Hooo Boy...

So, its been quite a while since I updated my little blog here. A lot has happened since last summer, mainly, my wife and I had a baby. She is wonderful and perfect in every way, but she makes it hard to do much outside of eating, sleeping, school and taking care of her.

BUT! I finally found some time (and some inspiration) to start drawing again. Over the last year or so, I've started following many comic book artists blogs. I find that incredibly inspirational in that I get to see what these masters are doing on a daily basis. In the past, I've tried to steer clear of drawing licensed characters and stick to original ideas of my own, but watching these professional artists, I've seen many of then do daily warm-up sketches of some pop-culture character or other, just to loosen up. I thought to myself that it might be fun to stretch myself a little bit and try new things with characters that I love instead of ones I create.

I found myself particularly inspired by several things I found on Yildiray Cinar's blog. First, was this painting he did of Darth Maul for a friend of his.

I though this was so cool, and I decided to try a Star Wars character of my own. But after watching the video below from the same blog I wanted to try some of the Photoshop techniques on display there.



 So, for my first one, I turned to the excellent cartoon "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," which I have been on a huge kick of lately, for inspiration. My first piece of art since the baby is Savage Opress (sah-VAHJ oh-PRESS), Darth Maul's brother.

I kept my usual meticulous pencil sketching to the bare minimum for this one. I wanted to see what it would be like to stay much looser with everything and go straight through to the colors and layer up like you can see the very talented Mr. Cinar doing in the linked video. So, I sketched an outline of the body, and the details of his face and started coloring right away. I used the color mixing brush to give the cloths a painted feel and added some solid inks lines over the tops to give it a little texture. Over all, I'm very happy with how it turned out and am looking forward to experimenting more with other characters in the near future. Hope you like it!

Hefin

Its been a while since I updated the blog with new drawings. Sorry world, I know you missed me. Here is Hefin, another character from the project I'm working on. Kind of a non nondescript character. He didnt  come with a lot of fancy armor or a costume or physical features that made it easy to figure out what he looked like. He was actually one of the more challenging character designs I've done as a result. He's just a guy with a cane.

Jono and Wolfric

This is Jono and Wolfric. A pair of characters for the project I'm working on. They are based on several characters from popular culture, most notably Han Solo (slash Malcolm Reynolds) and Chewbacca.

Bale

 This is the first drawing I have finished in the last few weeks. With school starting up again and me seeing patients now, life has been a little preoccupying. Also, I went a little crazy with the detailing on this one, but I think its one of my favorites because of that. It takes a little longer to do it that way, but the finished product just seems a lot richer for it.

This is Bale, an obviously villainous character from the project I'm working on in my spare time with my buddy Dustin. I decided to include both the shot with the helmet and the shot without to show off the work I did on the facial features. I spent a good deal of time figuring out what his face should look like and I didn't want it to just be covered up immediately by his helmet.

COMMISSION: Pixie by Ryan Kelly

I just got this in the mail this afternoon and I couldn't be more psyched! I saw Ryan Kelly at the local MN Springcon in Minneapolis this last weekend and he didn't have time to finish this up before the con closed on sunday, so he took my name and address and said he would ship it to me when he was done. He also mentioned that, since he lives in town, he would be able to take it back to his studio and work on it there, and that it would invariably turn out better for the extra attention. Boy, he wasn't kidding. I got this amazing piece for $100, which is an amazing bargain. This is the first and as of now, only, time Ryan has drawn this character and I, for one, think he nailed it. Like I said, couldn't be happier!

Apolis Update: Finished!

On a roll today. Just started this one a little over an hour ago. Moved along a lot faster than I expected. This is Apolis, another character from our as yet still untitled (to the public anyway) comic project. I'm really happy with this. I have noticed over the last 3 months or so that I have finally gotten comfortable (I hate to say that I've gotten good at anything, I'm just too critical of my own work) at making my characters look dynamic and alive. I love this pose, its very Spider-man. I'll post the final version once its done.

Petrolas

This is Petrolas (Petya to those close to him). A character design I did for the project I am working on with my friend Dustin. I'm really psyched at how this one turned out. I havent really done much drawing the last 2 weeks, partially because of finishing up my 2nd year of dental school, and partially because I was working on a piece that was frustrating me. Nothing de-motivates me faster than having a piece frustrate me. So! I'm very happy that this one turned out exactly how I wanted it to! It was a good kick in the pants to start drawing again.