Weekly (whatever) study: Horse

 Horse study I did yesterday, made with Copic markers and based on this photo.

I had never done something like this before, so I'm quite proud of the result. Done directly with markers, no pencil sketch whatsoever. I do enjoy painting so much more with traditional medium than digitally. ^^"

Btw, today's my birthday! Yaaay! =D

Weekly Study: Backgrounds (3) and turtles

More studies. The first one is from a view overlooking the town we live now, not very accurate, but anyway.

And then there are some turtle sketches, because my turtles, Lilo and Stitch, have been living with me for a couple of weeks now, and they're fun to draw. And yes, one of them (that would be Stitch) has a dented shell, she's been like that since she was a baby.

Weekly Study: Speedpainting (1)

Yeah right, "speed" painting. This took probably about 3 hours. But I have very little practice in painting with Photoshop, so I guess that's an excuse. I hope I'll get faster over time.

But this was also a very challenging piece. Lots of different things and complex lighting (which is why I found the reference photo interesting in the first place) with reflected light and whatnot. I love how it turned out, considering I'm so unexperienced with this kind of painting.
The reference photo was my own, taken a couple of weeks ago in our living room. :)

This tutorial on DeviantArt was a big help, especially the tip about not zooming in onto the picture while you paint. Okay, I did zoom in at the end of the process for a couple of things, but all in all I painted on a very small thumbnail.
Oh, and I finally discovered a PS brush I really like. It looks kinda like pastel chalk, or something like that. Really sweet.


PD: Yup, I know I didn't upload my "weekly study" last week. I did make some sketches, which I'll upload next time, but I've been too lazy to scan them. :P

Weekly Study: Backgrounds (2)

What's this? My home office again? Yes, but my new and IMPROVED home office in our new home! =D  Plus I tried to carve out more volume and shading than last time.

(Not so) Weekly study: Backgrounds (1)

Yeah, so I promised to do weekly studies and uploaded just one, and then we moved to our new house and everything got crazy and I didn't do any more sketches. OK, but I do want to re-take that habit!

So today's not monday, my usual weekly-study-day, but who cares.

Here are a few sketches I did this morning:

After finishing today's breakfast. I woke up one hour too early! I thought it was 10, but it was only 9 o'clock. *yawn*

I did some work in the garden... There are these weird concrete slabs rammed into the earth where the vegetable patch was and will be. I have no use for them so I have to dig them out. Hard work, believe me! They are SO heavy! And I dropped one on my knuckles of the left hand (which is now blue-ish and a little swollen). Ouch.

Oh, but there are beautiful snowdrops blooming in various corners of the garden! So pretty. =D

Enough for today. As you might see, my sketches / studies might become something like a diary. Well, not all the time, I guess. But I think it's kind of cool. :)

Weekly study: Characters (1)

Hey, this is my post nº 100! Yay! =D


So... Monday will be studies day, so here we go.

These are some quick character sketches from a really odd TV reality show, called "Who wants to marry my son?", where rich ladies try to find a match for their spoilt grown-up sons. Let me just say it's a horrible, horrible show, but it offered a range of incredibly weird characters. These are just some of them.
Don't worry, I won't be watching that junk again. :P

And here are some sketches of people I did on the train. Not much to say about them, just really quick sketching.

Studies

I've been doing some studies these days in order to improve my skills.

I don't usually draw backgrounds just for fun (I do when I draw comics because I have to ^^" ), and I'm also not very good at digital color (I normally just do rather simple coloring with PS), so this was an exercise for both.
Here's the original stock photo I tried to copy: http://fallowpenstock.deviantart.com...gh-2-280868710

It took wayyy to long to be a study, but I'll gain speed with practice.
Oh, and I'd be grateful for any useful tips about improving PS coloring, I have little to no clue about technique!

There were these nice sunset colors out of the window, so I quickly pulled out my colored pencils and tried to get it down. It didn't turn out too great, but it might give you an idea.
Then I drew my cup of tea while I waited for it to cool down.

And this is my workplace. Yes, it's a mess right now. T'was fun to draw, but now my eyes are so strained I can't focus them properly. I guess I over-did it. XD

Mainly I'm trying to do some stuff without the pencil sketch underneath, to force myself to see properly what I want to draw, since I won't be able to erase it. My eyes are not too happy, but I suppose they'll get used to it.

And that's it for now! I want to try and make at least one study per week, even when I work. Let's see if I can keep up with it.

Tasmanian Devil studies

Okay, I don't usually upload rough sketches like these, but some friends on Facebook wanted to see them, so here they are.
The thing is, in my own comic project I want there to be a tasmanian devil character, so I need to practice to draw those little buggers.

The first one (top left) is basically copied from a photo, then there are those really quick sketches to get down the way the devils move, drawn while watching some Youtube videos. They're really meant to be very rough, it's just all about the movement.

Then I tried to break down their face into something easier to draw without reference (top right), a failed attempt to draw one without reference that looks more like a racoon (the one just below the copied one)... And then i started getting the hang of 'em a little more. The angry one at the bottom turned out quite nice, and both on the other paper are pretty good, too.
Understanding the tasmanian devil's skull (its jaws, precisely) was key here.

Since my tazzies always seem to look A LOT like Stitch (I swear it's not on purpose, they just turn out like that!), I tried the last one with visible pupils instead of all black eyes, but it doesn't really look right. It makes it look like a dog. Which it's not.

Anyway. Lots of text probably nobody will read. But if there's anyone interested in this kind of stuff and actually read it - thank you! ^^"


Related posts:

Kevin

Un bocetillo de nuestro perro Kevin. Tenía la foto por ahí en el ordenador, y lo dibujé como pequeño ejercicio. En fin, nada especial, pero me gusta. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A sketch of our dog Kevin. I had the photo somewhere on my harddrive, and sketched it as a little exercise. So, nothing special, but I still like it. :)