Sketches from Armageddon 2011

I do have a lot of photos and things, but I'm still going through those. So I'm posting up some of the many sketches I did instead.

Will be scanning the best ones and maybe painting them.

A steampunk hot air balloon for my sister

Warming up by drawing faces

Marceline the vampire from Adventure Time

NARWHALS
Practicing cute.

From life, evening between convention days, inked at the con.

Practicing cats.

Random mermaid

Black Canary - from a photo of a figurine
Inked.

Whoo! Colour!
Very basic colour version using the touchpad on my laptop >.<

Sketchblog: The Book of Women

Finished the sketch from the last post. Finally.

The Book of Women

Sketchblog: Yinyang Women & Adventure Time

I bought Terry Moore's How To Draw Women, and it arrived a couple of days ago. I read it cover to cover three times. He's the creator of the amazingly good Strangers In Paradise graphic novels and one of my favourite artists.

It's only part one, but it's good, and it's actually useful. And it's already affecting my drawing - this is a sketch I was doing to explore that. The face of the woman on the right is very Moore-ish. Sketched in ArtRage 2.6 because it is still better to sketch with, and tweaked slightly and will be painted in ArtRage Studio Pro.

The floating genie woman on the left was actually inspired by the flying vampire Marceline - floating people are actually amazing boons to artists as you can put them anywhere in any position.

 This is Marceline. I doodled her in the DeviantART Muro program (which is eh. I WANT MY PRESSURE SENSITIVITY). Sadly, there is very little of Adventure Time on YouTube, and even less of Marceline, who is by far my favourite character.

And in inverse order, the warm up fan art. This pairing has taken over the internet briefly since the next clip of the show leaked, showing Marceline singing to Princess Bubblegum in a very... lovelorn manner. The fantastically Awesome Tom Siddell of Gunnerkrigg Court painted them as his very first Tumblr Post, so how could I not follow suit?

I really like the lighting patterns on Bubblegum's skirt. Actually, all the legs are my favourite bits. I should probably tidy it up and finish it sometime...

...and the original sketch, which I drew this morning. I had no eraser on me, as you can probably tell. I like Marceline's face - must try and tweak the painted version so her expression shows properly.

Sketchblog: Wonderwoman

Random sketch of her old crown and her new costume and lots of hair. Testing stuff.

Sketchblog: Random Redhead

Just playing in ArtRage - she was part of another picture, but didn't work with the composition. So I carefully edited her out from all the layers and gave her a save file of her very own.

Sketchblog: The Oaks Grove Book Cover

I just finished a book cover (well a podcast image - a virtual book cover!) commission for The Oaks Grove, the sequel to The Spiral Tattoo, which I also did the podcast cover for.

The Elanore & Gurt novels are a fantasy murder crime series (it looks set to be a series, anyway, it'll need a name after a couple more books!), it follows two very mismatched characters - the huge, scary, and surprisingly civilised Elanore, a troll who's definitely the brains of the outfit, and the lazy, snarky, charming little pixie (well, he's not a pixie, but he's the local version of it - tiny, pretty, wings, magic), Gurt. They work well together, and most of the story is actually about them, rather than whatever murder they happen to be investigating.

The first book was released for free on Podiobooks, got very good reviews, and has since been picked up by an eBook publisher, and is slated for a paperback release. So it's definitely worth checking out! The second book is due out soon and is following the same process.

 

It's actually an interesting exercise, drawing a book cover, and I drew on my long, long history of reading everything in sight and my reactions to various book illustrations to guide me. Ha! See, it was research!

See, it has to a) attract readers and b) attract the right kind of reader, so it also has to c) convey the general type of story within. And d) it needs plot elements, preferably from the 'main' plotline and c) it's nice if the cover is relevant for more than one scene (e.g. multiple elements, a recurring character or background) so that readers can refer back to it later, and recognise the moment(s) in the story that the cover is about.

Both my covers have had the murder victim - Gurt snuck onto the first one, but I was constrained by the fact the Podiobooks thumbnail is very small, so it couldn't get too crowded or detailed. So I couldn't add as much as I'd like too; most of the books were crowded out by trees in the second, for example.

All painted in ArtRage, of course.

• The Spiral Tattoo on Podiobooks (free, non-final version)
• The Spiral Tattoo eBook on Amazon (only 99c)
• Michael J. Parry's website

Sketchblog: The Truth Behind Squidoo Glitches

Lolcats. Or more accurately, wandering little Lolkittens.

They are to blame for everything. Not that you can really blame them - eight waving fishy-smelling tentacles? How could they not chase them? Don't worry, they'll get distracted by a Twitterbird or fall asleep soon enough.

Sketchblog: Pirate Nymph

Experimenting with the DA Muro app.
Tis a sea nymph. WITH AN EYEPATCH.

Seapirate on DeviantART

Sketchblog: Fluttershy

This is Fluttershy

I just finished the fourth book in the amazing ASOIAF and I wanted to draw Cersei Lannister, before watching the TV series for A Game of Thrones (which I have seen many enthusiastic mentions of and not a single negative review, so is probably at least half as good as the books).

Instead I ended up with Fluttershy. How did this happen???

Fluttershy on DeviantART

Update: had to fix the composition.

Sketchblog: Death and the Discworld

A portrait of Terry Pratchett and his Discworld.

See Death and the Discworld on DeviantART

If you don't know about Pratchett:

He's the creator of the Discworld, that little planet being carried away into space by the turtle Great A'Tuin, with the sun setting on it.

Death, the walking skeleton with an awful lot of character appears in all his books (however briefly) and spends a lot of time trying to figure people out.

The lilacs were worn in memory of a revolution in Night Watch and are now the symbol of Wear the Lilac Day on May 25th - Discworld Day, and now dedicated to Alzheimer's Awareness.

Because - oh yes, Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's Disease. And I started painting this while listening to his documentary on assisted dying:  'Terry Pratchett: Choosing To Die'.

So this was a painting about him facing death, a celebration of what he's brought us... and that it's leaving.

Time: 4 hours
ArtRage Studio Pro

References used for Terry Pratchett and the Skull.

Sketchblog: Fox

Sketchblog: Magic Girl

Sketchblog: Warmup Portrait

In nice warm autumny colours...

Still working on Aayla (edit: FINISHED), but I always need at least one painting to get me warmed up before I can paint properly. This was that painting. It is very unfinished and small and doesn't really look like the original photo. But my brain is feeling arty and I've remembered how to use a tablet.

My assignments are over. Currently forever. In about a month, I've got a local art convention, and so I shall use that as an excuse (cause I've got loads of prints to sell already) TO PAINT CONSTANTLY <3

Now excuse me, but a blue skinned lady is waiting for me to finish... well, making her blue skinned.

Sketchblog: Aayla Secura

Aayla Secura is a Twi'lek jedi character, and that's about all I know. But a friend of mine is planning to cosplay her, so I figured why not draw her?

Plus sexy. And blue. I love monochromatic palettes, I've realised; I tend to do well with a couple of strong colour themes.

So here's the sketch... (referenced off about six different images; one cartoon, one cosplay, one fan art, one screencap... none of them the same style or pose! So she came out of it rather unique, and I'm very please with meself.

Of course, once I started painting, I noticed a lot of problems...

See her a bit larger on DeviantART

...For the first real painting in months, I am very very happy. Oh yes.

My back, head and stomach are not so happy - it took me nine hours, almost non-stop, and I started at... well. About 10pm. I'm exhausted, I can't feel my fingers (so cooooold) and as soon as I think 'hurrah, bedtime!' my stomach starts growling (I think I forgot to have dinner, I was playing too much with ArtRage).

But I think she'll make an awesome poster.

Soundtrack was also awesome - a bunch of fan-gamer songs from Miracle of Sound

My Awesome Table Easel

I just realised, while posting up my last batch of drawings, that I hadn't gushed about my easel yet.

So I wrote a lens about it. My favourite Table Easel is the Ravenna Table Easel, pictured with my cat on the left.

I got it for Christmas, and I love it. My traditional art tends to suffer from perspective problems - the far end of the paper ends up too far away to see quite straight on, so my figures get giant heads...

So a nice angled easel that I can carry around the house and set up anywhere, at any height, and any angle I choose? Awesomeness.

Sketchblog: Horned Girls

Having fun with some portrait practice - someone nice gave me a new A4 sketchbook for my birthday, just as I reached the last page of my little one. Add in a fantastic Ravenna Table Easel that my wonderful parents found me for Christmas, and I went on a drawing spree (it's awesome, because otherwise I have perspective issues when drawing on a flat surface).

I grabbed various reference images - mostly magazine photos - and practiced some portrait sketching. And then I got creative and had fun adding horns - twisty, ram, deer, bull, imaginary horns. Whichever suited the face. I want to keep going with this series!

I've also got a new tablet arriving soon, so hopefully can paint some of these in ArtRage.

I like doing these because:
1. Portrait practice is always good, and I'm getting better at it (a higher percentage of my drawings actually make the 'is it worth showing online' quality test now)
2. The horns allow me to add my own spin, and engage the creative part of my brain, not just the 'angles and shadows' part.
3. It's interesting thinking up different types of horn!

I do need to make sure my reference picture is large enough though - it's hard to draw properly from a tiny thumb-sized image (as for the last two pictures), and makes it harder to mess around with the composition. Also, the scanner at University (first three pictures) is a hundred times better than the new/old one at work (the old one broke, we have a temporary crappy stand-in).

Sketchblog: Discworld Sketches

Another sketchdump, to be updated when I can reach a scanner. All drawn while lying around with bronchitis.

Gaspode the Wonder Dog

Possibly the first dog I've ever drawn. He's meant to be a mangy, flea-ridden 'sort of terrier'

Alright, this isn't Discworld ;D This is Toothless, the Night Fury dragon from How to Train Your Dragon 

(I was coveting the plushie before). This is probably going to my dad, if he wants it, because he really loved the film.

Charcoal - the eyes are Photoshop, cause I didn't have anything other than pencils or charcoal with me. Sadly, when I sprayed fixative, the force of the aerosol blew off a lot of the charcoal, so the actual version doesn't look right anymore. So I'll have to recolour it.

AAAARRRGH. This is why I hate traditional. YOU RUN OUT OF PAPER. I ended up getting very inspired and tearing pages out of my sketchbook. And having to go look up lots of pictures of startled horses, and horse ears and eyes and teeth.

This is Granny Weatherwax in Lords and Ladies. The scenes where here silver hair snakes down to her waist, when she undoes her bun, has always stuck with me, and I was in a Discworld mood.

I wanted to try capturing the stillness of Esme, and the frail strand of silver hair, with the thrashing, screaming unicorn.

And there are bees.

It'll all be black and silver, of course ^_^

BAH. Need to scan nicely. And finish painting in ArtRage.

A random attempt at drawing a Discworld troll

Random elf girl. The pose is actually from an anime figure (upskirt, school girl pose), while hanging around in the GNC waiting for a friend.

My drawing is much more realistic, though ;P

Random practice sketching

Random sketch of an acrobat girl, hanging upside down