Signature

 Planning Poses This is the villain from my book, Mr.Rhyme. He's actually a god in human form. I'm mainly uploading this as an improvement log and not as the character's final portrait. The pose is a little awkward. He's supposed to be levitating but that's not obvious unless I explain it. Now that I've drawn him once it will be easier to get a better sketch.        It's hard to figure out good poses. Recently I've been experimenting on sketching a character with two greatswords and have ended up with many an attempt that didn't work. Although I think I've finally figured one out. I probably should look up poses as reference rather than drawing them from imagination.      Also sorry about the slower pace of posts; I'm taking care of my mom who has stage four cancer and that can be really stressful at times. This will probably become my regular amount of activity.

 Finally Got Some Sketches Uploaded     I've been trying to incorporate foreshortening into my character sketches. It took a while but I finally made one of Spiral that I like:   Noticeably her arms protrude into the foreground and background. The face turned out really well. To explain my process...     I start with a perfect circle then extend it out into an egg shape. From there I draw a stick figure of the pose. This is a very important step as it captures not only the flow of the drawing but the proportions as well. You want to get everything right on this step. I often plan this out but find it looks awkward then start over but use the first sketch as reference to get the next one right. You can see how I planned Spiral out below.     Draw a strong pose. Action poses are hard but worth it. Make it interesting. Have in mind what they're doing. Don't just draw them standing there.       Here's the stick figure skeleton. Next I flesh out the body and sketch the face.

 Working on Character Concept Art     I'm still working on sketching out the characters for my book. It's hard to draw unique characters with no references. As I go on I'll sketch the same characters again and they'll get easier to draw.      Unfortunately my sketch pad is not at home so I can't upload my art today. I'll have it soon.

 Gradually Improving      Art is hard but the trick is to keep practicing. Lately I've done a lot of sketches that haven't worked out. The larger part of creating something that works is finding out what doesn't work and pushing yourself. Draw frequently and really focus on correct proportions. It's important to sketch out stick man poses before filling them in. Otherwise it's easy to slowly draw a figure more and more out of proportion as you work down. I'll post more sketches once I get something presentable. 

 Creating Fictional Cultures     In sci-fi and fantasy a large part of the experience is how different races behave and interact. Some speak with accents, others wear exotic clothes and have different religions. When creating alien races one must know them culturally.      My universe has several starfaring species. The oldest and most advanced, dragons, are creatures of science and logic. They choose isolationism rather than engaging with other species but also act as protectors of the universe.     The human alliance formed when all humans of different countries united to protect against alien invasion. They are the most recent to learn interstellar travel and less advanced than other great empires. Human society consists of cultural salads in large cities as the population of Earth is much greater in the future. There are ads everywhere and a lot of alcohol use in such crowed areas. Each country has its own culture but all are united under the supreme council.       The Raydaytion a

 Art as Inspiration for Fictional Worlds     A hobby of mine is making dreamscapes on photoshop. Surreal environments that are interesting and unique. Many of these end up in my writing. I want my story to be consistently creative and witty right down to the setting. Of course this can be a difficult thing to accomplish with the written word. It's much easier to describe a setting that already exists, a beach etc, than to create fictional alien worlds. As such I try to used examples people can relate to.      Here's one such example that will appear in my second book: the Consumed Etropolis. A silicon city consumed by electric plants. When writing about it I'll relate it to real world things like a city, flowers and a jungle but then expand into floating building and lightning coursing through plants. Expect many such settings in my books.

 Foreshortening     I'm at a place in my sketches where the figures look good but I need to branch out. What makes comic book art really good is not only the human form but drawing it in perspective. It's something my art's been lacking. I've been trying to draw more regularly but life stuff keeps me busy. I need more practice. Here's a perspective figure sketch I did. I'm getting more consistent at drawing women's faces too. Since it's practice I didn't bother cleaning the sketch up.

 Character Bios: Sayth     Sayth is the main character of The Signature Chronicles. The first of what I hope to be a long series of books, Rainbows Wane, has gone through two rewrites. Originally Mayne was the main character, hence the name, but I found he wasn't the focus of the action nor the story.      Sayth takes the role of the guardian dragon of Earth although it is later revealed he's actually from a pocket dimension. He can change his shape through technology and freely switch between dragon and human forms. As such he often takes human form while fighting with a dragon tail.      His partner Azalyske is a sentient liquid of the miracle substance sylver, which can defy reality. It has the ability to instantly line light years across the universe, act as a super computer and form a two dimensional blade that can cut through anything. The only limitation is how much sylver energy Azalyske has as overuse will burn it out.       Sayth is a genius but I always try to show t