here are some clothed and nude quickstudies pages. They need some work but I think I'm gradually able to add more detail in a shorter amount of time. Gettin' there.



I feel like I blabber a lot more on my blog than on any other ones I've seen. Hrm. Well, for me it's a breakdown of my learning process, not just a place for me to vomit out my latest work. So, deal with it. :P

HAPPY SPRING BREAK EVERYONE! I'm off to Sonoma County, I hope everyone has a restful break.

ETA: Insane spring schedule situation resolved. Talked to the folks about it and they said I could take classes part-time and finish anything else up in the summer after graduation. Huzzah!

Some Ink and Some Weirdness

Quick post - my two returned ink projects from Illustration 1. They turned out okay. Wish I could spend an entire class in pen and ink!



And if you haven't read about it in Petur's Blog, he and Ed and Emerson and me all had a round-table sketch game thing where we each drew for a couple minutes, passed our sketchbooks in one direction, and kept drawing. Sometimes it's nice to step back from the seeerious business illustration student lifestyle for a while and goof off.



Speaking of student business...Can anyone offer any words of wisdom on this? I just learned from my advisor that I might be graduating a year from now, that is, Spring 2010. Not only am I mortified and feel like I should be a lot better for someone who's about to be a senior, (I'm not fishing for encouragement, I just honestly feel terrified) but in order to graduate in spring I'd have to have some insane semesters. My Spring 2010 term would be like Illustration 3 plus Advanced Perspective plus Senior Portfolio plus some other illustration class by advisement. And that's even with me taking classes that summer after I cross the stage. Insanity!

I'd rather take fewer classes next spring and slow it down...
Thing is, my family and I are a bit tight on cash at the moment (who isn't?), and they'd really REALLY really like me to be done ASAP. What the heck do ya do? I know it's important to take your time with learning this stuff so I can maximize my chances of getting a job without burning myself out...but...such is life, right?

And yeah. I know it's kind of early to be worrying about all this...but I just got a total reality check with my appointment with my advisor and I'm freakin'. A lot.

Random Post is Random

Basically, just catching up and posting a few odds and ends before I get engulfed by the new term. First is my printmaking portfolio; it's kind of sad that this little quilt of prints represents SO SO MANY HOURS of toiling in the printmaking labs. Especially etching. Etching is my favorite printing method by far, but also possibly the most pain in the ass process in terms of time and mess and elbow grease. Anyway, I'm glad I took it. :)



I should throw this up too even though it's like quadruple-posted. It's my interior figure for Jason Bowen's class. It hadn't turned out particularly well at first but after a classmate of mine showed interest in it, I spent some more time on it, and I ended up selling it to her! My first painting I've ever sold. Hurrah! I think it has a nice narrative quality. Got to have a little steampunk/fantasy fun. And I got to march around in goggles and a dress for a few hours.



Here are the only character drawings I got done before spring term started :/ I did a pathetic amount of practicing and drawing over break. Ahhh well.
On the left is a drawing of Bold Riley, a character in a story written by my friend Leia Weathington - I'm illustrating a chapter in her anthology. In the middle is a werewolf from a 40 minute werewolf draw-off with Ed and Petur. He's like, mid transformation, or something. And then the last one is this angry monk dude with a scowl and a weird phallic sword. Yeah. Drawings. Word.



And last but not least, this is a comic I did for an exercise today for my first day of Comics 1 with Dan Cooney. I had fun with it, heheheh.



Hopefully the next post will be filled with more polished, finished-type things...