Chalk Full of Dreams

A character design for a graphic novel

The story part of my friend’s graphic novel is complete so I thought I’d post up a character design I did last week of the protagonist. At her request, I did a rough front pose in colour. Alas, the project has taken another direction and I am no longer a part of the process. C’est la vie.

Sabrina closeup

A wet miserable day is perfect for painting. Wish I didn’t have to go eat now. I’m so in the zone.

Sabrina – step 3 – paint

Before getting too involved in the details, I’ve laid in some flat colour with which to show the client. I’ve added the pillow colour and flooring on different layers so that I can make quick changes should the need arise.

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Sabrina – step 2 (ink completed)

I’ve completed inking the piece digitally and have submitted it to the client to ensure she’s happy with the likeness. I could also have prepared this traditionally in pencil but I often find it more efficient to do this in Photoshop because I can add another layer underneath to show where the bones sit. This helps me to see any obvious errors in the pose and to see how the fur will sit.

Sabrina – steps 1 and 2 (clean-up and ink)

As the client has made her selection of the pose and composition she prefers, I begin cleaning up the thumbnail by placing tracing paper over the initial sketch and overlaying rough perspective lines in blue. I cheat a little on the perspective as it’s not necessary to be 100% accurate for this piece so I don’t bother agonizing over lines being a little off. I’ve been told that as long as it looks correct, it is correct – at least to the viewer. Mind you, in something more obvious, I would take more care.

Life drawing at the TCW – Tuesday, March 13

I went life drawing for the first time since last year (also around this time) at the TCW (they hold their open life drawing on Tuesday evenings) and thought I’d post one of my drawings from that session.

Sabrina commission thumbnails

Now that I’ve moved and my office is less of a disaster zone, I thought I’d attach some thumbnails I completed for my friend’s pet portrait commission. It’s been on hold for a while for various reasons but I will now be resuming and plan to post pics of the progression.

Mad scientist finished

Well, it’s been a while since my last post but I have a good excuse – honest! Okay, I should probably resign myself to the fact that I am a lousy blogger.

Life drawing at the TCW

I’m making an effort to go life drawing again as it’s one of the things I regret not spending enough time doing. I know it’s a good exercise to keep up with as it trains you to solve problems quickly and, in turn, helps to increase the speed with which you draw. I find life drawing is a lot like working out. The more you do it the better the results. And like working out, it’s hard to get past those first few times.

Tonkinese study

As I have some upcoming pet portraits to work on, I decided to do a little practice drawing of a Tonkinese cat from photo reference. My cat happens to be a Tonkinese – wonderful little guy but doesn’t seem to like having his picture taken. Thank God for the internet and Google!