Scenario: Elevator

I’m going to try a new way of presenting my sketches. I will draw based on a scenario. In this case, I thought how would anime people on an elevator look like? Or possibly behave? Thus, the following image.

I started this sketch from the outside in. I think I made the girl’s neck on the left too long (too giraffe-y), and I really messed up the facial expression of the middle girl. I wanted to convey the sense that she was creeped out by the guys looking at her. After drawing her face, I’m not sure what expression that is. I also started to draw clothes but decided to save that for another post.

Another try

Here’s my second attempt at getting back into drawing-form again. I’m playing with different hairstyles and different face perspectives. One day I’ll actually draw a full body (gasp!).

Learning again

Recent events have freed up my time considerably (no TV), so I now can start to sketch again. Nearly a year has passed and I’ve found myself trying to get back where I was when I stopped. Luckily, I wasn’t that good to begin with so here’s hoping the new year will compel me to improve.

This drawing is quite crude and as you can see, I’ve started to remember how to draw eyes, heads, and hair as I went along. I realized that I cannot start to draw the eyes first. I remember a documentary on Garfield creator Jim Davis which showed how he drew his comic strip. He started with the eyes first and from there everything fell into place. I believe Matt Groening did the same thing. However, I myself have found that drawing the outline of the head and getting that right is of the utmost importance. From there, I can start to see how and where the eyes should go and then everything else just sort of flows. Forgive this drawing, hopefully my next one will turn out much better.

Apologies

My goal is to put a few new sketches up before the end of the month.  The cold weather has inspired me.

Emotion Practice part 1

I decided to see how little variations in the eyes, eyebrows, and mouth could produce somewhat varied emotions. As I started to sketch the faces (I started in the image below from left to right), I realized that posture also makes a huge contribution. In fact, I think it sells the last figure completely.

The first sketch was my first attempt at any type of emotion, and I think it turned out well. In the second one, I tried to convey a sly look. After I outlined the upper torso, with her hand on her hip, the image started to come together. I then decided to see if I could do a character who had just woken up. The view in this one is from above, which I tried to illustrate with the hair. Her shoulders are hunched, her left arm is spread, as if she were on a bed.  Click on the image below to see a larger version.

Hairstyles

I’ve found that, as I’ve been drawing anime women, the hair makes a huge difference.  I could make the perfect, most symmetrical face but if the hairstyle isn’t larger than life then the sketch loses spirit.  The following drawing shows some hits and misses in terms of hair. 

Practice

I really used to be into anime.  I loved the mature storylines that american animation just did not provide.  Thus, I started practicing sketching the anime face.  Luckily, the formula is pretty similar and easy to duplicate.  I found that, for women in particular, the crazier the hair style, the more natural the drawing seemed.

Perspective

My favorite comic book character growing up was the Silver Surfer. I was drawn to his near omnipotency, his ability to rearrange molecules, and his status as one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe. Shallow, sure, but I used to draw him all the time and this actually helped me become a better artist. He is the most none-sense character to draw. His proportions had to be perfect, he couldn’t be too fat or skinny, and he was practically naked so no capes or hoods. It was an ideal starting off point.

I was heavily influenced by Ron Lim, who was in my opinion the standard for the Sliver Surfer’s look. My take on SS draws very much from him. However, one of Ron Lim’s weaknesses, imo, was his inability to show the grandeur of Galactus. Ron was the artist on half of the Infinity Gauntlet, so he was not unfamiliar with drawing on a cosmic scale. The following sketch shows the Silver Surfer with his back to us facing Galactus’ right eye. It is not the best layout, but I wanted to show from Norrin Radd’s perspective. Yes, that really is my drawing of his eye and yes, I know it’s very vague.

Oh, and this is the real Galactus. Not the Galactus from the Ultimate universe and the piece of trash second FF movie.

Stylized

FX was showing Batman Begins, and like the day before, I thought I’d try my hand at the protagonist.  I used to draw Batman when I was in middle school, but it was a very stylized interpretation.  I guess in that way I was influenced by Batman: The Animated Series.  I’ve found that the stylized view of this character is actually my preference.  Perhaps it is because I see that  I am drawing the legend of Batman rather than Bruce Wayne.  I admit that this sketch is somewhat amateurish, but I really have no desire to perfect it any more.

Recollections

I was watching Spider-Man 2.1 on FX tonight, and decided to revisit my childhood.  I loved drawing Spidey way back when.  I followed comic books pretty closely and always admired Spider-Man’s agility and the artist’s ability to draw him in crazy poses.  I was influenced mostly by Erik Larsen’s run on Amazing, then Mark Bagley and to a lesser extent Todd McFarlane.  Mark Bagley’s take on young Peter in Ultimate is very manga-ish, very different from his old take on the adult Peter.  One thing I always struggle with is Spidey’s muscle mass.  Too much muscle, and his flexibility loses credibility.  Unfortunately, my laziness and lack of erasers have resulted in this: