Sketches

Hey, look, I'm actually drawing!! This was a post I meant to make a few days ago haha. But look. A photo. To prove I'm actually drawing! You can probably guess from what's laid out on my desk what I'm drawing, bwaha. I do love Mr O'Connor's "Dracopedia" book. Really helps with pinning down dragon anatomy.




These are some doodles I did in college the other day. The latter is a random image of Evelyn that popped into my brain. She does not wear such impractical but kickass clothes in real life lol. Well, in real life in my fictional world.... lol.

Contentment - WIP 1

Goodness, it's been a while; I'm sorry! I truly am. I really haven't been drawing; I've been focusing on writing my book, or generally just too busy. But, yesterday a wondrous thing happened... I drew three times in one day! (I'll upload the first two doodles at another time). The first was because I was a little bit bored in a lecture. The second was because I had an art class and we had to draw portraits of each other (this was for part of my degree, and thus to illustrate a point rather than practice any art skills), and the second made me really want to draw a portrait! so I started doing a very stylised portrait based on some stock I found on DA (link). Here's the sketch. Enjoy. :-)

Farewell - WIP 5

Ok, so I reverted the size of the piece back to how it was. I think it's for the best... though I worry that without a sky-scape in the back, that I will detract from the piece. I might end up having to switch it from landscape to portrait orientation later on in the piece and paint in the surrounding mountains and sky. But I'll see how I go on! I would prefer to avoid that, because this orientation ensures that Evelyn is the prime focus of the piece. Anyway. This is the sketch, done. I'll lay down some basic colours next and see how it looks.

Farewell - WIP 4

Today hasn't been a particular productive day in terms of art or anything else! But I have managed to transfer the sketch I made of the castle into a digital lineart (on a different layer to the sketch of Evelyn and her horse, I will erase the overlap when I decide on final positioning!). It's neater, more geometrically accurate, and I've included some perspective distortions in it so hopefully it will sit well within the final picture.

I have also changed the size of the canvas, because it really didn't feel right as it was... I'm not sure though, I feel like I still haven't quite nailed the size/shape of the canvas... hmm.... Might need to take a breather to re-evaluate this piece. Anyway, hope you like the lineart so far.

Farewell - WIP 3

So I designed a basic outlook for the castle/keep for the background... It's the castle at Arlyn (fictional place from my book) where Evelyn (one of the main characters) says goodbye to her father.

I looked around at lots of different places to reference for this, but in the end the one most close to how I picture the castle turned out to be Raby Castle, which is in County Durham I believe. I drew some of it freehand, and some of using a ruler just to make straighter lines! I only drew in one window as it's a basic sketch for now, though I think I will tweak the design slightly. Think I will enlarge and move the door too. It doesnt fit as well into the design as I thought it would sat there. I took inspiration from the door from a beautiful local church.

You can see how it fits in to the drawing as well. I will re-line it in Photoshop to make the lines both neater and darker, and to cut out some of the noise from the scan I took from my sketchbook. Wish I had picked a bigger sketchbook to draw this in - I ended up running out of room! I need to extend the building to the left.

Sketches

I've wanted for some time to make a small head/shoulders bust of a dragon (out of polymer clay). But I just can't seem to get the plans right! This was me having another failed attempt. I don't know why I can't draw a really nice dragon head. So back to the drawing board with this one. I'm debating as to whether I should skip the planning stage and go straight to sculpting?

The dwarf is just a random doodle I felt like drawing! ImagineFX magazine had a great dwarf drawing in the Christmas issue which I had just read at the time.

So yes. Random sketches, enjoy. Hopefully I will post something better soon, eh? :-P

Gesture Sketches 3

I didn't feel like doing more than one gesture sketch this day (Wednesday 7th December), so I spent time developing the shading instead. It's a hand, cut off by the edge of the page because I'm an idiot and didn't leave enough room to develop it! Hands are something I need significant amounts more practice on though, that's for sure!

Gesture Sketches 2

Some gesture sketches from yesterday. I used the same resource as last time; http://lovecastle.org/draw/

Gesture Sketches 1

I'm alive! Ok, so assignments aren't quite done yet but the end is in sight. Anyway, I decided I should really start getting back into basics, and experiment with some gesture sketches. So hopefully this will become a regular thing. I hope to be doing a couple every few days as and when I can fit them in. I spent 10 minutes on each of these, but I definitely aim to cut that down significantly with practice. Hopefully over time I can become a pro at creating gesture sketches and poses! :-) This is the site I used for this set of gesture sketches, it's really good! http://lovecastle.org/draw/ Enjoy. :-)

P.s. I am unsure whether to watermark these gesture sketches. They're not exactly a big deal, I know, but eh. I can't decide whether it's still worth it to. I'll see how it goes for now.

Georgina and the Dragon

Sorry I haven't posted in ages! Life has been busy and I've been working crazy hours lately so I dont have any time to draw really. But today I felt the need to re-sketch out a concept I dreamed up absolutely ages ago - Of George and the dragon, only with a female heroine (I mean why can't girls kick ass, right!?). I have two versions to paint up but I'm really not sure which one to paint up!! :S

I really want to do the whole one but I think the top one where its more cropped gives a greater kind of impact. I dunno. Thoughts??

Simplicity - Sketch

A sketch I just did. I just had this image come into my head today of a girl in a simple white dress kneeling very ... elegantly but simply, holding a red rose. I sketched it. I may paint it at some point, but at least its sketched now so I wont forget about it. :)

10 minute doodle - Zanthi

Have been meaning to draw my friends character Zanthi for a while now! Was just struck by sudden inspiration. :) I hope my friend likes this,..... I had fun doing it but its only rough. I might draw / paint / neaten this one up. Enjoy. :)

PS. Visit http://thali-n.deviantart.com/ she draws amazingly!

Brian Cox Digital Portrait WIP 1

So I have started a picture of the one and only Dr Brian Cox, the "rock star" physicist.

Here's my sketch - about an hour - an hour and a halfs work. I have gridded the reference picture and my canvas and drawn in the detail that way. I find it less intuitive than freehand sketching, but overall favour it as it gives a more accurate sketch in terms of proportions. :-) Overlaying this on my reference image, it's almost spot on, so I'm happy with that!

The sketch is always the very scary stage where it looks nothing like the person!! Lots of fingers crossed at this stage! :-)

Mistletoe - Sketch

This is (hopefully) the final sketch for the commission I submitted concepts for yesterday. I really like this! God bless Posemaniacs.com though, that site is great for pose stock to help with anatomy! I'm having a lot of fun on this piece so far!

Subject to the commissioners approval I can start painting this up. I'm really looking forward to it!

Mistletoe - Concepts

Some concepts for a commission.. :-)

Ok so, Concept 1 (top) is meant to be the two characters laying down (on a bed?) with the male dangling some mistletoe! I thought maybe they could also be laying ona rug with a fire in the background, or a window to a snowy scene, etc etc.

Concept 2 (bottom left) is meant to be the characters snuggled up in bed.

Concept 3 (bottom right) could be a more easily adapted scene in terms of location. Indoors, next to a roaring fire? On a snowy hill? (etc etc)

Letter Doodles

21 August 2010

So when I write letters I usually doodle allll over them! Nothing fancy but its about as close to sketching as I get so, thought I would share! Enjoy!

21 August 2010

21 August 2010

13 May 2010

13 May 2010

Field of Lilies Redo - WIP2 & WIP3

2 more WIPs.... :) I finished both of these stages at work this lunchtime. Its so handy being able to take my drawing things to work... :D

Field of Lilies Redo - WIP1

Right after my grandma died on 24th December 2008 I started drawing something in memory of her. I never finished it.. it was a traditional work of a girl lying in a field of lilies. It was a really nice concept.. and I decided to try and redo it, this time hopefully all the way to fruition. The concept has slightly changed but is basically the same. I just hope I can pull it off. The tricky part will definitely be the background :S Wish me luck. This is most of the sketch of the girl, its taken an hour or two so far already, I'm really trying hard on this one. I need to do a serious painting again!

20 Minute Concept

Enjoy! Click for the full version - This is just a random pose / anatomy sketch I did, I decided I would write little notes on how I did it. 20 minutes it probably about the quickest I've finished something like this, so that's pretty cool in my eyes! Usually I get totally lost and absorbed in the minute details and cant sketch ANYTHING quickly! I do realise this isnt perfect though being such a rushed thing, but, thats fine by me :) Practice makes perfect!

The thinking behind this was a rogue / thief character, running away - perhaps she got caught stealing! She roams around with a bird of prey - a peregrine or a red kite, I haven't decided hence why I didn't try draw that - which she is just about to release so she can run faster without fear of hurting it. Maybe I will draw this up one day! I quite like the concept :D

Book Cover Sketch

I'm not sure why I forgot to post this up, I did this a little while back!

This is a bookcover sketch commission for a close friend. I very much hope to be able to paint this up one day for her, it was lovely to work on! The main character is based, looks wise, on her mostly so it was also nice to draw my friend :P

Enjoy!