Market sketch 1

"wave".
aka "snake mushroom shotgun".

Heroes: Might & Magic 1 fan art, Warlock Units (Sketch)

Heroes: Might & Magic has a very special place in my heart - it's the first computer game I felt a strong want for, as well as the game that opened up the world of western fantasy to me.  I've always wanted to pay homage to the game, having spent many days in middle school scribbling griffins and dwarves in my notebook, imagining stories of residents who live in that magical world.

http://www.heroesofmightandmagic.com/heroes1/warlockcreatures.shtml

Fish shop of Happiness

Next 3D project for fun, starting with a sloppy sketch as usual.

I like fish.

Yeaaah.

Meet Marra, plus some studies

 Finally got around to doing another character sheet.  Meet Marra, the confident rune-warrior with a stubborn streak.  She has the face of an angel but fights like a demon in bloodlust.

Some studies from photo.  Trying to focus on structures, as well as trying to add some of my own idealism into these figures.

Hordak -wip

WIP for game artisan challenge - redesigning a Saturday Morning Cartoon.

He-man and She-Ra look cheesy as hell nowadays, but I have fond memories of watching it growing up.  I wonder if that's where my love of fantasy themes and shiny things came from.

charcoal heads

Once again, I find myself in an incredibly lucky situation.

I've been feeling stuck when it comes to drawing.  I hate my drawings for being safe/stale, yet shy away from pushing it so far into stylization that it would become cartoony.  It's more of a mental block than anything.

Right at this time, they got a kick-butt instructor for our usual wednesday night life drawing session.  The instructor is an old-school commercial artists who stresses the needs to make people look attractive.  Having my head firmly stuck into the realms of realism, I disagreed inwardly but decided to give it a try.

Then it finally clicked.  Knowing what the ideal would look like does not take realism away from me.  It gives me more freedom to push things one way or another from the idealism, and allows me to capture the essence of people.  Pushing shape design is the only way I can break out of my current stalemate against myself.

Glen Orbik, you are such a badass.  Thank you.

girl with gun sketch

what's a pencil sketch

pencils.. they are like photoshop paintbrush tools, except with more pressure sensitivity levels :|

Building study

  Ref:  http://penandink.homestead.com/files/OldForge.jpg

quick study before bed.  sloppier than usual...

Building study

Ref: http://penandink.homestead.com/files/cathedralarch.JPG

there we go again, learn to draw hard surface stuff attempt #... I have no clue how many!

Sketch night

Monday sketch night.  Random doodle and perspective is really wonky... there's no free transform when drawing on real paper :P

Sett Archer sketch

Same universe, different culture.  I'm not quite sure where this one's going to go yet.  Hopefully I'll figure things out at some point.

Astra Trader Sketch

I loved writing fantasy stories in high school, and some of the stories evolved to hint at a larger fantasy world.  I hope to make a game out of this world at some point, but I thought I should begin doing sketches now rather than waiting for myself to learn scripting... which in theory would happen once I feel happy about my art skills... which may never actually happen :P

The world's populated by humans of different racial and cultural groups, rather than high fantasy humanoid races like elves or dwarves.  The people of Astra is kind of like real-life Gypsies.  They roam about solo or in groups as traders, seers, or mercenaries.  There are no known Astra settlements or kingdoms on any map. Adding to the mystery and taboo is their ability to work strange, voodoo-like spells that do not belong in any officially recognized school of magic.

Study

Did a lot of eyeballing this time.  Maybe by tomorrow morning I'll begin to see all the problem areas...

Photo reference: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Sa89d1cd2ZMbbrEMwWqenG22ArooDorJpDHOjphbi8yXpsUJKnyiMriCF15DgwMQHYwWqCzMmlu_DyjSlZgqO3wEE1OdJVaSiXa13MspXJd_dgXUCRG9jwa0N4tqPCsvdaI8uz3Am-A/s1600/Catedral_Alexander_Nevsky.jpg

Study

Study from photo. There are very obvious vanishing points in this photo.  More interestingly, the middle row of buildings are obviously not parallel with the rest of the set-up.

Just saw off my friend who'd been staying with me since Diablo 3 launch.  Had a great time catching up with her.  I also have a lot of pent-up energy to draw now that I haven't been drawing in my own time for almost 3 weeks!  So back to the daily studies I go.

Study

cleaned up and blocked in local colors and where the shadows go.

Study

Decided to try to do a study from photo.  Didn't realize how complex this would turn out until I started doing it.  I still have no clue how to deal with structures that do not fit into a 90 degree grid...

ref photo:

http://www.dreamstime.com/rococo-architecture-style-thumb20077340.jpg

Study

Spent half an hour learning how to use path tools to make my own perspective grid. Short exercise today, gotta run to work!

On the plus side, I found an awesome watercolor artist on Deviant art yesterday.  I'll be doing studies from his paintings this week.

Source:
http://fav.me/d11t9j1

Study

Gino suggested that I could use an actual ruler to draw straight lines on my cintiq.  The simple elegance of this solution blew my mind.