Moose Man

Real quick n' dirty sketch, so not very neat. I wanted to try my hand at moosey antlers. BEHOLD.

Fawn Sketch... more practice!

Practice number two. I wanted to try doing a leggy fawn to contrast the relatively stocky goat satyr. I think her arms ended up looking a little short but that might just be 'cuz her upper half is not as stretched out as her lower half. Anyway, here it is.

Medusa Gorgon Concept

Without a direct reference, my figure sketches are typically challenged; but I'm genuinely pleased with the results using tips from previous tutorials.
I'm playing with concepts related to Gorgons. I want to continue to tie in more details surrounding the legends. For now, however, it was a fun excuse to start sketching.




Admittedly, the character's tail feels a bit odd to me, but I definitely wanted to include some beastly attributes and wasn't keen on making the bottom half that of a snake, as so often portrayed. Perhaps, I'll explore that option later.

For future concepts, I may wish to play with more monster-ly attributes. In this version, I was imagining her as a confident, powerful and dangerous being and looked a bit to the Batman character Poison Ivy for a reference. Unlike popular lore, I imagine this Medusa character would only turn those to stone when direct eye contact would be made and she would otherwise be venomous. Perhaps more distinct and bright, snake-like markings would've made this more evident.

Back-to-Basics Tutorial Round-Up

Nsio explains it all in ... a back-to-basics round-up!

As I prepare myself for my artistic goals (I promise, team, I'll choose my topic soon!), I'm gathering a set of useful tools and references to help me along the way. So, here's a small collection of my favorite, recent discoveries courtesy of DeviantArt member, Nsio.

• Proportions
  The classic eight-head height proportions and a fine reminder in symmetry (ahhh, symmetry, that elusive beast).
• Simplifying Complexity
  The invisible box, adding middle-lines to assist in defining planes, and... shapes!
• Line Dynamics
  "In reality, there are no lines at all."
• Dynamism
  A lovely intro to giving life to even those action-less portraits

Enjoy!

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.