Muddah Fuggin' MONKEY!

After a floundering drawing session on Monday at the cafe haunt, a friend made some sideways comment about a monkey with a crank organ.  One fairly relaxed and anatomically warped doodle later I had the majority of the linework done in a shorter time frame than my messy frustrated scribbles featured in the rest of the night.

Now Thursday night and unsure what to do, I finished reading a short story before giving in to temptation and going back to this.  Cleaned up the lines, reworked the simple background to at least pretend I cared about the perspective, and toned it.

Then my friends demanded rain while I professed disinterest in adding umbrellas.  I was resistant, but gave in just to see what it would look like when both said to not add umbrellas to make it even gloomier.   Well played you two.

Done in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro on my Note 10.1.
First drawing was slightly larger and in several layers.  Those were merged down, saved as a copy and scaled down so I had room for the environment around them.  Unlike on a desktop I have a layer cap due to memory restraints on the tablet.  I think I mention that as lot in posts involving this tablet...

Ants? Don't worry, I got this.

Digital doodle dragged between various programs and tinkered with for personal experiments.

I'm still not the most confident with coloring, though I did, whilst under duress from a friend, adjust some arm lengths and a few other things today after leaving it alone for a week or so.  Oh digital editing :swoon:

So I added a cape

Played with some sketching tools and wanted to do something with a silhouette and an oddly shaped head. Then I added a cape when the shoulder scribbles turned into one whilst I was debating where to put the clavicles.

Sharkarex? Tyranark?

Recently got an Android tablet for drawing on when I'm at my usual cafe spot or elsewhere when I have a few minutes to scribble something out.  This is one of the first larger ideas I completed mostly on that device--no need to stick to the mobile option when I'm in my own room, but the composition and the majority of the linework was done on it.

Sports?

Space Pirate Captain Himilaya Proctor

I still draw, I swear!  I do amateur (aka: learning the ropes still) 3D modeling too.  I just don't find most of my work worthy of posting is all.  A few things to my Instagram profile now and then even!--though their resizing algorithm is rather garbage for pencil drawings...

So as of late my usual wish-I-was-a-comic-book-artist styled work has been total fucking ass.  Something has caused  my brain and hand to be at civil war and refuse converse with the enemy and it's been both a creative dump and a frustrating mess with only one crumpled sheet of paper over a lost temper thankfully.  The rest is just leered at and imagined on fire as I laugh maniacally.  Somehow during a frustrating night I tried this rendering method and the warring factions of my brain and hand signed a cease-fire agreement for now.

Anyway, for the past two weeks I've only been able to render doodles like this for some reason.  Which is weird specifically because this exact style is the one I have NOT been able to do properly (okay, with a few decent exceptions numbering under 10, and I'm not kidding) with pencil since I started carrying a sketchbook with me 95% of the time 14 years ago.  Charcoal is easier to do this with since it's more controllable in its innate messiness and smoothness, but specifically my pencil shading and rendering skills have always been runner-up at best.  It's a brave new frustrating world on normal sketchbook paper (60# probably) and 2B/4B graphite with a kneaded gum eraser to dab away highlights.

The black outline was added because it looked too plain and trying to shade all that area in pencil would have been a giant smudgy mess the instant I closed the sketchpad.  Slightly tweaked the contrast as scanning, and adjusted a tiny spot on his right-lats from a spec of something on the scanner glass.

Iron Mens

Three states of a loose and fairly quick drawing I did at my usual cafe haunt.  Basically I was having a miserable time trying to draw something of my own creation and was about mid-way through Iron Man Essential Vol.1 (first 32 or so issues from the early to mid 60s.)

While inking it I saw some issues and felt it would be fun to scan and do just a little clean up to the drawing, then I think what happened was that I was having trouble inking and blotched some quick yellow and dark blue to help me out... then I added more highlights and detail and worked on the shadows more and tried to fix some of the background... Oi.

The background and perspective look like afterthoughts because it was at the very start of this doodle.  I just wanted to loosen the cobwebs and practice some more stylized linework--oh, and hopefully speed things up, which sadly didn't happen.

UPDATE: It was brought to my attention that the sidewalk goes through Iron Man's left leg, and it does.  This was caused by putting the background linework onto its own layer via cut/create layer, and then just moving it around until I was pleased with the positioning.  With my nose to the grindstone (my tablet) the two lines looked like lighting detail.

So why don't I spend the 2 minutes updating the layer and re-saving/uploading the files?  To bring up the importance of a second or even third pair of eyes.  Most of us aren't grand masters so it's rather helpful to have another set of eyes ask you why you did something that looks out of place.  If you can't justify it reasonably, you probably need to fix it.

Just a Landscape

A landscape was requested of me, to which I responded that I didn't like doing landscapes because I wasn't any good at them.  My friend told me that was more reason to do one, and had back-up that I needed to get over it and work on it.  Probably was a motivational speech with a twinge of sarcasm so I'd actually listen.

It has issues, but I zoned out and somehow my reluctant acceptance of the challenge produced this.  Was fun to work on by the end.

Drawn in red animator's pencil and Micro 08.

Crayon Is Not As I Remember

Friend demanded I draw in her sketchbook instead of my own, and that I use her box of too-many-crayons that she and another guy where going crazy with.  So I obliged this challenge and banged this out instead of working on the storyboard homework I was supposed to be doing.

Quickie photo taken with my phone and posted here for posterity.

More doodles for the week

Forced myself to sit down and do something. Of the scribbles for the week, these are the only four I didn't delete. No particular reason, these were just fun to do so I kept them.

Not putting in enough time currently.

Just Two Digital Doodles

First, an on/off evening with Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro:

Not a bad app by any means, but everything seems destined to resemble a sketchbook (the name is very literal) with markers and ballpoint pens. The paintbrush will probably resemble gouache when I get used to it since this app seems to rest between a random doodling app and something a designer/student would use to avoid spending hundreds of dollars on Prismacolor pens. Haven't spent much time with it so I'm on the fence about how much I like it.

Entry to a Halloween themed contest:

Won a $15 video game for a few hours of work last Friday when I realized the deadline was coming up fast (0100 PDT/1900 AEST, unless they do daylight savings). I still have major issues drawing curved lines that don't wobble (as in I can't) on my tablet, but that's just part of the game due to the mostly frictionless surface. Instead of blue shadows smudged, I wish I'd instead just mixed a darker color and done it with a hard edge since this method here isn't working out for me.

Who's Hungry?

Had a large blank file open (1200x1000 or 1500x1500, forget which) and was just messing around with Painter's pencil tools as usual. This giant tablet is a sketchpad that I occasionally use for coloring. Point being that this spawned from one of my several tiny doodles I had kicking around.

As for the drawing, I'm still hazy about pen tools when it comes to digital works. The hard edge is always too much for me no matter what I do, though I'd like to think I'm getting better at it, maybe I'm just getting used to it. Didn't have a clear intent when I started this, not even a colorset in mind. Also, despite my love of reds, I'm red/green colorblind and have no idea what this actually looks like... I hope it's somewhat close to how I'm perceiving it.

Beanstalks

A friend looking over my sketchpad noted I was sorely lacking in drawing scenery and environment and challenged me to draw a sci-fi scene. Promptly I went over a mental checklist of sci-fi novel stereotypes and came up with the standard orbital elevator, which he informed me is more commonly known as a "beanstalk".

The drawing itself was a bit sloppy, and you can see the loose doodles behind it. But all the while I drew it, I kept imagining a bunch of blue. Dunno why, just seemed a a way to do it. The execution of digitally painting it blue however did necessarily go as planned on all fronts, but a stepping stone is a stepping stone.

I'm sure I could tweak it more, but I've spent enough hours re-re-repainting it to figure out what I had in mind as I moved along. It hit that point where one needs to take notes of what did and didn't work, and the project must be set aside.

Also, I'm not sure if it's my colorblindness or not, but goofing off with the overlay (a layer of pure orange to dim the intense blue) I found that I actually did like the inverting one, even if it wasn't what I had intended.

MS Paint contests

"MS Paint what you'd do if you had a Jetpack"


"MS Paint your OWN PERSONAL COUNTRIES [sic] CURRENCY"


Sometimes you don't want to take "art" seriously and doodle in MS Paint. And sometimes you've spent too goddamn much money on a fancy drawing tablet.

Both of these doodles were for web forum quick contests. "You have 1-hour to draw..." and the prizes were Steam games that were on sale for sub-$10. Sometimes you churn out a quick crappy cartoon just because it's fun and because not everything needs to be a masterpiece. Also it's good practice to slam out a quick composition.

AYYYYYYYYYYYYYYBRAH "MOTHERFUCKIN'" LINCOLN

Do you think he'd still get elected?

I had that weird zombie-Lincoln face on my mind when I sat down with my coffee and sketchpad tonight. Took way too long to make this, but it was entertaining to do. The time was overspent guessworking the pose... a photo source would have been handy for speeding it up.

Usual method of red pencil, 2B, black smooth ballpoint, did a little blacking with a calligraphy pen (that's starting to dry out sadly), scanned it, tweaked the levels, filled in the rest of the black, and realized I outta digitally "inkwash" it just a touch with a transparent layer of grey. Sorta wish I'd used Painter's digital watercolor layer instead, but I didn't think of it till I started writing this.

Hobos

Sketch I did at my usual cafe Wednesday last week. As with most doodles where I'm leaning back and getting jittery with a cup of coffee, it shifts between controlled and chaotic, and I screw up foot placement.

Key note to fellow people who like it kick back and doodle carelessly: remember to do depth checks to make sure the right limbs are in the front.

WIP - A Shack

It's actually more challenging than you'd think to make a digital image that looks like non-digital media. Already lacking the surface texture, you need to tweak your tools and program(s) according to some approximate of what your eye think it's supposed to look like.


Wanting to do another quick animation, I needed a background. Then I realized I hadn't done any environmental drawing in too long, and never stressed it on myself in college--double whammy, so I got cracking at this. I probably drew 3 or 5 in my sketchbook before starting this, and this drawing has 6-8 layers for various generations, shading, and elements.

Yea, I'm that guy in your art class who re-did something to death, and might not have noticed a glaring problem while working on some minutia I wanted to get better at.

PS: To students of art: It's on your own shoulders to challenge yourself and vary your range of abilities. Especially since almost all upper-division art classes are "You have work due in 3-6 weeks, use your lab time to full effect, I'll be watching."

Moustache Dog in Ink

I was at a coffee shop reading a bit and trolling the intarwebs for something to draw from. I've gotta go somewhere once or twice a week to avoid the temptation of video games in my room. My scanning or Reddit's /r/pics found a mustachioed puppy that I added a few extra details to whilst I quickly doodled it out in pen and pencil. Had a lot of fun actually.

Link to original for as long as it lasts: http://imgur.com/gEC1V

Pick Your Battles

Drawing I did in or just under an hour while "watching" (listening) a dialogue heavy movie.

Mato!!!

I got my new tablet finally. Replaced by Wacom 12WX with a superior model.

Anyway, I had absolutely no idea what to draw on it. So, this was my get-used-to-the-new-toy! drawing.