BoS Drawing Challenge - #48 Childhood - finished

It's cutting it fine - though here's a completed number 48, in before the end of the year :

As I mentioned in the earlier post, this is meant to be Lyra Belacqua, from the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. In another dimension. Will Parry is sitting next to her.

It's not perfect, and I could have refined the background more and added some shading - but I like this one. It captures the theme word well - as Lyra's childhood ends at the end of the story, losing grace and the ability to read the alethiometer with her falling in love with Will.

I've just realized I should have drawn up her Daemon - but Pantalaimon is probably up the tree, allowing Lyra some privacy in this moment.

Thanks again to Conrad for the inspiration ! 

And that's FIFTY drawings done ! Wow. That's the most drawing I've done in quite some time ! I'm happy I got half way in 2013. It was a goal of mine, and I worked pretty hard to get it done.

If you've been following what I've done so far - thanks ! I hope you've enjoyed my progress so far. Thanks especially to those that have given me kind words and encouragement along the way. It meant a lot - and will continue to do so !

Happy new year everyone ! See you in 2014 !

BoS Drawing Challenge - #50 Breaking the Rules

50 ! Almost anyway - I still have to finish the 'childhood' one.

Here's 'Breaking-The-Rules' though:

Not super pleased with this one. It looks okay - but it's more or less a copy of a picture of Neo in that pose that I found online. Another one down though.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #49 Stripes

Two in a day ! Well - two and maybe .25 anyway.

This was a tricky theme word - and this was my first and best idea :

Tigerman, from Buck Rogers.

This one turned out kinda meh. The upper body is okay, though the legs are well wrong ! Proportions all wrong - too short and stubby. Argh.

Still - another one completed ! 

BoS Drawing Challenge - #48 Childhood - work in progress

I've been away for a little bit. Christmas holiday. It was fun - and I DID get some drawing done while I was away, which was nice.

I have struggled with #48. I had to poll FaceBook in the end, as I was really struggling with getting something from the theme word. Only three ideas came to me; Bruce Wayne as a child seeing his parents gunned down ( I didn't really want to do ANOTHER Batman themed one quite so soon ), Kvothe from 'Name of the Wind' alone in the woods with his broken lute ( too much of a downer ! ) and Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy from the Narnia stories ( I couldn't really get into that idea for some reason ).

My good friend Conrad suggested 'His Dark Materials' - and I settled on the very end of the story, with Lyra sitting on the bench in the Oxford Botanic Garden.

So far I've only got the bench :

Now all I have to do is get Lyra sitting on it ! That'll be along sometime soonish. Big thanks to Conrad for the inspiration !

BoS Drawing Challenge - #47 Creation

A little late with this one :

Not the best - but I like the lightning.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #46 Family

Now that my Drabblecast cover art is done - it's back to the Balls of Steel challenge !

Here's my effort for 'Family' :

I had a few ideas for this theme ; The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad - among others.

This was the first idea I had - and I thought it was the best. It didn't turn out too bad in the end !

Drabblecast Trifecta #26 - Final

Had a few hours to put into the cover art today. I think it's done :

I added a third line of police tape. And a background - which should be obvious !

Pretty happy with it. Time to send it to the art director.

Drabblecast Trifecta #26 - Shading

Have done some shading over the last couple of nights :

It's coming together ! I'll need to get a background going sometime soon ...

Drabblecast Trifecta #26 - Police tape / some base colour

I was working on my 'Pimp My Pigeonhole' cometition entry last night, so I didn't have time to do work on the cover art. But I've done some work tonight :

Not looking too bad. Trying to work out what is going to go in the background. No idea so far !

Drabblecast Trifecta #26 - Judge outlines done

You wouldn't believe how tired I am. Still - this thing isn't going to finish itself, so I spent an hour on it tonight  :

I altered the right shoulder, added some wrinkles to the hands, and redid the detail on the wig. I'm pretty sure the outlines for the judge are done now. Next - I'll add in the police 'do not cross' tape.

Drabblecast Trifecta #26 - Refined Outlines

Now that my end of year reports are finished, I can spend more time getting this episode art finished !

I had some time today to get the outlines tidied, and I also added in the second hand ! :

I have to change the line of the right shoulder a wee bit now, as it doesn't work with the new hand.
Still - it doesn't look too bad right now !

Bonus drawing - BATMAN !

So - the library at work had a 'draw your favourite fictional character' thing this week. I asked the librarian if I could do something as well, and got an enthusiastic affirmative, so I threw this together :

Penciled and inked the lines yesterday at lunchtime, tidied up the lines a little last night, quickly coloured and shaded during my break.

Not bad for a rush job !

BoS Drawing Challenge - #45 Illusion - final

Here's the final 42 - the Wizard of Oz :

Not bad. Still a bit rushed. I like how I've made the face seem transparent. I could probably do it better given time - but this is alright. I was going to add a Dorothy at the bottom of the steps, but, bah - this is good enough ! I've got other things to do !

New Drabblecast art - 1

Not much time to talk this morning - got to get to work. But here's the opening stage of the new Drabblecast cover art :

I've got to get the judge's other hand done - but I didn't have time to work out how it would look holding the saucer.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #45 Illusion - work in progress

I'm making decent progress in my report writing - but little else !

This is part of number 45 - illusion :

It doens;t look like it yet, but that's the Wizard of Oz. Trust me - it'll be clearer later !

I've also been asked to do some episode art for The Drabblecast again - which is exciting. I've got till the 10th of December to get it done. Did a provisional sketch last night. If I get time later I'll post it here.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #44 Two Roads

Super busy weekend with one thing or another, so I didn't get a chance to finish this up till today. I DID start it on Friday :

Okay - so this one isn't finished yet. The base of it is done - but there are a few things I wanted to fix up in Photoshop. A quick colour-in for one, adding a lightsaber blade to Luke, and perhaps some kind of background. I forgot to erase the pencil lines as well before I scanned - so I'll probably have to re-scan it.

The next couple of weeks are going to be SUPER busy. I've got junior reports to write ( I'm going to try to go for 15 comments a day - that should see me finished slightly before the due date ), a bunch of junior marking just around the corner, and a bunch of other smaller things. So I MIGHT be a bit slower in posting new drawing for a little bit, because the frequency of drawings might take a bit of a nose dive. Sigh.

I'll do my best !

BoS Drawing Challenge - #43 Dying

Gosh - another drawing ! That's two in a row !

This is my rendition of Elric of Melnibone. He was supposed to be sickly and consistently near death - keeping himself alive though magic and drugs. That is until he acquired the cursed sword Stormbringer, which would drink the souls of those it killed and transfer the life energy to Elric. But I'm guessing there's a good chance you know that already !

BoS Drawing Challenge - #42 Standing Still

A quick turnaround today ! I've surprised myself.

Medusa ! Sure - she's not standing still, but you'll be if you catch a look at her. Forever !

BoS Drawing Challenge - #41 Teamwork

A little later ( again ) than I would like - but I present to you number #41 :

The robots Atlas and Peabody from the video game 'Portal 2'. A great couple of characters. I still haven't completed co-op mode on Portal 2. I really should - it was fun.

Helping Hand - Chez Awesome logo - Final

I think it's done.

Not bad.

Helping Hand - Chez Awesome logo - version #2 with colour

I've been messing around with vector paths, and tonight I've got some colour added :

Not too shabby. More shading to come.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #40 Rated

A little later than I'd like with number 40 - but here it is :

Not the greatest of thematic links here. I'm pretty sure that Ripley mentions that she's rated to operate one of the loaders before they all drop to LV426. That might not have happened - but I struggled to think of anything else !

I'm not thrilled with this one. The loader was hard to draw - and I messed up the left arm somewhat. The perspective doesn't look quite right either. Ah well - they can't all be winners ( as I'm sure I've said before ! ).

BoS Drawing Challenge - #39 Dreams

House award evening kept me from posting this last night, but here it is now :

Get it ?

BoS Drawing Challenge - #38 Abandoned

Struggled to get an idea for this theme word to begin - then I looked at a list of abandoned fictional characters. These two seemed like a natural pick :

Not super great. I quickly sketched out a bit of a background so Hansel wasn't just hanging in dead white space. I think I like Gretel a bit better here. The cage was a little tricky to do. I had the grand idea to make it look like it was tied together out of bones - then I dropped that idea like a hot spud when I realized how much longer that was going to take me !

Helping Hand - 'Chez Awesome' logo

My good friend Jenni asked me this morning if I would be able to draw something for her - a logo for her flatmate film collective 'Chez Awesome'. As Eek the cat says - it never hurts to help !

The brief - like the MGM logo, but with a kaiju monster instead of a lion.

I did this tonight after the kids were in bed, while I was listening to the audio commentry on the 'Aliens' blu-ray :

Not bad for a first attempt. The scrolling only existing on the right hand side in the original. On photoshop it's an EASY matter to copy, paste and flip horizontal. Copying it by hand in reverse would be a damn sight harder ! A simple text added via Photoshop with some stroke outline, a little bevel and a drop shadow.

The Latin text is supposed to translate to 'Big Monsters Rule'. I think Jenni would approve.

If she likes it, I'll proceed to tidying it up and colouring it.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #37 Eyes

Gotta get ready for work - but I wanted to post this before I went :

The Pale Man - from 'Pan's Labyrinth', the best film I never want to see again ever.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #36 Precious Treasure

I was going to post this early this morning - but then the eldest got up while I was still in the shower, and the youngest shortly after and I didn't get a chance ! But - better late than never, eh ? :

Really - what else was I going to do ? :-)

Well - I did have this idea too, which I present as a silly extra / small bonus :

Just a VERY quick sketch - but I think it's fun.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #35 Hold My Hand

Ico and Yorda from the PS2 game 'Ico' - an under appreciated classic.

The Indoor Kids - Merch contest #2 - Final

Super busy day with the kids - I've had about an hour to sit down with the art and get it finished. Not terribly great, but here it is :

I DO like the 'BFFFB' thing ( Best Friends Forever Fist Bump ). The halftone effect wasn't quite as groovy as I thought it would be. Ah well - this was pretty much an exercise, I'm totally not expecting to place ! If it gives the guys on the podcast a laugh, I'll consider it a success.

The Indoor Kids - Merch contest #2

I was listening to one of my favourite gaming podcasts the other day - The Indoor Kids - and they announced they were having another merch design contest. I did an 'Angry Birds' themed one last time, and a Bioshock one too - but neither was a winner.

I have BUGGER ALL time to get something in for this one, so I set to tonight. It's going to be real simple this time. Seeing the hosts are a married couple, I wanted to get something which linked to video games ( obviously ) and also had some kind of male / female connection. I thought a 'fist-bump' between the Street Fighter II characters of Blanka :

and Chun-Li :

might be a fun thing. They were always my favourite characters, and the ones I did best with back in the arcades. The fist-bump thing would also be a nice little joke, playing on the brutal violence of the Street Fighter II game.

First thing first - sketch of a fist-bump :

which was actually two seperate sketches I melded together in Photoshop. Then - a slightly more defined sketch over those using the tablet :

Once that was done, it was time to get the lines down using the path tool :

The brush width was set a little bigger than I thought it was - but I kinda liked the thick lines, so I kept going. Not bad so far - the next step will be get some colour down, maybe some gentle layer effects ( I like the idea of a half-tone effect - but I'm damned if I know how to do colour versions of that ... ) and a title with 'The Indoor Kids' featured semi-prominently.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #34 Stars - final

Here's the final composite. A bit rushed, and I would have liked to add some colour - but it's done. Ish :

BoS Drawing Challenge - #34 Stars - prelim work

Well - school is back in session, and about to get SUPER freaking busy as we wind up to the seniors leaving. Things have been busy looking after Lorenzo - so I'm feeling bad I'm slipping a little with the BoS drawings. In an effort to remove some of the guilt - here is what I've done so far on number 34 :

That is Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, S.T.A.R.S agents from Raccoon City, as they appear in the first 'Resident Evil' video game. Jill is mostly done, while Chris is mostly a sketch at the moment. Still - it shows I'm still going ! 

BoS Drawing Challenge - #33 Expectations - finished

Done now :

Expecting to fly.

Took a little longer than I thought it would. Not a bad effort in the end. The body shape / proportions aren't great, and neither is the face - but I like the wings.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #33 Expectations - development

Something a bit different for today. I decided to try doing number 33 exclusively with digital media - which is a fancy way of saying I was going to so it ALL on the computer, rather than do the 'sketch and scan' thing I usually do.

I started out by doing a rough drawing in blue :

This is so I could do a slightly more refined outline sketch in black over it on another layer :

Then I could remove the early blue outlines and add in a gray background :

Then - I went over the lines with the vector tool :

Not bad so far. I need to refine some of the lines a bit more, and add a bit of colour. But I'm kinda tired now, so I'll leave that till tomorrow !

BoS Drawing Challenge - #32 Night

It's been a busy week. I think I'm mostly recovered from the virus I had, though most nights over the last week I've been REALLY tired, and I've tried to get early nights.

Anyway - I've just finished a rough colour job on number 32, so here it is :

It took a little bit to think of something to link to the theme word of 'night' - and I did think of doing Batman ( the dark knight ) again. Here we have a Night Elf - from the 'World of Warcraft' game. I've never played it - mainly because I know how addicted I'd become to it, and I also abhor the idea of a monthly fee to play a game. I like to think I;ve given this archer slightly more sensible armor than the Night Elves usually seem to have ( it mostly seems like they wear the armored bikini's you see a lot on fantasy art ). I made some errors in the original line work that I was able to fix up easily enough in Photoshop - though I'm not happy with the face. It's well wrong. Other than that it's not too bad.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #31 Flowers

I had some trouble thinking of an appropriate thing ( for me ) on the idea of 'flowers'. Eventually this idea hit me :

This is supposed to be Lord Soth, Knight of the Black Rose - a Death Knight from the 'Dragonlance' novels. He was a character I really liked. Well, as much as you can like a villain, anyway.

A bit of a stretch perhaps - but I like the finished image !

BoS Drawing Challenge - #30 Under the Rain

I did this a couple of days ago - but I haven't had a chance to get on the computer and photoshop it :

I was going to add a dementor in the background - but I never got round to it.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #29 Happiness

The Cheshire Cat! He seems like a happy kind of fellow.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #28 Sorrow

This was the first and best idea I had for this theme :

'With your long blonde hair and your eyes of blue,
the only thing I ever got from you was sorrow,
sorrow'

One of my favourite Bowie songs.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #27 Foreign

This is my attempt at drawing Ulrich Popoca. Who is he ? I'll let Josh Reynolds, his creator, explain :

'Ulrich Popoca is the junior ambassador from the court of Hueyi Tlatoani Ahuitzotl V, Lord of the Horizons, Scion of the Sun, emperor of the Ameriquetzlan Empire and its Expanses  to the court of Victoria Gloriana Regina, queen of Greater Britain, Alba and Eire. The son of an Ameriquetzlan nobleman and a woman from Vinland, Popoca has a fascination for European culture that serves him in good stead as he attempts to navigate the Byzantine political web that is the Court of St. James.  He’s also something of an amateur sleuth, prone to sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong.'

He's a character in a number of cool stories. I like the way this one turned out.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #26 Tears

A simple one today, and another video game based one.

This is Isaac and his murderous mother from the game 'The Binding of Isaac' - which is a pretty damn good game. Hard though - really hard. And it gets harder the better you get at it.

I should have put in a trap-door in front of Isaac, and maybe a door frame around Mom. I think I made the butcher's knife a little too big as well.