So it was my birthday...

...Yesterday. It was nice. My husband took the kids out for the day and I did nothing for a few hours but watch TV, eat chocolate and work on the pics I posted yesterday. Then he came home and brought a cake, Chinese takeout and a present. The present was a sheet of bristol board.

I know most women wouldn't be thrilled with bristol board but this one came with a small backstory. When I decided I was going to start drawing again and become a penciller I didn't say much to my husband. I started the blog and mentioned it to other people but not really to him. I thought he'd think it was silly, think it was another hobby but nothing serious. So I held off.

This blog and the sister blog have done fairly well though. My drawing got better and is now almost half decent. I started buying a few small supplies. And I started to tell him about what I wanted to do and showing him my drawings. He doesn't get really enthusiastic about stuff I do, or doesn't seem to, so he'd look at a picture and say, 'That's nice,' go back to watching some version of Star Trek and I'd take it away a little deflated. One day however we were talking a bit about what I was doing and I mentioned that I'd read awhile ago that pencillers generally work on bristol board and their work gets reduced to comic book size. I said I've have to work at scaling up my figures and drawings. Something said and then forgotten, a throwaway line.

And then yesterday he gave me the bristol board. Shucks. You think a guy doesn't much care, doesn't listen and then he picks out this perfect little gift that says not only has he listened but he has every confidence in your ability to do what you want to do.

Gert and Old Lace

It's Gert from Runaways. There haven't been many other comic book deaths that had me choked up the way I was when she died. Probably NO other comic books deaths in fact.

Not completely finished but I sort of like it that way.

Chubby, smart, funny, jewish, near sighted, in love...what a great character. I'll miss her.

As always, just click on it to enlarge.

Oh yeah! I'm 33 today.

It's my birthday today...Forgot all about that.

Magik

Another drawing jam over on drawingboard.org. I decided to do these regularily because I really don't have a lot of discipline and tend to leave pictures unfinished. The jams are pretty informal but there are artists over there I'd love to earn critique and compliments from so I'll work at this. This month's superhero jam was focused on characters who are or were dead. I chose Magik because she was the character who drew me into Marvel with the Claremont/Buscema mini-series.

I have to admit I really don't care for inking and colouring, at least not yet. Once I get more practice or once I get some real tools instead of doing it digitally that may change but there's just something about a slightly worn 2b. The way it still has a point but a slight turn gives it a perfect shading edge...

Anyhow, the pencils and then the unsatisfactory Gimp-finished final version.

Nightcrawler/ Wolverine

I think this is a failure. I did it for a drawing challenge thread on a comic book forum but looking at it this morning, it's messed up. The whole right side seems undersized and the structure of that side isn't right either. Still, it's much better then I could have done a few months ago. His face is okay I think. It feels nice to be getting comfortable with a pencil again and getting back to what I could
do when I was younger.

Flapper girl inked!

Well, I downloaded GIMP and using my cheapo optical mouse managed to ink the flapper girl picture. Granted, if I was using real pens and ink or I'd had a tablet or even just an optical pen mouse it might have been easier but I don't think I EVER want to ink again. Not that I won't have to but I'm convinced the penciling is the easy stuff.

But wow, it sure makes a picture look better.

EDIT: You know what you should do before you spend several hours cramping your wrist to ink a picture on a program you've never used before? Google. Because apparently there are MUCH easier ways to go about the inking thing.

Ah well, I never look before I dive when it comes to learning new stuff so why stop now?

Flapper

Another picture I did for a drawing jam on drawingboard.org, this one had a roaring 20' girl theme. I don't think I'm done with this one though. And I sooo wish I had some inking supplies.

New sketch

Sorry for not posting for a few days.

I joined Drawingboard.org, a forum for artists whether amateur or proffessional (Stuart Immonen posts there!) so I could get more critiques and see the techniques of other people out there. They have a monthly drawing jam and this month it was Keira Knightly. I did a 5 minute sketch and thought I'd share it here. No, it doesn't look like her but I think it's okay.

The time? The space?

Holy crap. Now I know I'm going to pencil a comic book one day, that's my goal and there's no way I can get out of that now but finding a time and place has turned out to be more difficult then I thought.

Actually, time isn't so much of an issue. I can always get some drawing done between stuff, it's just that without a commited time it's often unfocused sketching and it comes in 15 minute intervals. And a place...Oh boy. This is a 760 sq. foot house and the only half decent drawing surface is my cluttered kitchen table. I'll have to get my ass in gear and clear it off though because drawing on a nursery rhyme book while sitting on the couch can sometimes create weird angles that mess with perspective.

And I may need some actual supplies. Not that the Barbie pencil and smiley face pencil sharpener aren't cute but my daughter would like them back soon.

So a tupperware container, some good pencils, an electric sharpener (they're sexy - trust me, the other doodlers reading this know that) and my own dedicated stash of paper. Oh, and one of those white erasers. I can stash them away in the container at suppertime and bring them out when I need to work. On my soon-to-be-clean kitchen table. And work (especially now that it will compete with my course homework) may actually have to be scheduled. The, "Let Mommy draw or risk losing your head," time.

Anyhow, here are a few little sketches. The slumped over lady is a frustrated me. I really like these little sketches. And Melchior, I think you're right about me being able to do dynamic, that superhero flying toward the viewer is pretty good, eh? :)

Any comments or suggestions about them?

Faces and expressions

I was sketching faces last night. I think I'm not bad at expressions and i really enjoy them. It's pretty damn neat how with just a few pencil strokes you can convey emotion. A reminder, clicking on the image will give you a larger picture.

1) that was an attempt at Wolverine and I think the nose is right but the face is too soft.

2)She didn't get pupils because she looked a little evil without them. I like her.

3)I just like that one a lot.

4) An attempt at Northstar but his chin was too strong.

I think the men turned out okay. Do the faces show something of a consistent style though?

Nude references for drawing.

One of the comments for Muscle Men included a request for a link to some of the references to nude men. I found a great thread in a art forum that has a huge resource of links so I'll add it to my permanent links in the sidebar for any other artists needing the resource. There you go TL!

Screw the last post.

DUMB post. Who am I to think I shouldn't be working on backgrounds AND lively characters? I don't even have a style. I should be working on all my drawing skills and seeing what comes out of the mix at the end. It's all about (*sigh*) work.

Dynamic drawings

Not MY dynamic drawings. But Stuart Immonen. He's the penciler for NEXTWAVE: Agents of H.A.T.E. It's a fantastic book written by Warren Ellis that, incidently stars Monica Rambeau as the leader of a group of superheroes. Immonen and Ellis' Monica is better then my redesign (earlier post) and much better then any treatment she's gotten before. But I'm off track.

Dynamic drawing. Stuart Immonen.

I realized something when I was reading Nextwave, namely that Immonen is not big on backgrounds at all. Often, there is no background and when there is, it's not piled up with jaw dropping detail. I think that's because his people are so active. His characters are always moving or expressing something with their faces. Who needs background when the characters are so full of life?

What I think is that to tell a story in panels the background can play as much a role as the characters at times. When that's the case you don't need characters who are expressive. But if you lay off the background, you've got to make up for it in how you portray your people.

One of my problems with penciling is I don't do backgrounds. The detail bores me. Which is not a good admission to make, I know, but it's a lot of work. But my characters aren't dynamic either. They're static, they sit on the page and pose. Either I've got to buckle down and work on backgrounds or I've got to buckle down and get to work on drawing more characters in action. Since styles like imminence appeal to me, I think I'll have to work on the action bit.

Look at that body!

I mean seriously, check this girl out! Her face is questionable but everything about her pose is solid. I like!

The only thing I don't like is the quality of the scans. I've got a cheap little Lexmark All-in-one but it doesn't really show much detail on my pencils. A new scanner is NOWHERE in our budget however so I think I may just have to do bigger pencils.

Muscle Men

Men have generally been harder for me to draw. All the muscles (a requirement for comic book men), the bumps, the lack of familiar curves... Women seem easy because the lines are longer and gentler. Or at least that's been my excuse. I sat down this morning with some paper and websites with nude men (whoo hoo!) and found something out.

When you actually sit down and put some work into drawing men it's not hard. Men, wonderfully enough, have beautiful lines too and are very similar to women. Who would have thunk it? I mean, it's almost like men and women are from the same species or something! The hips have the same bones, the breast tissue connects with the same lines. I can do men.

Draw men I should say. eep.

The only problem with finding reference photos to work off on the internet is that the vast majority is porn. The poses, male and female, are seductive or downright dirty and not good at all for comic book reference. Well, okay, Greg Land and all the 'bad girl' artists might disagree but *I* don't think they make good reference pics.

Anyhow, a sampling of torsos and faces below. I've got to work on legs too as I have a real problem getting them right in relation to a body. I'm quite happy with the sketches though.

Oh shit.

This is perfect. I just realized my address was combicbookwoman.blogspot.com.

ComBic.

Yep. That's something I'd do. :)

Monica Rambeau and Sue Storm

Okay, Monica's new duds. Simple I know but her uniform from her last series (when she was still Captain Marvel) was just godawful. This is a powerful women and someone who has led the Avengers at times. She needed something simple but a bit more authoritative. So classic black and white, short gloves for punching, real boots, a half mask around her face and an optional tan jacket with a slight military theme. And no more secret identities, I mean, her last name is Rambeau! Sounds tough enough for me!

I also did Sue Storm from Fantastic Four - Just because I was interested in drawing her. I'm not convinced either sketch has a head that works well but they didn't look half bad and I didn't want to go back and mess them up.

I did a comic strip!

This isn't a complete strip or anything and it was knocked off quickly to show in an thread on an athiest forum (I'm christian myself but I like to hang around with the bright and thoughtful people there) to make a discussion of a story about Elijah in 2 Kings a little lighter. It surprised me because the panels mostly worked. I didn't think I could compose panels well but this isn't bad! I do like the evil kids too though they're very cartoony. Elisha himself has a head that's a little to big for his body but he's getting there.

Basically it's about some kids teasing Elijah (or Elisha) about being bald. He curses them and then a bear bursts out and eats the 42 kids (or lads depending on translation).

Some pictures.

I have three little sketches I did last night to display my weaknesses.

First;


Pretty lame and obviously I'm not to strong on anatomy. Heck, I drew big monster feet on the guy because I wasn't sure how to draw his legs and feet. And I think he looks a little feminine. Not a bad thing mind you, but all my guys look girly because I tend to draw women a LOT more then men.

Second;


Not horrible but not strong or confident. Not much for details and I'm not sure about proportion.

Last;


Okay, I just threw her in. She's not really what I want to draw but she demonstrates for me why women like her get drawn. She was easy. A few quick lines, some long legs and perky boobs and she's good to go. Flawed but passable because of the boobs.

Anyway, criticisms are welcome and appreciated.

Gone, gone, gone.

I have looked all over my house and all through my basement and can not find the box that held all of my sketches from my teenage years. I must have thrown it out. All that's left is one duotang of sketches I did in my early 20's.

I'd been holding on to that stuff because I thought I'd miss it. And you know what? I don't. Sure, I'm a little put out that I don't have it to post here and to contrast what I do now with what I did then but aside from that I'm not feeling much regret. It was just stuff. I can make new stuff.

I really AM starting with a blank slate I guess.

Next post I'll see if I can put up some of my current sketches.