MHL

I bought a new Margaret Howell MHL sweater and I wore it for the first time today and really enjoyed it, so I thought I'd sketch it.

INktober Leftover: To Coat or Not To Coat?

I had drawn this guy shortly after I did the very Gruau looking two guys walking. He was going to be a third in the series but I didn't feel he worked. So I reworked him a bit before posting on Instagram today.

Current Mood 11.10.16 part 8 (possibly done)

I started this drawing exactly a year ago, disheartened by the events of the US' elections, and dismayed a year later to find that much of what I feared has come true in many ways. While I've allowed myself to get distracted and have even felt better about some of the things in my life that weren't affected directly (at least to my blind eye) by the political climate, throughout the year I found myself thinking that the feelings in the drawing were still relevant. And a year later—perhaps finishing this first drawing finally—I'm sad to report that that's true.

Big Softie

I picked a brush at random—in this case the "Big Softie"—and just doodled. He started out more ethnic but I got the features wrong and he turned more generic white guy...

Gibson Gal

I needed a break form all the ink brushes, so I set out to do a quick watercolor wash sketch. First the broad stroke brush for the base, then detail brush and one of the so-called magic brushes (Although I think I actually meant to use a Wamazing one). Anyhow, it was a bit of playtime.

Hela Good Time 3

That costume is a lot of work, y'know! So much that I hid it behind her cape, which is an intrinsic part of her outfit, mind you. But I thought they couldn't have Cate Blanchet twirling around in a cape when she was fighting all those Asgardians—way too involved and not body conscious, I thought—but they did, and I didn't even notice how well they did so.

Hela Good Time 2

I started it, I will likely continue it since I barely started it. Details, details. But damn, that is not an easy costume. Granted, I'm making it up as I go along, but that's because I think I can do better than the designers who cam before. A lot of their style lines are pretty random, but not random enough! He he.

Hela Good Time

I watched Thor Ragnarok tonight and really enjoyed it. It was funny in a kind of Thor Annual kind of way, the way that some of the X-men annuals were madcap humor stories, and totally still within marvel canon. I've only drawn Hela once on this blog back in my 3rd year, I think (since I'm over 10 years with this now), but after Cate Blanchett's delicious hammy performance, I needed to revisit my favorite Thor character.

Trad

I was looking at Margaret Howell's website and was inspired to draw a classically British face/profile, except I'm not sure what a classically British face is. So count that as a fail? In any case, this is what I cam up with.

Croquis With Less Dorky Expression

...and yellow trunks. I'm toying with the idea of rendering him as a grown up Jonny Quest. I kind of want to do a n older Daddy Race Bannon, who was already Daddy material when I was growing up, but he was likely only in his 30s back then.

Croquis With Dorky Expression

'Nuff said!

Jughead

I was at the comic book store today and noticed how pretty much the entire Archie line has embraced the grittier, more realistic upgrade the show Riverdale made on its iconic characters. I forgot whether their Jughead had the typical look the older incarnation had, and I thought I'd try a contemporary update myself. Seen here in watercolor brush no 5.

Inktober 30—Nipsy

I wanted to draw a face in an ink style that was very stylized, because I examined some Gruaus on Pinterest and even if my memory of his work is a bit more realized and realistic, he had a lot of stylized, quick pieces too. I often hated it when comic book artists I liked did more stylized shorthand of their styles (Bill Sienkievicz comes to mind) but now I realize that we draw to be expedient sometimes (and I'm sure my old, evolving faves had deadlines they needed to catch up to).

Also, this is technically the last of the Inktobers. I labeled 30 even if my "Current Mood" piece is technically with an ink-like brush, but 30 Inktober pieces on this blog still feels right.

Inktober 29—Upshot

I was scanning images at work for mood boards I'm working on, and I liked a shot of a young male model looking in that oh-so-trendy way of posing down at the camera with his chin lifted up. I didn't want to draw it directly but then I said, I needed to copy it so I can actually draw he exact anatomy, and hopefully learn to render the parts in future drawings without such a reference. I already do it on my own, but it helps to copy actual anatomy from time to time (and actually do a presketch to understand all the volumes!) to practice doing various human features. In this kids case, it's his rather full, cherubic lips.

Inktober 28—Jakey 2

I retooled some of the anatomy in this piece, even going so far as to make a video of me taking my pants off so I can see if I got the anatomy right. I did for the most part, just needed to tweak a few details (by greatly reinterpreting my own body for this sketch—ah, imagination. So powerful, lol).

Inktober 27—Happy Halloween

'Nuff said!

INktober 26—Run, Ariel, Run

Thought I'd try to draw the costume I designed yesterday,"in action." It's definitely going to be difficult to interpret properly over panels.

Inktober 25—Ariel

My friend Justin asked me to redesign/re-imagine a costume I designed back when I was a teenager in high school, and I've come up with so many variations, from gritty, darker versions to completely out-of-character (for the proposed character) outfits that I've been thinking a lot about where to go with the asymmetrical parameters of the original. And it hit me that Kitty Pryde's code name then was Ariel, and a spacey, neo-futuristic outfit with no practical considerations whatsoever made more sense. It's supposed to be a fantasy, so go with something that's hopefully fantastic. So the impractical cutouts are exactly that, impractical, but this is supposed to be a futuristic fantasy, why ground it in reality too much? Besides, the concession to current athletic gear design (I based the style lines and seam work on the kinds of things you see on skintight, rather super-heroic athletic gear nowadays) is reality enough, I think.

Inktober 24—Smolder

I started out trying to draw an adult version of Kitty Pryde from the X-men, but based on how John Byrne and Dave Cockrum originally drew her, with a longish chin and a more prominent nose, and with her curly hair. In a way she's an older, more glam version of Kitty, but also much more modern, delicate despite the stronger features. Its that kind of model who is not a typical beauty in the classic sense, but very current. Or so I imagine.

Inktober 23—Chavvie 2

I woke up this morning and had to—ahem!—flesh him out some more. Although I struggle with leaving it as a fun sketch of finishing it out in a more controlled way.