Inspiration: The Anatomical Work of Masao Kinoshita

Meredith's most recent Harpy post left me asking, "how might one design a convincingly anatomically-correct human-animal hybrid?"

While some legendary creatures -- the unicorn, for example -- have real-world "cousins" to reference, many mythical beings don't even follow what we know as the rules of nature (though I would be interested in seeing a mammal with six functioning and naturally-formed appendages).

For those of similar curiosity, my most recent internet searches produced the fantastical work of Masao Kinoshita, a Japanese sculptor. Kinoshita masterfully gives a somewhat exaggerated yet believable form to both mythical creatures and deities.

I suppose that finding solutions to these questions is part of the fun for any artist, but hats off to artists like Masao Kinoshita who render these forms so beautifully.

Flanks, Tails & Nether Trails

dat flank, yo.

 So... there's no real excuse for this. There's a centaur, some random ass Charmander chick drunk as fuck, and then there's a weeble-doodle of Merlin and Morgana randomly running somewhere. My brain doesn't know what logic is.

Don't ask. I have no idea.

An exercise in bodies in motion. Dem hands, though.

A feather for your trouble - harpy sketch

Feathers be hard. I totally ran out of space on the page, too, so the wings are way shorter than the probably should be. But I think all things considered, it turned out alright. I've done harpies before but it's always a challenge because I'm not well-versed in the structure of birds so I think this will be my chosen creature, if no one else objects. I know some other folks involved haven't posted anything yet so if you had your heart set on doing harpies, speak now! So I can find something even more of a challenge... like selkies or something. Regardless, I'm pumped to see everyone's ideas! Don't be shy!

-Meredith

Gnome in Shade

I'm sure in some way you can thank my parents for this one. Their years of painting Kris Kringle-themed crafts, illustrating leafy Green Man figures and sketching gnarly elfish beings have certainly influenced my drawing "comfort zone" as it pertains to subject matter. I suppose that for context it's worth knowing that I come from a home where crafting contributed to our family's income and where newspapers were regularly subject to creative vandalism.

Anywho, I present to you this small sketch as evidence of the beginning of this artistic journey and as a rather accurate example of my "comfort zone."

My hopes are to abandon the typical subject matter and to deviate from my habits of over-sketching, in favor of cleaner, expressive and intentional lines; I hope to work on my ability to introduce action into scenes; better develop compositions as a whole; and brush up on all those fundamentals like perspective, form, lighting, proportions, etc. Ultimately, I'd like to have better control of my drawings. So, farewell, gnomes (for now)! And, onward! 

Tutorials: Skin!

While this guide has been around for a while, DeviantArt member acidlullaby's
skin tutorial still proves to be a concise and wonderful collection of considerations for rendering skin. I can't wait to put these suggestions to practice!

Click here for the full tutorial.

Centaur Selfie

"Dat flank though."

Original

Here's a warm-up thing I made for the ding-dong-doodly-dump. Well, I made other things for the thing, but this thing has a shittily drawn shitty iPhone and I thought that was fun.

I think it looked better before I gave it hair and eyes and stuff.

Inspiration: Vanilla pudding.
Instruments: Mechanical pencil, dollar-store sketchpad, tears of babies.

Auto-enhanced via Google Auto-Backup shit.  

Mermaids are the best. The end.

I shall contribute! I choose you, mermaid.

For anyone who might not know, I draw mermaids fairly often. Like maybe every 5 or 6 sketches, it has to be some kind of serpentine/fish/woman thing. But I promise, the next sketch will be not a mermaid lol. The point of this project is to grow as artists, right?! That said, I am pretty pleased with this one. Just a quicky but there were some things I did differently that were good practice for me (needs more arm muscles! lol).

Looking forward to seeing everyone else's stuff! Let's do this!

- Meredith