Signature

 Computer Programs Making Comic Creation Easier     Clip Studio Paint has great 3D models you can alter and pose. I see how comics would be significantly easier to draw when you can line right over them with a tablet but I choose to merely use them as references for my sketches. I've spoken before on the difficulty of establishing good action poses. Everything is made much easier with references.     Here's my main character Sayth leaping forward and to the side:  I plan to color this in and draw a monster he's fighting and paste it into the foreground.     Computer programs eased my task of creating this in several ways. They provided a reference, allowed my to enlarge the head as I had drew it a bit too small and let me paste different sketches together. The tail, you might have noticed, is a different quality than the rest and was drawn separately. These kinds of things make character creation smoother and less messy or tedious w...

Taking A Break     My mom was in the hospital with a concussion. She's out now but that has been stressful and I've had to do a lot to take care of her. I've also had to take a break to let my wrists heal from drawing too much but intend to start trying to capture action poses with clip studio paint 3D models for reference again.      For now, here's the villain from my book. He's actually a god but takes the human alias of Mr.Rhyme.

 I'm Thinking of Getting Clip Studio Paint     So far I've just been sketching my characters on a drawing pad and scanning them. I have photoshop but it's not designed for illustration. Every rough graphite speck is picked up and it can be difficult to fill in between the lines. I need software professionals use and it seems to be fairly cheep.     For now, here's the character with two greatswords I sketched. It was a busy drawing so I shaded it. Although it turned out alright, the pose is a bit weak. I did it without any reference. It's hard to manage not one but two massive weapons. I might come back to this character.     This is Nighmarika; she's the admiral of the Legion of Sypter.

 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 figur...

 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. 

 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.

 Weak Poses VS Strong Poses     When drawing without a reference finding the right pose can prove difficult. I'll often have to sketch the same character over and over to finally get it right. This applies to monsters too. The Snakoth is a monster from my novel, which I posted a sketch of earlier. Although it wasn't bad it could be improved in both pose and proportions. Here is a better version: Sadly a little bit of it couldn't fit on the paper. For comparison here is the earlier version: You can see the pose is generally weaker with it standing still unlike the action pose of the former. The arms don't make work of foreshortening as well either. But it was a good jumping off point. Practice makes perfect.

 Poems and Monster Sketches     I've been working on a poem and it's going quite well. I'm wary of sharing unpublished work online but eventually hope to complete a full book of poetry.     In other news, I completed the snakoth sketch. It's good but now that I've figured out how the monster will look and stand on paper I can do better. Sketches have rough drafts too. This is a monster who appears in my novel:

 Sketching Pose For Humans And Monsters     Pose can be a very difficult thing to come up with. You want cool action poses full of energy but with balance and perspective as well. Juggling all these things can lead to awkwardness. It's difficult to keep poses flowing and looking natural.     My next character sketch is a prominent monster from my book, the snakoth. They are large, muscular creatures with centaur like bodies and scythe tails. A common issue for this type of sketch is fitting it all on one page. This can be especially difficult for creatures with wings like dragons. You can get action poses but they must be zoomed out significantly. Close ups require resting poses with the monsters curled up or parts of them cutout.      I've been experimenting with a lot of poses that end up not working. You have to wade through this kind of swamp before finding something that does work; hopefully making it a little better each time....

 Biraid Hog     I've been uploading some of my old monster sketches. Enjoy. I'm also tweaking a few things I dislike about the Spiral sketch and will re-upload it. 

 Character Bios      I'm considering making a label for character biographies and adding concept art to each one. This way people can find new insight and description for my characters when reading my book.      It took several failed attempts but I finally got a good sketch of Spiral. Drawing women is hard. I have massive respect for comic book artists. There's a formula for drawing the face: first I draw a circle and extend it into an egg shape. Then I draw a line halfway down the head and divide it into fifths; this will become the eyes. The head is five eyes wide with a single width in between the actual eyes. Then I draw an equilateral triangle from the outside corners of the eyes down the face. Where this ends marks the mouth. One third of the way up from the mouth is the bottom of the nose. Even with these guidelines, my faces often go awry. It's hard to get the eyes to mirror each other but practice makes... well better anyway.  ...

 So, What's Next?     I completed my novel, which took over 2 years, and my painting. It's nice to get projects done. I've uploaded some sketches of monsters from my drawing pad and will talk more about them later. I've also been brainstorming the outline of a sequel and drawing characters from my novel as concept art.     Drawing women is hard; I have great respect for comic book artists who can sketch all kinds of poses in perspective without reference. It took several attempts but I finally got a good sketch of Spiral; it's not yet complete. My wrists are a little sore from doing so much work so I'm taking a break tomorrow. I should have the sketch done in a few days.     For now please enjoy this golem I drew. It took several tries to get the flow of the pose right.

 Sketching a Bouquet     In this project I'm going to sketch and paint a bouquet. Step 1 is to find a photo online or order a real one as a reference. Here's the photo I used:      From there I draw the vase and a mushroom shaped hood indicating how far out the flowers reach. Then, as shown here, I draw the shapes of the individual flowers. In the next step I fill them in with tender loving care.    In part 2 I'll paint over it.  

Sketching Monsters     Sometimes it's nice to take a break from serious art and have some fun! I love creating Dungeons and Dragons like monsters. You can get really creative with them. No worries about strict human proportions; they can be however big or small you want.     This is a Puppeteer Beholder and Clockwork Golem. Beholders are generally large floating eyeballs but this one is animating a golem. I drew this a while back but still like it. Expect to see a lot of this kind of thing. It's not part of my book; just for fun. Currently I'm working on more concept art for my book: Signature Rainbows Wane.

 Fan Art and Monsters     Most of my work is entirely original content but on occasion I'll sketch some fan art. It's fun to draw monsters; you'll see many more in the future. I always enjoyed looking at illustrations of monsters and learning about prehistoric creatures.     Here's some fan art from the game series Monster Hunter. It's a Lagiacrus fighting a Rathalos. Monster Hunter is a fun series and I really enjoyed Monster Hunter World. Hammer was my main weapon but I was proficient in all of them. It takes a long time to color these in, especially since I use photoshop, so most of my sketches aren't colored.   

 Sketching an Airship      Continuing from my last post, now we are ready to sketch an airship. I'm partially doing this to push outside my comfort zone as an artist.      Airships should be drawn in perspective like buildings. Drawing curvy, complex shapes in perspective is hard. Fortunately we can break it down into simple shapes. Here's the planning for sketching the ship's hull in a shape that curves up to a point in the front:     Next I added more shapes in perspective including fins and the bridge. The squares on the side will become cannons.     Finally I round out the corners, add details and cannons. Not bad for my first airship. Be sure to join me for more projects like this in the future.   

 Designing a Fictional Airship      I'm at a point in my book where an airship is needed but at a loss for how it will appear. It's my intent to browse through other fictional airships for inspiration and design my own.      Apparently real life airships are lighter than air crafts filled with lifting gas. Helium is preferred as it is nonflammable. We're going to deviate to more fantasy designs which give the freedom to be whimsical and not worry about practicality. When searching on the internet I had to add "fictional" to find what I was after.     There are many styles I could go for. From a steam punk machine with gears and smoke to an elegant, colorful machine like the ship used in Final Fantasy X. Final Fantasy games frequently feature airships and are a great place to go for inspiration. There are many factors to consider. Is it a grungy weapon of war? Appealing commercial flight? Does it use propellers, balloons or rock...

 The Journey of Personal Growth      Remember that rough draft sketch (March 16, 2021)? Here it is filled out:     This is Spiral, another guardian dragon. By posting these images I hope to track my growth as an artist. I've come a long way but still feel there is much that can be improved.     I'm always growing as a writer too. My book went through two rewrites; each with significant changes. Originally Sayth was not the main character but I found him to be the focus of all the action and changed that. In the second draft he and Spiral had a son but that character did nothing but muddy the water by getting in the way while serving no plot purpose. He was removed but the entire book had to be rewritten. Now Sayth and Spiral are sharing an early romance.     It's just as well. My writing has improved significantly since I began in my high school days. I don't know how people can write a novel in a month; mine took ye...

 Sketching Original Characters      Artistic character creation has its own rough draft stages. It's considerably harder to not work from a model. Like inventing the light bulb, you find many more ways that don't work before discovering the magic formula that does.      I'll invest a good amount of time figuring out the pose. Poses are hard, especially action poses. You need the proper proportions and foreshortening alongside an interesting and balanced position. This applies not only to humans but creatures and machines as well. Often times I'll not know what to do with the back arm.     Fleshing out and adding interesting clothing can be challenging as well. The face is always the worst so I try to add it first thing after the figure. Inventing new styles of clothing for futuristic and fantasy races involves a lot of knowledge and planning. Are they warriors, merchants, nobles? Are they loose with the rules and have one arm not in...