Sketch-a-day Challenge: #'s 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, & 12

Ok, so I'm still trying to do a sketch a day but it took me a week to actually post them all.  While I know daily updates are preferable, it can be a pain to warm up the scanner and get the little sketch in and adjusted, which doesn't feel worth it sometimes.

So like I said, I'll try to update more frequently than I just did but it may not literally be "daily".

Ok, here goes:

Something from Art Explorer Post-- did this awhile ago, but tweaked it.

On Saturady: New costume-- Roman!  We had really limited time for each pose.  I'd estimate no more than 5 minutes, maybe less.  Felt like that anyway.

Another one-- trying to get faster at rendering with pen.

Trying to practice anatomy.  I love the "industrial design" approach, i. e. breaking it down into geometrical shapes.  How much I remember from doing these studies is questionable though.  I try drawing these things by memory after I've copied a diagram, but I feel like I've already forgotten most of what I "learned".  So frustrating!

This is one of the variations of an idea I had awhile back for a kind of device worn as a "boot" that is a kind of active "smart stilt" resembling an insect that allows a user to navigate very difficult terrains such as piles of small boulders, building rubble, or even dense forests.  I resurrected the idea when working on the cave exploration thing, because these types of boots could also be great for wading through water.  The basic idea is that the individual "feet" on the 6 legs per boot latch onto a surface within a 280 degree angle-ish cone.  If the surface is several feet below (like a crevice) or above (like a peak) the legs bend in two different ways (active at joint, passive at lower ligament) to compensate for the height difference, allowing the user to "walk" more quickly and easily instead of climbing.  It, of course, would still be impractical, so it would probably be considered an outdoor sport in the sphere of mountain biking and skiing.

(No, those are not her real eyes/mouth!  They are projections.  I'm not that bad at anatomy!)  Anyways, this probably violates a bunch of fashion design rules, but I wanted to go for something really out there.  It's an outfit, presumably for nobility, in a culture that values complete and utter expression of everyone's absolutely true and unconcealed emotions.  The whole outfit can be likened to a mood ring on steroids.  The "eyes" are a projection within the visor (think CRT monitor) that reflect what the wearer's emotions *should* be in real time, based on sensors in the brain.  The shoulders are made of a fabric intwined with little lights, making it sort of a flexible screen that shows various colored waves that people in this culture are trained to be able to read, to tell if the wearer is agitated, calm, anxious, happy, etc...  The individual enclosed leg dresses (a split dress or double-legged pants?) interpret the data displayed in waves in the shoulders, and turn it into a fashionable display similar to music visualization softoware in iTunes and Windows Media Player, etc...  Only it's brain waves instead of sound ones.

So conversing with this person would mean seeing everything she's thinking, her awakeness level, her emotion, perhaps even whether she's lying.  Large, simplified, projected eyes, eyebrows, and mouth tell you what her expression would be in an exaggerated way (I think of those Japanese robots with "personality".   But before you think you have the upper hand in this conversation, imagine if you were rigged up like this as well!  How would conversing be different?

How does the angle look?  I was trying to do a "top and looking down" type of view, which is why the legs look a little short, but something still looks wonky to me...

I've decided to try to improve my digital painting skills, specifically the speed aspect.  Of course, I forgot to record how long this took... -_-  But it's pretty low res, wasn't too long.  I used a reference photo of a cave (lit for tourists, I presume) somewhere in the Netherlands.  I also tried mimicking the color closely.  Yeah, I know, they really were that bright!

Sketch-a-day Challenge: Day 6

This is  "steampunk" pen design for a stationary type set we're designing for my illustration methods class.  The little gear in the clear part sticks out of half the pen shaft slightly, allowing the writer to retract the ball-point pen nib into the pen.  The ball-point part hides underneath the pseudo-ink dip tip, which is actually made out of a dulled rubbery plastic to keep it from poking holes in backpacks (or people!).  The end part is actually an electric vibrating eraser that's designed to erase pen (I've heard of these-- supposedly they're pretty nifty!).

I also have some sketches for a steampunk backpack, binder, notebook, planner, and other stuff but I did them traditionally and don't feel like scanning 'em in.

Anyway... probably should wean myself away from posting school assignment sketches and WIPs, as the point of creating this blog was to encourage myself to grow with personal stuff... :-\  

Sketch-a-day Challenge: Day 5

Hi,

Here's a WIP of an illustration I did (am doing?) for my illustration methods class.  It was way too choppy when I brought it in last week, so I'm trying to deepen the colors and unify the different objects so that it doesn't look like teeny chopped-up separated little shapes.

It features researchers exploring a cave with geothermal springs and strange plant life that undergoes chemosynthesis instead of photosynthesis.  I'll probably explain more about what's going on in it when I'm done.

Bad quality pic by the way-- my scanner's not working so I had to take a digital photo.

:-(

Sketch-a-day Challenge: Day 4

Here's a pen drawing I did of that "Art Explore Post" thing.  I did the drawing a little while ago, but watercolored it today.  It's going to be for my sketchbook for illustration methods class, where we need a couple of interiors with 3 or more figures in them.

It shows Mr. Tardino, who I did do mostly from viewing a photo he let me take of him on my digital camera's display screen, since he was going around the room a lot.  The rest was done from life with micron pen on watercolor paper.  

EDIT:  Wowzers, does this image ever match the colors of my blog nicely!  

Sketch-a-day Challenge: Day 3

Hello again!

I have to leave right now.  I'm currently working on a "new" sketch that was supposed to be today, but I'll probably not get back home 'till after midnight, therefore "officially" failing to post something every day, so in order to hold up to my word, I'll post a further WIP of the Moran Study.  

I might post my other sketch at like 2:00 AM or so... maybe it could still count as "today's" 'cuz I usually go to bed pretty late.

Sketch-a-day Challenge: Day 2

Here's a WIP of a watercolor study of the landscape painter Thomas Moran.  I'm trying to capture colors more than detail.  

Sketch-a-day Challenge: Day 1

Hey, sorry for the late start, but here it is.

Now, I plan to try to update this everyday, but it may not always be sketches. It might be WIP's. We'll just have to see...

This sketch came to me after I revisited Harold and the Purple Crayon. Charming story. I asked myself... what if Harold had never found his way home, and had stayed for 20 years in his world/dimension where he could create physical things by drawing them with his crayon? What would it be like to grow up since the age of 3 or 4, isolated but able to actually create something from nothing?

I'm cooking up a very interesting story based on this premise, wrought with psychological drama and parallels to Genesis.

I almost don't want to talk too much about it 'cuz I don't want to give away my best ideas... >_> But you can probably expect more Harold sketches in the future.


This was done in micron pen on paper with a slight tooth. I like that sorta "classical pen and ink" approach.