New Banner Illustration

As well as playing around with a new watermark logo design. Had the same banner since 2015, which is enough time to be hitting the design of these characters differently, hopefully with a bit more attention to shape balance. I don't remember if I used the older drawing as an underlayer or if I sketched these from scratch; I want to say I did the latter.

(An alternate take):

Older Sketches, continued

Remember doing these either at the old office space, or at a sketch session with the coworkers at Starbucks, back around October of 2012. Above is 2nd pass, below is the 1st; Colerase on paper.

Ended up redoing the faces (and a couple of the graphic logos in the margins) on the Cintiq this past week, plus the additional character study on the bottom right. What a (hopeful) difference a few years makes in learning correct understructure. It's funny, what at one time you think "Yes, that is the sh*t" only to see it a few years later and realize "Yes, this is sh*t.

To quote Max von Sydow's portrayal of Dr. Kynes - and in the same resigned voice, "The process of removal continues"...

~ Gulag Intermission... ~

And, we're back to the chimera ladies for now.

Some elephant/SLON logo designs, as well as a work up sketch for the lady in the former pic. As you can see, played with the positioning of her leg being more tucked in. In the end, it needed to be flared outwards more.

For those of you in the free world, SLON was the acronym for the Northern Special Purpose Camps - the Karelian/Siberian wing of Gulag during its formative years in the 1920's and 30's, if I remember correctly - as well as the Russian word for "elephant". The mascot was apparently used on most anything identified with the camp, including internal-camp monies or coupons issued to the zeks.

I'm not sure how the chimera lady fits into all of this, other than she's as elusive as an elephant in the tundra.

~ Ex Post Facto... ~

...Since anything I post has to necessarily come well after I've drawn it. One of the many great mysteries of the time/space continuum.

 

Another mystery is why I'm having such a difficult time hitting female facial proportions and placement on the first pass.  

Actually, no mystery. Besides forcing myself to draw larger more often, I think a good part of it would be to simply not worry about constructing the individual features, the rendering therein, and just simplifying the shapes, drawing everything with a quick, decisive line; any construction lines, feature placement, or expressions especially. Should probably be the same approach as to doing mech design: Quick outer frame sketch first to establish dynamic shapes, then going in with whatever detail afterwards. Otherwise, it'll more than likely look too contained and indecisive once one starts fussing with rendering out where specific features go rather than how balanced the overall thing looks from a quick glance.

Pencil gives the leeway to not have to be married to the first line - which is its grace as well as its curse. Cintiq's much the same way with the Ctrl+Z undo and eraser being literally one click away (with the added disadvantage of feeling like a blunt China Marker on ice). Colerase have done a good job breaking me out of the habit of erasing, although I haven't completely kicked the jones to do so.

I think Shiyoon, Gennady, and Claire Wendling have the right idea:  Forget erasing, just restart. Redraw the hell out of it, over and over, until you've not only loosened up with your drawing in general, but also are able to hone in on what shapes, perspective, and composition looks best after having hashed the same thing out several dozen times over. This helps with technical proficiency, as well as breaking one out of their shape/design/posing comfort zone.

~ Adieu, Adieu... ~

... Thus spoke the cranial doctor in Heart of Darkness.

An older sketch:

 Trying to make a habit out of redrawing the same face or pose several times over, complete with follow-throughs for the poses:

Pale, listless, and lifeless apparitions that haunted the upstairs the other day - I'm guessing interns of some sort. Generally about as pleasant as a lingering fart - hence the ghost theme:

........

Some sketches from a few months ago. Liked how these turned out. The kid character was loosely based off one of the Bad News Bears kids. The 70's iteration.

Dig the oversized padded jacket:

Some other sketches, complete with the 8-fold path: