Cover Art - 'A Lovely Singing Voice' - Provisional finals

A busy day - but I managed to get the cover art to a provisional final state :

Not too bad. I'll have to see what Rish thinks though.

He suggested a version which only had the fish and the eyes of the girl coloured - so here's how that looks :

I don't know about this one. Desaturating the hair left it looking pretty weird. Again - we'll see what Rish thinks.

Cover Art - 'A Lovely Singing Voice' - Even more fish

Now that the 100 drawing challenge is done - I can get back to finishing off this cover art :

Another four fish in there now. A fifth started on the left there. I'm pleased with the blue on in the lower right corner !

The Balls of Steel 100 Drawing Challenge : index and reflection

Here's the index of the themes of the challenge, with links to all the individual drawings :

1. Introduction
2. Love
3. Light
4. Dark
5. Seeking Solace
6. Break Away
7. Heaven
8. Innocence
9. Drive
10. Breathe Again
11. Memory
12. Insanity
13. Misfortune
14. Smile 
15. Silence
16. Questioning
17. Blood
18. Rainbow
19. Gray
20. Fortitude
21. Vacation
22. Nature
23. Cat
24. No Time
25. Trouble Lurking
26. Tears
27. Foreign
28. Sorrow
29. Happiness
30. Under the Rain
31. Flowers
32. Night
33. Expectations
34. Stars
35. Hold My Hand
36. Precious Treasure
37. Eyes
38. Abandoned
39. Dreams
40. Rated
41. Teamwork
42. Standing Still
43. Dying
44. Two Roads
45. Illusion
46. Family
47. Creation
48. Childhood
49. Stripes
50. Breaking the Rules
51. Sport
52. Deep in Thought
53. Keeping a Secret
54. Tower
55. Waiting
56. Danger Ahead
57. Sacrifice
58. Kick in the Head
59. No Way Out
60. Rejection
61. Fairy Tale
62. Magic
63. Do Not Disturb
64. Multitasking
65. Horror
66. Traps 
67. Playing the Melody
68. Hero 
69. Annoyance
70. 67%
71. Obsession 
72. Mischief Managed
73. I Can’t
74. Are You Challenging Me?
75. Mirror
76. Broken Pieces
77. Test
78. Drink
79. Starvation
80. Words
81. Pen and Paper
82. Can You Hear Me?
83. Heal
84. Out Cold
85. Spiral
86. Seeing Red 
87. Food
88. Pain
89. Through the Fire
90. Triangle
91. Drowning
92. All That I Have
93. Give Up
94. Last Hope
95. Advertisement
96. In the Storm
97. Safety First
98. Puzzle
99. Solitude
100. Relaxation

Kinda funny to see how early on there was very little editing / modifying / refining - and more and more crept in as I go on. Explains why this took about five months more than I meant it to !

Here's a graph of the broad genre base of the drawings ( if you're interested in that kind of thing ) : 

So - I did it. Yay ! 

In searching on line to see what other people had done on this challenge, I discovered that many people who started it seemed to do between 5 - 20 drawings before stopping. So I'm happy that I managed to go the full way through. 

Do I think I got better by doing the challenge ? 

Yes ? A bit ? I'm still learning. I did learn a bit about photoshop, and I think I'm getting better at using it. I did do a number of drawings that I really liked. I did a few that are pretty damn bad ( number 20 - I'm looking at you in particular ! ). 

I think the top ten are, in chronological order, are 4, 42, 55, 61, 62, 64, 67, 75, 89, 100

If you've been following me on this challenge - thanks for sticking with me. If you've left a comment or given me a like on Facebook, or told me you liked something I'd done when I was talking to you in person - thanks especially. I got discouraged along the way when things didn't end up looking very good, or I couldn't think of anything to draw, and there were times I felt like packing it in. All the encouragement and positive feedback really helped. Thanks very much ! 

Right - I've got to finish that cover art for Rish now !

BoS Drawing Challenge - #100 Relaxation

I have JUST finished the last of my 'Balls of Steel' drawing challenge drawings. Here it is :

That is a muton soldier from the 'XCOM:Enemy Unknown' video game. A damn good video game too, may I add. In the game, when you raid the alien base, you'll first find the 'alien entertainment' devices. They project a light display, and it seems to be the only from of alien entertainment / relaxation that exist. This muton is enjoying one such device.

It turned out alright, I think.

And that's it ! Hard to believe I finally made it. I'll do a reflection / index in the next post. Right now - I'm going to watch telly for a bit !

BoS Drawing Challenge - #95 Advertisement - done

Okay - it's done :

I could have spent more time on this - but I'm okay with how this one is.

Turned out okay in the end.

Those two ladies are the 'Other' versions of Miss Forcible and Miss Spink, the circus performer / actors from the Nail Gaiman book 'Coraline' - one of my all time favourite stories. If you haven't read the book - you REALLY should.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #95 Advertisement - trapeze artist outlines

I managed to finish the first pass of the outlines of the trapeze artists tonight :

The proportions aren't quite right - but I don't think I can be bothered fixing them up at this stage !

BoS Drawing Challenge - #95 Advertisement - background elements and scrolls

Very very busy. I had made some progress but then somehow managed to quit out of the file without saving. Many many swear words and profane oaths uttered !

I''ve mostly caught up to where I had got to tonight :

Changed the diamonds to be pink rather than red, so they stand out more from the curtains.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #95 Advertisement - work in progress

Okay - I'm not back to number 95. I did want to do this in Illustrator - but in the end it was easier to start with Photoshop instead.

It's not done quite yet, but here's the starting sketch :

I've been putting some of the shapes on this evening :

I'm not sure the current colours will stay the same, but it's good to finally get on to this one properly !

BoS Drawing Challenge - #99 Solitude

Very busy evening with the kids and domestic business and such, so no time to colour this one :

This is supposed to be Howard Moon, one of the main characters from 'The Mighty Boosh'. Specifically it's Howard Moon from 'The Nightmare of Milky Joe' episode in season 2. That's Milky Joe in Howard's hand. Milky Joe was a coconut headed puppet Howard made after he was shipwrecked on an island, mostly to get at his friend Vince Noir, who he'd had a falling out with.

If you've not seen The Mighty Boosh - you should give it a try. Particularly if you like weird, surreal comedy. It is very strange at times.

BoS Drawing Challenge - #98 Puzzle

The end is in sight !

Things have been very busy at work recently - and a lot of my time has been taken up with end of year reports. Sigh. Still - they're finished now !

It didn't take me long to work out what I was going to draw for the theme word 'puzzle' :

This is a Cenobite, one of the monsters from the 'Hellraiser' films. Not one of the ones from the actual films, mind you - more an original one. The Cenobites are contained ( from what I remember anyway - it's been a few years since I saw the films ) within a puzzle box called the Lament Configuration.

The drawing turned out okay in the end. I messed up the body dimensions somewhat - and her legs are much too short. Other than that - I'm reasonably happy with how this one went.