~ And again... Take 3 ~

... I'm noticing that the turn around time for me hating anything I draw is becoming shorter and shorter - days instead of weeks or months. I'm not sure if that's a sign of me getting better at drawing or getting worse. Hopefully, I can hone that hatred for my own work within the minutes and seconds range soon enough...

(And here we go with this illo; for the last time hopefully. #1's got the rubbery arms on a quick pass. And I think I finally found a more realistic pose that feels ok in #2. Well.... Nah, I hate it already.)
....

But on the bright side!... Well, no. Again, tangent issues I had to deal with during drawing - and I'm not sure I got rid of all of them either. Aiyah...

But I at least got some color and artistic nakedness happening in this post, along with my cheating a James Jean ziptone effect in the bg.

Special thanks though to the lovely May for suggesting the lomo effect. I don't think I quite got it here; but having slightly darker edges did help the overall illo a bit.

~ ...Take 2 ~

Still not entirely happy with sketch from last post. Spent a little time doing more workups, trying to find a better pose.


Biggest prob I had with the sketch in the last post: The one arm holding the lance - technically it felt correct, but silhouette-wise and pose-wise, it just wasn't sitting right for some reason.

I think a part of the prob was positioning portions of the armor in relation to the pose, esp. w/ the shoulder/arm areas. But for the most part, I think it was just the general angle, shape, and silhouette that was turning me off. Not exaggerated enough, not loose enough. I should just do the rubber hose thing with the arm and the whole body - one long bendy shape...

Which calls into question just what exactly am going for here, character design-wise?

Ugh.... But a good challenge.

......

Speaking of tackling challenges: A bit of Gordon Ramsey a'la Ch. 4's Kitchen Nightmares, one of the best shows out there. Did these while having it on in the bg:


And that seems to be his equation: Growing a pair = better restaurant. Somehow, that works even when the restaurant is run by an all-ladies cast.

~ Sketch Dump ~

...or more like sketch constipation, since I haven't really dumped anything on here in awhile. But all hail Photoshop, which has decided to work again - and the scanner, which has always been a little trooper.

Ok, onto the sketches. Some randomage, some story ideas. A few are older pieces that I liked anyhow:

(These aren't them, however. From last week I think.)
-Some fantasy samurais. And a white ninja bookin' out of a castle with a TV under his arm. Because I like historical accuracy.

-Oh, pesky female ninja... If Lucha Libre has taught me anything, it's that lady ninjas don't like to sneak so much as they like to do backflips at (*a-hem*) revealing angles in relation to the viewer. Never the (male) artist's fault, of course; he has no choice. Laws of Physics and all...


-Only thing that's missing are the Sun Chips...

-Ballpoint pen on this one. Did this while watching a documentary on an Australian pilot, Valentich, who apparently disappeared on a routine flight to Tasmania. Read more here.

-I like the second one better. Not coincidentally, it was the later sketch of the two. And yes, I have been reading Asterix. In Old Norse. (En kvæðin þykkja mér sízt or stað fœrðehurdygurdy waffles...)

-Some after-studies from the Krupa Troopa piece.

-Part of an idea page. Didn't everybody play with Nerf bats and paper ninja stars when they were in grade school?

-Kind of a treatment for a story idea. I like doing these kind of pages: They help w/ creating story points and w/ the pacing during certain moments, all in a condensed format (meaning that this isn't like committing to a finished comic page, nor does it have to be sequential in a storyboard sense). Plus, procrastination and all...

Colerase, post-it notes, copy paper, etc.

(*flushes*)