Leonidas

This is Mina's husband. Another rough sketch from the book.

I'm Home!

So here's another sketch of Mina I did from a picture from the book. The dark sweater and pleated skirt seems to be her standard uniform.

I'm at my parent's house for a little vacation (left Thursday) and brought my sketchbook fully expecting to be able to post more pictures from here. Unfortunately their scanner doesn't work.

Tuesday I'll be home again and I'll post some more sketches!

Mina

I've been sketching from the book, "A Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador," (The story for the graphic novel) and decided to try a sketch of Mina...



It doesn't quite look like Mina. Mina was very pretty but her prettiness had a sort of frail quality that my sketch doesn't have. Regardless, I do like the sketch. It's one of my ten minute specials and I've come to realize that my best work happens when I'm quick, decisive and use strong strokes. I think the sketch reflects that.

Wow. My last post was May 8th. I'm quite embarrassed about that. May and June have been a bit of a trainwreck in all sorts of ways but that's no excuse. At least I have a couple of sketches to post.

I had lost the source of picture for sketching some of the people who will be in the graphic novel but yesterday it popped up in a place a least expected and I did a little sketching today.



Just a couple of sketches of Mina here. I used to look at other people's sketchbooks and wonder why they had little notes of very obvious details on their sketches. I think I know now because I put my little notes there to hammer into my head what I had to remember about her clothes.

Oh! And I'm Doing a Graphic Novel!

I've been busting with this news for awhile but kept forgetting to ask the other person involved if he minded if I post about it. See, this other person asked if I'd like to work with him on a couple of projects. Draw the graphic novels he wrote.

Whoo hoo!!!!

I wore a smile for about a week straight after he asked me. It's one thing to know you can do something but it's a whole 'nother matter to have someone else believe you can do it. And to have that someone else be someone who knows his stuff, knows comics, how to write and be someone you've respected for awhile...In the words of Widget (you geeks know who I mean), "Oh gosh, oh golly, oh wow!" It's like I poured the concrete last summer when I started this blog but this offer finally set it. Now I can walk on it, now I've got a foundation to really start building on.

And boy, I've got to start building. This is going to present challenges I've really avoided up until now. Places where I've put aside practice, like landscapes and paneling, in preference to easier stuff. Frankly, as excited as I was when I was asked, I was equally as scared. I almost had the sense that my bluff was being called. I was being dared to do what I kept yammering on about. I have some skills but they're far from a complete set. So can I do it? Guess we'll see.

Anyhow, Thank you for asking me partner. I'm thrilled that I'm working with you.

Really Ruff Sketch.

Forgive the pun in the title but it really is apropriate. I'm alone in my house today as my husband took the kids and ran away for the day so it was the perfect time for some real sketching. I've been doodling all day trying to sketch out a few scenes for Aleaxndria Jones and decided to take a break and work on Rammy, her dog. I think I have him. I hope I have him.

Here's the sketch;


Now it is really rough and probably not fit for viewing but it's the first one I've done that seemed to have some personality and life and I thought I'd put it up. I'm not sure how much End Rammy will look like Beginning Rammy but it will likely be pretty darn close. I'm not one to change much after I've got a doodle that feels right. Now, I just have to see what Denise says...And give the poor dog a body of course.

Alexandria Jones

Over at Let's Play Math, Denise has begun publishing a series of adventures she wrote about a girl named Alexandria Jones. I joked that I'd love to do some pictures for Denise and she took me up on the offer. I'm shooting for 3 or 4 different scenes Denise can use.

I realized that I have a rather snobby frame of mind when it comes to drawing comic book characters as opposed to those who have a more cartoony, animation-style look. The latter was what I wanted for Alexandria. Bigger eyes, simpler features and less detail...The kinds of stuff that really appealed to me when I was younger. And I thought that would somehow be easier then a comic book style or drawing from real life. Ha!

I had a really tough time working on the proportions of a child's body and the shape of a child's face. I had a horrible time coming up with something distinctive. I somehow thought a cartoonier style didn't need to reference real images and hours passed before I finally picked up a National Geographic, found a child's face I thought would work and got the right shape for the face. Lesson learned.

Finally I had a half-decent sketch. Of course when Denise saw it she immediately saw a fault I hadn't. The glasses can look like bags under Alexandria's eyes.


It seems that sometimes the more you work on an image, the less you see of the faults. It's a blessing to have fresh eyes look it over so the obvious can be pointed out to me.

After that I took the sketch over to Drawingboard.org. I wasn't quite sure how to handle the glasses. There, Brianl took it and did a quick reworking. He fixed the glasses (changed the style as well) and suggested some finishing stuff I hadn't bothered with yet. I love the people at drawingboard.org.



The glasses could still go but they are a sort of universal symbol for a healthy intellect which is a quality of the character's. That and my daughter was thrilled to see that the character had glasses. She has to wear them and she's commented before on how so few TV and book characters seem to have them.

So now I think I'll work on some figure sketches and start planning out a few scenes. I also have to work on Rammy, Alexandria's dog.

Some Girls with Clothes for a Change

I picked up some National Geographics last night and started drawing. I'll post the results over the next few days.

These pictures were from a story on the Ukraine done in the eighties. The first is a girl herding a cow with a stick. I didn't bother with the cow. I'd like to ink this one or see someone with skill ink it so I could learn a bit about inking.



Next is a ballerina. It's a good example of what happens when you don't have your paper at the right angle. Proportion gets skewed and a woman's heads starts growing from her left shoulder.

Not About Todd Goldman

This kind of stuff confuses me as much as it angers me. I know it's been going around for awhile but it shouldn't be old news until it stops.

Because I wanted to get in on this.

Faces Only a Mother Could Love

The post title was the theme for this month's 'girl jam' at Drawingboard.org. This was my kind of jam as good looking characters are nice to look at but you can get a look more character into an 'ugly' face. Ugly is the wrong word though. None of these pictures are of pretty women but some of them are certainly attractive in a way. I really like the big woman with the mullet and could look at her for quite a while and The girl with the long nose looks like she has a bit of a sad story to tell.

My Most Viewed Drawing...

...According to hits I get from Google Image searches anyway. It's one of my favourites so it's fitting I guess. A lot of people out there doing 'flapper' searches.

Yes, this is flagrant post recycling but I just thought it was interesting anyway.

New post!

So something happened recently that's got me all excited about drawing again. We've been a little busy at home with some family issues and some changes to our homeschooling and drawing kept getting lost in the shuffle. But now I have the prospect of a project to work on. A real, honest-to-goodness project! I'm over-the-moon excited and extremely grateful to the person who gave me the opportunity and my fingers are just itching for pencils and paper again.
So...More boobs. But all they ever seem to post over on drawingboard.org are nude females.

Frustrated

I have to say, holding on to a goal is tough. I've never really bothered with that before as I'm more of a floater then a committer when it comes to things I want to accomplish. I tend to simply shift goals rather then stick to them.

I decided I wanted to be a penciler this summer. For the longest time it seemed inevitable. I knew that I was absolutely going to be one. Then my drive slowed down. Christmas was coming and there are lots of little joys involved in that like baking and telling stories while snuggling with the kids that can push bigger thoughts out of a person's mind. A thought of being a comic book artist sometime in the future really loses it's immediate grip when you're feeling fullfilled by the accomplishment of baking a damn good gingerbread (damn good!).

So coming out of christmas I was in danger of shifting goals again. I really like being a housewife after all, isn't that enough for me? And then, in January my husband I decided to shift focus in our homeschooling. Up until now we've been radical unschoolers meaning no lessons and simply taking learning for granted as a part of life. Our basic philosophy on learning hasn't changed but we've picked up a math curricullum for our 8 year old and I'm getting into planning some more focused studies. So again, drawing is put aside as I search for activities and downloads on ancient Greece for my 8 year old (She loved the Illiad, such a sucker for gore, and today we're making tunics, pelos and himations (ancient greek garments) for her Barbies). It's exciting and fun stuff. But it has it's dangers.

It's a problem of immediate pleasure and joy trumping the longer term goals. It's a matter of trying to find the balance between enjoying what I'm doing right now and putting work into goals for the future. Putting aside the plans for the mini trebuchet (middle ages next month!) and picking up the pencil and paper.

That damn discipline thing now that the sense of being destined to be a penciler has faded a little.

I'm not sure how much sense that made but I thought I'd write it down anyway as it's been frustrating me for awhile.

Anyhow, here's a sketch I did after a Frank Franzetta picture. No comparison of course but good lord, that man loves his booty.

Finally back.

Apologies for the long break. I have done no drawing for the past couple of months as it was filled with baking, family time and cleaning. December anyway. January has been more a matter of lazing around after the christmas rush. Anyhow, I though I'd post a couple of naked ladies I did for Drawingboard.org's drawing jam.