Tuesday - refining line work continues / some colour

Spent some time on this while the kids are watching a movie on TV :

I'm not thrilled with the sky so far - but it's a placeholder at least. I need to make it look more sunset'ish. I've also replaces the line drawn projected 'screens' from Ryce's datapad thing with marqueed blocks. They'll get more detail later.

It's nice to see some colour on there at last though !

'Tuesday' - Page one - scan and initial touch-up

Okay - later than I would have liked, but I have the first page scanned and into a Photoshop file :

I re-did the frame lines with the marquee tool - and I'll not bother too much with inking the frame outlines in the initial drawing phase. WAY quicker / easier to do in Photoshop !

I also tidied up the drawing a little.

I'll try and get back to it and fix up the lines more, and hopefully star the colouring process, soon.

Dunesteef Cover-art : Chalupa for you - Provisional final

Right - junior reports done now, so I was able to colour the cover art :

We'll see what Rish says.

Dunesteef Cover-art : Chalupa for you

I continue to be stupidly busy with work, and haven't had much time to do much in the way of art. I did volunteer to help out Rish and do a piece of cover art for the Dunesteef. I've been much slower with it that I would normally be. I've spent the last hour or so doing more of the lines based on teh original sketch Rish sent me. Here's the state of play right now :

Almost finished the outines. Next step will be colour.

'Tuesday' - progress on page 1

It's been VERY slow going, but I have been making some progress with the first page of the comic, which Jez and I are calling 'Tuesday' - as a working title anyway.

Here's the proof :

Not brilliant, by any means - but it's not a bad start !

What ? No drawings AGAIN ? What gives ??

Hello faceless reader ( unless your'e my mum - in that case, Hi Mum ! ). You might be wondering what's happened with all the drawings. You're right to wonder ! Here's the skinny :

1. I've been slack / somewhat intimidated.

And that's pretty much it. I could make up a bunch of excuses about work, kids and such - but it really boils down to the reason above.

Intimidated ? Yup. My pal Jez has come up with a pretty cool idea for a comic story, and I worry that I'm going to suck at actually drawing it. It's not like I haven't been thinking about the story, I have tried to do some page layouts ( which haven't turned out terrifically well ). But I worry.

Funny thing is - pretty much all the webcomics I read sucked in terms of art in the early days ( or at least when compared to the current stuff ). I really need to just step up to the plate and DO something, and not worry about what people will think about it. This will largely be an experiment for both Jez and myself - it doesn't have to be The Sandman out of the gate.

So - current resolution. Get an initial layout of the first couple of pages up before the end of the month. Let's see how well I do.

What this space.

Sci-Fi Comic - Character Sketch #1

Okay - so, work has started again and I've been very busy with that. Not much time for drawing, which has been tough. Still, I haven't been completely slack.

My partner in this comic strip venture ran another idea by me for a sci-fi story which I really liked. I don't want to go into too many details just yet, but I've started playing around with some character sketches. I've just finished putting some colour details here :

Not a bad start.

RPC's - First character concept sketch : The Cleric

Another initial concept sketch :

He's supposed to have become a blacksmith.

I don't know - I'm not thrilled with this one. Back to the drawing board.

RPC's - First character concept sketch : The Fighter

I was lucky enough to catch up with an old friend over the new year period. We went to University together, though he lives in Australia now. Our conversation came to comics, and we came to the conclusion that we could probably produce something along those lines - him mostly in the writing seat, myself mostly in the drawing seat.

It's an exciting prospect - and is one of my major goals for this year.

We're in the early stages at the moment, mostly in developing characters. Here's the first concept sketch :

Not bad. And yes, that is a sorcererous / mechanical arm ( thanks Matt ).

Commision for the first born - Final

Finally got round to finishing off the drawing for my eldest :

I found some 'light swirl' brushes for the psionic energy from the commander's hands, and I got a metal texture for the wall and floor.

Overall - I think I could have done this better, but the boy seems to like it, so I guess that's okay !

Cover Art - 'A Lovely Singing Voice' - Final

Well, the client actually preferred the less coloured version. That surprised me a little, but hey - you like what you like ! I did seriously hate the way the hair looked when it was desaturated, so that needed a fix :

I ended up making selections of the hair areas ( which involved a LOT of the magic wand tool - I'm sure there was probably a more elegant way of doing it, but heck - it worked ! ), filling the selections with a new gray colour base, then lowering the opacity of the layer, so the previous detail showed though a little. Then I had to touch up the edges a bit, and I added some new highlights.

I gotta say, it certainly makes the fish pop more ! Rish seemed to like the final version, and the story should be up on Amazon for sale soon. I'll try and remember to throw a link to it here when it's up.

EDIT
I totally forgot to post a link ! Here's where you can buy the story on Amazon :

http://www.amazon.com/Lovely-Singing-Voice-Rish-Outfield-ebook/dp/B00S31I64K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424829616&sr=8-1&keywords=a+lovely+singing+voice

Commision for the first born - Shading and energy ball

Added some shading and highlights, as well as the energy sphere from the alien device :

It's shaping up alright.

Commision for the first born - Ethereal Commander and Alien Device

Had a bit of Christmas / New Year break there !

So, my eldest boy asked me to do a drawing for him. He loved watching me play the 'XCOM : Enemy Unknown;' video game ( which I probably shouldn't have let him watch - it is a little gory perhaps ), and he REALLY liked the Ethereal aliens. He wanted me to draw him an Ethereal Commander with the 'Alien Device' ( a thing you steal from the aliens in the game - you need it to win ). It was VERY important that it be coloured.

So managed to sketch it out over Christmas, and inked the outlines over the last couple of days.

Tonight I scanned it and tidied up the lines a bit :

And then I added a quick base colour :

Shading and sfx to come !

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.