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.

I'm GONNA be a comic book artist.

So, it's establiched that I want to be a comic book artist but I should say that I am going to be a comic book artist.

Well, yes I'm just about 33 and sure I'm a mom who homeschools her two kids and has other commitments and activities but why should that present any roadblocks? I have enough talent to do the job. What I need are discipline and skill and heck, all that's required to master those is practice. Lots and lots of practice.

Oh cripes.

But it can be done. Drawing is easy. You need just four things; a pencil, paper, an honest eye and a trained hand. Check, check, check and check.

Wish me well.

Actual drawings coming soon.

First post

So. I want to be a comic book artist. A penciller to be specific.

I've wanted to be one since I was a teenager and I plowed through issue after issue of Uncanny X-Men and Avengers. Pretty much all of my money was spent at the local corner store where they had one of those, "Comics sold here!" racks. Looseleaf meant for school duotangs ended up all over my bedroom floor, covered with sketches of my takes on John Byrne, Alan Davis, Jim Lee, Mark Silvestri, Art Adams, John Romita Jr. and many more artists I adored.

I could draw too. Sure, most of it was pretty derivitive but heck, I understood proportion and scale. I had a good sense of movement and was great with expressions. Or so I remember.

I'm going to dig through some of that stuff and post it here. Then we'll see how accurately I remember it. My weak points were pretty obvious though. Men looked girly and I never did backgrounds. But heck, after seeing Rob Liefeld and Chris Wozniak's stuff and one particularily godawful penciler in a couple of issues of Alpha Flight I knew I at least had a chance if I stuck with it. If those guys could suck and still find work, there was hope for me.

However, I did not stick with it. I floundered a bit after high school not working or in minimum wage jobs. I was involved with provincial youth politics in my spare time and drawing devolved to an occasional thing. Then I met a guy, got pregnant and married (yes, in that order) and then didn't really draw, aside from the odd neopet or dragon for the kids to colour for about 8 years. 8 years. Holy crap.

But I dug up my old comic book collection 6 months ago. I read a couple with some gorgeous stuff by Art Adams. I just recently read Astonishing X-Men with John Cassaday (oh good lord, a new idol to worship!). And boy, I have that bug again. And boy, my art now sucks the big one.

Got to go tuck some kids into bed.