There are three ladies and three gentleman players in our sci-fi group at them moment, and if you've been paying attention, at least one of the ladies likes to draw. Right now she's playing Nina Harper in Distant Atmospheres.
Nina is the group's veterinarian. That's incredibly important in a universe where the only starships are gigantic, Cthulhu-like space squid that can warp time and space.
The campaign has stared on a rebellions, backwater world that is being blockaded by the UN Space Forces. No known functional starships exist on the planet, yet the first thing that happens is that the thugs who recently took over the government attempt to kidnap Nina.
Wonder what that's about? :)
- Ark
Showing posts with label Artsy-Fartsy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Artsy-Fartsy. Show all posts
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Thursday, January 2, 2014
A Doodle A Day
Okay, in the spirit of A Mantra for 2014, I am initiating A-Doodle-A-Day, in which I will post something arty each day for the year. It may suck, but I'm working on VOLUME here.
Above is the icy chick from Frozen. I haven't seen it yet. Heck, I haven't even see Hobbit 2: Electric Boogaloo yet. Been busy. :)
Wish me luck!
- Ark
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
A Mantra for 2014
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You've just gotta fight your way through.”
- Ira Glass
or, more concisely,
"Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming swimming, swimming, swimming."
- Dory
:)
- Ark
Monday, December 9, 2013
Gods - Not Officers, Cash, nor Tom
Due to the winter storm that turned North Texas into an skating rink, I had some time to work on a piece for Gorgonmilk's Petty Gods project. Everybody - this is Galishma. Galishma - this is everybody. Galishma is the goddess of the darkness under bridges and the disposing of murdered bodies, so I hear. And maybe ice cream.
I've been drawing a lot for the last few months - but nothing for public consumption. Lots of work on structure. A lot less fun than churning out goddesses, but really, really needed. A site called Pencil Kings has a great month long (free) figure drawing course by an artist called Sycra, and I recommend it highly.
Since I've been working in pencil and paper exclusively, I was a bit nervous to jump back into digital - but I needed to since I don't ink in the real universe yet. I think the dread was more about Photoshop than anything else, so on a whim, I tried out Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. I like it a lot.
Sketchbook makes it very clear why Photoshop is named Photoshop - it's for photos first, not for drawing. Sketchbook is for sketching (duh) and drawing. Painting too. The image above is the first picture I've drawn with the program - and I'm pretty impressed. The brushes are all easy to use and flow smoothly. I can draw straight lines and shapes without a lot of clicking and button holding. Everything related to drawing is just a heck of a lot easier.
I still prefer Photoshop's canvas rotating - it's much more smooth than Sketchbook's. And Sketchbook seems to chew up a lot more memory than I think it should - but still nothing compared to Photoshop. And, of course, all your fancy filters are not available. But you can save files in *.PSD format to do Photoshop fiddling with your layers intact.
So maybe over Christmas break I can finish Galishma, and that will be drawing #6 for the book. Yay!
- Ark
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
I'm a Super Star!
Okay, well, not exactly a super star. Or a star. Or even a brown dwarf. But I did get a drawing assignment critiqued over on the Proko channel. Stan Prokopenko posts shortened versions of his drawing lectures over on Youtube. I've been enjoying them.
Recently he's been doing critiques on the assignments with another instructor named Marshall Vandruff. The critiques are awesome - watching them really helps to address problems and frustrations. Last week they picked one of mine. It was cool - and very odd to hear them saying 'Ark.' I don't normally hear that nickname out loud. Well, except at Cons. :)
So here is the critique. You are probably not interested - but that's okay. I am. :)
- Ark
Recently he's been doing critiques on the assignments with another instructor named Marshall Vandruff. The critiques are awesome - watching them really helps to address problems and frustrations. Last week they picked one of mine. It was cool - and very odd to hear them saying 'Ark.' I don't normally hear that nickname out loud. Well, except at Cons. :)
So here is the critique. You are probably not interested - but that's okay. I am. :)
- Ark
Friday, September 20, 2013
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Barbarella - Queen of the Galaxy
Okay - the colors are done. Funny - for months now I've been almost exclusively working on figure drawing fundamentals - and somehow my coloring seems to have gotten better. Odd. I'll never figure out this art thing. :)
- Ark
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Accidental Art
I still am confused as to why most of the things I intend to draw end up as beg nasty meses, while the mindless sketches I make tend to be the ones I like. Probably says something aboout my psychological make-up. :)
- Ark
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Petty Landscapes
Three or four months ago, I had an idea to draw weird landscapes for Gorgonmilk to use, should he need them, as filler inside of the Petty Gods book. Layout can be a bitch, and strange shaped art could only help, right? Well, then I burnt out my hand drawing too much in an unhealthy way, and a strange, artistic malaise/depression set in as I healed.
Well, my hand hurts a heck of a lot less and I gave the old Wacom a twirl tonight. Whatdayya know - I finished one of the Landscapes I had sketched out a while back. Yay me!
Anyway, here it is - Petty Landscape #1 (aka First Date.) Use is as you wish, Gorgonmilk!
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| Click to Embiggen |
Okay, now some ice for the hand . . . :)
- Ark
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Fanboy
So, I've been sitting down with the good princess and sketching her over and over again with the idea that maybe if my style won't calm down, perhaps I could draw at least one iconic person in a halfway similar manner semi-consistently.
Not so much. :)
Oh well. But while practicing and icing my hand when it hurts, I have come to the conclusion that I probably am a Princess Leia fanboy and just never realized it. :)
- Ark
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Recovery
Okay, life lesson time. If you enjoy drawing - don't fuck up your hand by drawing. Pace yourself and hold your god-damn pencil right.
So, my hand has been slowly recovering - and I've been doing exercises and working back some strength to it. I get these odd aches in places that were not originally hurt. I figure it's shifting muscles and stuff around. Knitting. Whatnot.
I've also been trying to do things with an economy of movement. Where I might have once used like a billion scratches to evolve a line - I'm now saying FUCK IT and going with whatever falls on the paper - for the most part. This method is spitting out sketches that look a bit different that previous drawing. I see more unintentional exaggeration - some of the stuff that I've been trying to do on purpose that I was failing at. If I'm not trying to do it - it seems to just plop out there. Odd - but I shoulda figured.
So here is a pilot lady. Okay, I think she was cosplaying a pilot. Dunno. I was scared to draw the hat as it seemed like a lumpy mess. It still is. But that's how it looked in the reference, so I guess that is okay. :) Enjoy.
- Ark
So, my hand has been slowly recovering - and I've been doing exercises and working back some strength to it. I get these odd aches in places that were not originally hurt. I figure it's shifting muscles and stuff around. Knitting. Whatnot.
I've also been trying to do things with an economy of movement. Where I might have once used like a billion scratches to evolve a line - I'm now saying FUCK IT and going with whatever falls on the paper - for the most part. This method is spitting out sketches that look a bit different that previous drawing. I see more unintentional exaggeration - some of the stuff that I've been trying to do on purpose that I was failing at. If I'm not trying to do it - it seems to just plop out there. Odd - but I shoulda figured.
So here is a pilot lady. Okay, I think she was cosplaying a pilot. Dunno. I was scared to draw the hat as it seemed like a lumpy mess. It still is. But that's how it looked in the reference, so I guess that is okay. :) Enjoy.
- Ark
Friday, May 17, 2013
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Gimpy Old Man
I bunged up my drawing hand pretty bad - apparently tendonitis - and have been laying off the drawing. It's been maddening.
I . . . must . . . draw . . .
The swelling is down and the pain is only mildly annoying, so I should be back in form soon. I need to learn not to squeeze the pencil so hard that the graphite fuses into diamond. Oh - and maybe take a few breaks and not draw 8 hours straight.
In the meantime, I've been digging deep into the Beta for the new Star Wars game. From what I've seen of the Beta and the already published beginning game, I think the final product in - what was it - July? - will be really cool.
The game has a lot of weird dice and unusual mechanics, to me, but it seems to all make sense when you put it together. It is definitely a step away from anything with a d20 in it. Or a d6. Heck, the only dice it uses with numbers are percentiles - and that's just to roll on the occasional result list.
Anyway, if anyone is interested, I could jot down a review in a post or something. :)
- Ark
I . . . must . . . draw . . .
The swelling is down and the pain is only mildly annoying, so I should be back in form soon. I need to learn not to squeeze the pencil so hard that the graphite fuses into diamond. Oh - and maybe take a few breaks and not draw 8 hours straight.
In the meantime, I've been digging deep into the Beta for the new Star Wars game. From what I've seen of the Beta and the already published beginning game, I think the final product in - what was it - July? - will be really cool.
The game has a lot of weird dice and unusual mechanics, to me, but it seems to all make sense when you put it together. It is definitely a step away from anything with a d20 in it. Or a d6. Heck, the only dice it uses with numbers are percentiles - and that's just to roll on the occasional result list.
Anyway, if anyone is interested, I could jot down a review in a post or something. :)
- Ark
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Pherosathoola, Goddess of Sexual Fear - Final . . . Maybe . . . Kinda . . . Sorta . . .
Here is Pherosathoola, finished. More or less. I think.
I've got a ton of things I want to add and fiddle with, but you have to stop sometime before the piece is a muddled mess. I . . . ugh. I don't know. I'd like to detail the background more, but the foreground is important. Far more. And most of those old Monster Manual and Deities and Demigods images didn't have much of a background either. And the desolation of it kind of fits with the whole snake motif.
So, it's time to just smack down all the voices in my head and spit this puppy out.
However, if anyone has some constructive criticism, I'd be happy to listen. Like the whole freckle idea. That was a stroke of brilliance. On occasion, art by committee work. Sometimes. A bit. On alternate February 29ths. ;)
Hmm . . . maybe a fancy border. Ack! No! Shut up, voices!
- Ark
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Goddess Interrupted
Okay - not interrupted - just in progress. For those of you who are interested in the process, here is Pherosathoola midway through here first inking, with the original pencils faded.
Yes, I said first inkng. After I scan the final pencils in and pull up the piece in Photoshop, I start inking. In the first inking pass I am not so interested in varying the line weight - think and thin - I am just working on accurate line placement. Line thickness at this stage is incidental - except in the face, where I do fiddle around. I'll do maybe five more inking passes, making certain lines thicker in places. This is to provide perspective through line weight, help sort out certain object (that tangle of snaked on her head mainly,) to help enhance important bits (face and boobs and the curve of her rear end,) and finally, but most importantly, to provide a flow of action for the eye to follow.
And you thought they were just lines! Ha!
- Ark
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Who Are They?
I doodled these guys tonight while having a beer. I don't know them. If you are so inclined, let me know who they are, and feel free to stat them up in the system of your choice. :)
(I have no idea what Malta 5000 means, either.)
- Ark
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Pherosathoola, Goddess of Sexual Fear
Here is the latest step in my drawing of a Petty Goddess. These are the 'proper' pencils I've put down after I was comfortable with the Non Photo Blue. Next step is the inking.
I've added the freckles, as requested. She was already cute, and they make her look even cuter - which makes me laugh, as she is the petty goddess of sexual fear. So take a good look at Pherosathoola, and then go read about her on Rended Press. Are you sufficiently horrified now?
Good.
:)
- Ark
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Next Goddess Cosplay
In case you were wondering where I was going with the last scans of the petty goddess drawing - well - here is a better idea. Surprise! She's Gorgon-riffic! Not quite done with the pencils - but my fingers hurt at the moment from drawing all of those scales. This is still just the pencil sketch.
For those who are interested - what I am actually drawing looks little like the above image. I'm not drawing with a #2 pencil on manila paper or anything. This is just a scan of the sketch run though a filter in Photoshop so you can see it. What it actually looks like is this:
That's a lot harder to make out on some computer screens. Why? I'm using a pencil that is designed to not copy or photograph well - a Non-Photo pencil. The official name is:
Prismacolor COL-ERASE 20028 Copy not NP Blue
That's a mouthful. :) It's meant for sketching so that you can lay down ink over it and not have to erase since, in theory, it is a color that graphic arts cameras cannot detect. It these days of Photoshop and layers, these pencils don't get much love. But I love them. Smooch smooch smooch. I am a heavy handed drawer, and sketching with a regular pencil involves a lot of erasing and my hand drags though the graphite and I smear everything and it the paper - and my hands - end up a piggy mess by the time I am done. The NP Blue pencils draw very lightly, don't smear and only barely smudge, and don't leave me looking like a preschooler on art day.
So, anyway, welcome to my world. There are pencil shavings everywhere.
- Ark
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