Signature

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...

 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 un...