Blob Paintings: Dragons

I call these my "blob paintings."  I start with a blob of watercolor and then I draw in lines with a Zebra pen once everything is dry.  The painting is completed by dry brushing in shadows and details with watercolor.  For me this is great practice and a wonderful way to work on character designs since the focus up front is on silhouette and not on the details (like eyes, nostrils, spikes, scales, etc...).

Lafcadio Illustration

I wanted to share the steps I took to finish the illustration I created for the Roald Dahl/Shel Silverstein Tribute Show at Fan*Alley.  After doing character design explorations, I sketched out a body to match the face I chose.  Once I was happy with both the face and the body, I did some small character sketches on watercolor paper to finalize the look of Lafcadio as well as practice using the media I chose for the illustration.  The image below is one of many I did in advance of the final piece.

After the look of the character was nailed down, I sketched out the sequence for Lafcadio's suit fitting on copy paper making sure to double-check the spelling of words and the overall flow of the piece (pencil drawing not pictured).  I then taped that to a light table, laid a piece of watercolor paper on top, and then used a Zebra pen to trace the linework.  (BTW Zebra pens are waterproof! They are the best pens ever!)  The image below on the left is what the piece looked like prior to color.  Before adding any watercolor, I took a picture of the lineart with my phone's camera and imported that into Photoshop to create a color comp (the image on the right).

Below is the final piece framed and matted and ready to be hung.  I'm very happy with how it turned out.  The show opening itself was a blast!  There were a ton of fun people to chat with at the event!  I'm also happy to say that my piece sold that night!  Hooray!  Huzzah!  w00t!

P.S. Here are some details of the illustration.  They were taken with my phone so the color shifts here and there from image-to-image.

Purposefully Dry Brush Pen

I drew these with a Pentel pocket brush pen that was running out of ink.  I like the texture the dry brush creates.  Because of that I have two of the pocket brush pens and I cycle putting new ink cartridges into each of them on a rotating basis so I always have one pen handy that is full of ink and one that is about ready to run out.  That way I can choose whatever type of line and texture I want to create on purpose rather than waiting for it.

Dinosaur Character Designs

Here's a nifty way to quickly come up with cool silhouettes for your characters: Use a big brush and watered-down ink to jot down interesting shapes.  Don't worry about detail, instead focus on the "big picture stuff" like gesture and personality.

When the ink washes dry (about 5-10 minutes) you can go back with a pen to draw in eyes, mouths, legs, tails, etc.  Make sure to use permanent ink so the wash doesn't lift or gum up your pens as you are drawing on top.  For the above, I used Speedball Superblack and a 03 Micron on 90lb cold-press watercolor paper.  I spent 5 minutes painting the silhouettes and another 30 or so drawing the linework on top.

Saint Alia of the Knife-Process

While I was backing up my computer I rediscovered the process pics I took in 2011 while making a small figure of Saint Alia of the Knife. She is a powerful girl first introduced in the novel Dune by Frank Herbert. Alia was born fully aware and is the younger sister of Maud'Dib, the "savior" and self-imposed ruler of spacefaring humankind. There is a lot more to this character so go read the entire series of books-they're recommended!

This is the step-by-step process I used to create this piece:

STEP ONE- Gathering Materials
I didn't sketch anything in advance for Alia, this project was only for fun so I let serendipity sort of dictate how the figure was going to look in the end.  I knew I wanted something similar to her David Lynch movie look so I gathered a palette of blacks/greens (the colors of House Atreides) and other odd bits and ends that might come in handy as I dressed the figure later on.
These are the materials I ended up using:
Paperclay, translucent sculpey, craft styrofoam, heavy gage wire, a selection of pre-mixed craft paints, black fabric, a scrap piece of furniture fabric, a scrap piece of leather, a rock, doll hair, thread, two glass beads, seed beads, matte medium, and super glue.

STEP TWO - Making the Support Structure for the Figure

I thought the rock I used for the base looked like something Alia might stand high upon to survey the desert.  Based on that notion I cut the heavy gage wire to make a stick figure with childlike proportions.  I then took small chunks of styrofoam and super glued those to the wire to bulk out the form.  Once that was done I bent and twisted the support into a pose I liked and marked the two areas on the rock where I would eventually glue the finished figure.

STEP THREE - Sculpting the Figure

To sculpt Alia's body I added paperclay directly onto the support, there's no need to add glue or wrap a smaller gage wire to provide grip. When I had a rough approximation of the face I pushed in two blue glass beads for her eyes (because she is a spice addict) and added paperclay on top to create the eyelids. After I finished the basic form I used a potter's needle and loops to add in the fine details. It took about 24 hours for the figure to fully dry. In the pic below I've already started to add color into the face. Also at the bottom of the pic in front of the mechanical pencil is Alia's crysknife made out of translucent scupley and "aged" with craft paint.

STEP FOUR - Painting the Figure

I used a selection of craft paints to paint Alia.  I wasn't sure where I was going to glue in her fabric robes so I decided to paint the entire figure. Better to do that then try and remix colors if I missed a spot. I painted an Atreides Hawk on her right shoulder and a stylized "A" on her left. Because she was in a dessert I added dustiness to her boots that matched the color of the rock. I wanted to make sure it looked like her and the rock were from the same environment.

STEP FIVE - Glueing on the Details

To finish the figure I super glued black fabric that was stiffened with matte medium onto the body to create Alia's robes, a scrap piece of leather and furniture fabric for her belt, thread and seed beads for her lasso, and braided doll hair. Once the costume was complete I went back and made a final pass with craft paint to blend all the elements together.  The finished figure is approximately 5" high and 2-1/2" wide from front-to-back.

Saint Alia of the Knife was entered in the 2011 Crafts Competition at the OC Fair.  I ended up winning Second place in my division-not bad for a little project I did for fun.

Life Drawing Demo Sketch

I'm teaching ART 217-Life Drawing for Animation at Cal State Fullerton this semester.  In today's class I drew a few demos and discussed the importance of combining "what you see" with "what you know."

This 10 minute sketch was my favorite of the day.  I first used the side of a small piece of vine charcoal to quickly scrub in the silhouette.  I then took a couple of seconds to double-check proportions before using a darker line for the details.  The smudged area in the lower left was a sketch I did afterward as an explanation of how line can be used to create depth with overlap.  I tried erasing it by smudging it out but that didn't fully work-oh well.

Thumbnail Mini Comic

This 2"x3" minicomic was made from thumbnails I drew in my sketchbook with an 02 Micron.  I photocopied the sketches at 125%, cut out each page with a blade, and then assembled the comic by gluing the thumbnails into a simple book I made out of Xerox paper and a staple.  The above pic shows the front and back covers (upper left) and 3 interior spreads.

Why did I do this?  I'm planning on self-publishing this comic in installments and I wanted to double-check layouts and page turns before I started inking issue #1.

Bonus sketch: This is Sibley, the star of the aforementioned comic drawn with an 05 Micron and red Tombo marker.  She is holding Tengu, her beloved pet and companion.

Comic Book Thumbnails

These are comic book page thumbnails that were drawn in my sketchbook.  Each thumbnailed page is 1-1/2" x 2-1/4".  Depending on the size of your screen these may appear smaller than actual size, Blogger sometimes likes to scale things rather than display them at the size I saved the file at.

To maintain a consistent thumbnail size I cut a template out of Bristol board that I keep in the back pocket of my Moleskin.  I can fit 10 thumbnails on a single page, but I prefer to only use 8 or 9.  Doing so leaves me room to write notes about action or dialogue.

I like to work this small because its fast, I can easily note characters and word bubbles with a few strokes, and can spot blacks without wasting ink scrubbing in large patches of dark areas.  The only drawback to working this small is that I tend not to use wide shots.  Its hard to draw in scenery when a panel could be less than a half an inch square.  I remedy this by double-checking my thumbs and correct any lack of shot variety as I ink in the finished page.

The thumbnails above were drawn for a project in-progress with an 02 Micron.

My Character Design Process

I love the challenge of working on character designs.  Just like casting for a TV show or a movie, selecting the right look for your characters can either enhance or distract from the story you are trying to tell.  Below is some of the process I went through in developing the lineup for a comic I'm working on about cats.  There's more to the story than felines but I'm purposefully keeping the subject of the story vague for right now.

When I'm working on character designs I usually start off with a fuzzy mental image that I then try to put into concrete form on paper.   The above group is my first stab at the cast of supporting characters. L->R there is a biker couple, an otaku, a retired college professor, and a family inspired by the Cosby show.  Decent ideas but none of these made it past the first round of designs except for the biker dude.

During the first edit in my story I changed the biker character from a stern person into a friendlier personality.  I tried to show this off by giving him a fuller beard to allude to Santa.  Although this group is more in key to the final style I picked for the comic, I didn't feel like this look was working.

This is the final to last sketches I did for the biker.  During a second edit I changed the story so that this friendly character was at first perceived to be mean by the main character.  I made him "scarier-looking" by shortening the beard, adding more black and a kerchief to create a horizontal line on the forehead to suggest a stern expression.  The drawing on the left was the first one I did where I felt I was approaching the final character design.  The sketch on the right is the one I drew after right after and it was at that point I felt as if I was "introduced" to the actual character.  This sounds cheesy but I believe I don't design characters, I sketch until I "discover" them.  For me there is an instant recognition when I draw a character right for the first time, I get a sudden feeling of "THAT'S IT!"  Anyway, the right image I redrew to put it on model with the style of the protagonist and that is what went into the final lineup. (Sorry, that lineup not shown-that art is under wraps while I work on the comic)

The above sketches are the finished designs I did for two of the main characters.  I was happy enough with their look that I started thumbnailing out the first section of the book with them.  I ended up scrapping those pages along with these two when I did a major story edit.  The mom character on the right survived but now looks different.  The granny character on the left was merged with a supporting character to help cut down unnecessary subplots in the story.

Cat Character Designs

These two images are the pre-production I'm doing for another comic.  I usually work out my character designs by drawing them in pen in my sketchbook, but I wanted to try something different this time so I busted out the watercolors and went to town.

One of the trickier parts of character design is designing the cast.  Its easy to come up with a single character, but its harder to create a group were each individual is readily recognized.  In these images I played with acting and body types to give each of the cats a different look.  Granted these are preliminary designs, I plan on exaggerating things in subsequent sketches, but even in my first attempts I am already thinking of how each of the cats will visually differ from one another.

I started by using a large brush and a light wash to quickly lay in silhouettes.  After that dried I used a black color pencil to draw in the linework.  I then went back in and dry brushed in details and cleaned things up in certain areas with white gouache.  The top image is the final artwork.

Inking Process

Here's some pics of my inking process for a piece I did for a gallery show.

 

These are the pencils of the main character, a woman in a steampunk outfit.  Since I was going to place a second character in the black silhouette of her outfit, I concentrated on creating interesting shapes in the outline of her clothes and in the swirls of her hair.

Once I combined the the pencils of the two characters (image missing) I scanned that into Photoshop and quickly threw in the blacks to double-check everything was in the right spot.

After I made some minor corrections to the pencils, I taped the them to a light box and then placed a 11" x 14" sheet of Vellum bristol board on top of that.  I inked the piece using a Hunt School 56 nib and Speedball Super Black.  It took me a couple of hours-I remember watching the last two periods of a NHL game during this part.

Once the linework was dry I scanned that into the computer.  In Photoshop I made some slight corrections, filled the blacks, and added a spot color.  The final image is digital.

After I submitted the digital file for the show I went back and finished the inks by filling the blacks in with a brush and making small corrections with a 005 Micron pen.  This can be a time consuming process so I usually do this after the deadline so I can sell the inks at a later point.  (Note: In the photo the inks look uneven because the camera flash is bouncing off of them.)

I'll post a link to the final image once I hear that my piece has been accepted.
2/22/12 EDIT: Good news!  I was accepted to the show.  Here's a link to the finished piece.
3/2013 EDIT: The catalog of the show is now up on Amazon.

SAR Thumbnails

From my sketchbook.  Click to enlarge.
I've been MIA the last month working on character designs, plot, and pages for a new comic.  I'm excited about the story enough that I'm keeping it under wraps, but I thought I'd share the first 15 pages of the book anyway.  I think things are ambiguous enough that my thumbnails aren't giving away any spoilers.

I wanted to share this image too.  I was concerned my layouts were appearing repetitive so I quickly filled in the panels with the marquee and paint bucket tools in Photoshop.  Needless to say looking at the panels this way confirmed my layouts are okay.

Comic Book Thumbnails

I thought I'd share something I have been working on. I've been drawing thumbnails of comic books and manga pages to study the pacing of the stories, the layout of the panels, and the placement of B&W and color. Its been extremely helpful to look at a story as a whole and see the structure of it. Below are the thumbnails I drew from Sardine in Outer Space V.1 by Emmanuel Guibert and Johann Sfar, and Naruto V.28 by Masashi Kishimoto.

Sardine is very consistent when it comes to panel size, shots, placement of word bubbles, and color. The sketchy nature of the original artwork makes my thumbnails not as legible as Naruto's below, but you can still see the overall consistency of Sfar's work. (Note: My thumbnails are in B&W, the comic is in color. Also the size of the image is just a bit bigger than the actual sketchbook page. The pages read left-to-right, page turns are marked with a small star.)


I know that Naruto isn't really taken seriously online by some comic-reading folks. Its mainly written off as a silly manga about ninjas, but Kishimoto is SO good when it comes to character design (I should type up a post about just that topic at another time) and layouts.

In my thumbnails below the pages read right-to-left and page turns are noted at the bottom left with a star. Note how Kishimoto extends the panels away from the gutter, keeping it clear except for spreads. The shots vary widely from extreme close-ups to wide shots. Tone is used to separate a character from the background or to emphasize a past memory, I've only seen it used sparingly for rendering a shape. Scene changes are marked with a small panel of background imagery. Word bubbles are almost in every panel but the dialogue is kept short, plenty of space is left for the image. (That's something I need to work on, my panels can sometimes get crowded with dialogue) There is a great balance of black and white especially in the fight scenes of 246 (the top one).



Its been a learning experience working on these. I've done quite a few, these three are just a sampling. :) Right now I'm especially studying manga because they are printed in black and white, the same way I eventually plan publish my comic.

When my schedule clears back up I have plans to sketch out Yotsuba, Lone Wolf and Cub, and Blade of the Immortal. I also want to start looking at some American titles: Bone (how could I not?), later issues of Finder, Blankets, and B&W issues of classic Uncanny X-Men. If you want to draw comics I really recommend doing this. I have learned so much from the couple of titles I've already sketched from.

Work In Progress Part 2

Another one. Here's a screenshot I made of the beginning of the coloring work for this piece. The giant dog and kid were inked by brush.
P.S. This one may read bright on your screens, it hasn't been colored corrected for the Net. ;)


EDIT: I found a scan of the original sketch for this one! The top is blurred because it's the margin of my sketchbook.

Illus Friday - Polar Sketch

Drawn in pen.
This is my preliminary sketch for Illustration Friday - "Polar." I'm planning on creating the bear shape by collaging blue paper in the background then painting in the bear nose, eyes, and fish. Since the bear form is literally being formed by the negative shape around him, I'd thought you'd be able to see through his form and glimpse the fish in his stomach. I don't think the sketch reads that way, but I'll paint the fish toned-down to suggest they are inside the bear and not floating on top. I'm also going to paint in the type, just to get some practice handling lettering. This illustration should go pretty fast, so I'll post a link to the finished pic either Saturday or Sunday.

4/22 EDIT: Finished pic viewable here.
Yep, it's alittle different from my sketch. I didn't think the fish would read as I intended so I dropped them. But that's cool, I like the finished pic. :D