daily sketch (digital): "Gandoon"

Two points on this guy- "Gandoon". 

1.) You remember the old Star Wars movies? I love how easy it is to remember all of the planet and alien names in those. That sounds like a weird thing to focus on, but I never forgot Kamino, Geonosis, Tatooine, Felushia, Endor, Hoth, etc.How are they so easy to remember?? Maybe I'm just a nerd and just read and saw them too much lol. Anyway, I like to name my characters, even if they're just sketches. Sometimes when I name my characters I get a little more attached to them and try to improve them more than I would normally. "Gandoon" isn't a perfect name, but I think it matches this guy and is more memorable a name than some fantasy genres throw at you. In some games I hear names like Ash'katar or Malegnenos or Slivinthoss... like,  REALLY hard names to remember! I'm telling you, I think names are an art form.

2.) Art wise (what I'm supposed to be talking about on this blog) This is a subtle practice at digital cell shading. It's not very apparent, but I'm still getting better at it. There's no colors just shadows really. Honestly this would be more of an example of a new technique I'm working on for coloring- that is coloring with the lasso tool. On a digital class I'm taking at Schoolism.com- I'm taking a recorded class taught by Andrew Hou and when cell shading he'll lasso and fill shadows on a sketch using the paint bucket tool. It seemed really weird at first, but I'm getting a little better at it. This guy is one of my early sketches I've done the shadows with purely using the lasso and paint bucket tool. Not a great example, but hopefully you get the idea.

daily sketch (digital): "Liv & Dino"

     Every day I wonder what to sketch. When you're a kid it always seemed so easy. Looking back it never seemed like you didn't know what to draw, but as a kid I didn't hold my feet to the fire and draw when I didn't feel like it either. 

     I remember watching a lecture by Glen Keane where he mentioned that in every project he ever took on he would try to get better at something. Even if he was doing stuff he didn't care about or things that he had already done a number of times. For example: If you're animating a dog, and you've already animated dogs before, then he'd step up his game by studying small motions and movements dog makes- the perking of their ears, the the way they drop on their front legs when they  want to play, etc. 

     By learning a little at a time, or by taking note of small, otherwise insignificant details I think what you learn starts spilling over into more of your artwork. I remember noting how far up the eyes of a turtle are on their head the last time I was on a jog by a pond near my house, and after that I started to realize it had begun to show up in not only my drawings of turtles (which weren't many) but anything turtle-like. I'd draw aliens with turtle-like heads and was surprised at how much more turtle-like they looked after I made sure to include that one small detail. Ever since whenever I don't know what to draw more often I think to draw something I'm not used to drawing (and off of reference). All this to say today's sketch was drawn to see if I could learn something of rhinos- and it worked! After looking at some reference, funnily, like turtles, rhinos eyes go further down on their head than I could recall off the top of my head. "Dino" the Rhino, and "Liv" the Otter are just a couple of silly sketches with a bit of surprising knowledge behind them- maybe that's why Dino looks a little smug.  

daily sketch (digital): Monstrosity

I wanted to say this is the last half-baked sketch for some time, but I think as far as sketches go it does at least have a sort of conceptual development value(?). Anyway, this was another doodle developed from a blob. Sort of rushed this one out like the last, but now I'm caught up on daily sketches. 

daily sketch (digital): Battle Girl

So obviously this one is REALLY rough. I'm going to need to really start fleshing these out a little more but I guess maybe I can get away with the technicality of it being a sketch... well... it's still a really rough sketch. Anyway, sorry for the slackin', I keep falling behind one day and having to double down the next day to compensate (so I end up rushing out a couple of half baked sketches). Trying to learn from this and keep scheduling my time better.

daily sketch 23 (digital): "Crabo"

That's not just some ordinary crab, it's a "Crabo."

daily sketch (digital): Kor'Timni

A grasshopper-like humanoid with some subtle East Asian influences in its garments. By the way, this will be the first sketch with a video! The entire process was recorded and will be uploaded as a speed paint soon.

daily sketch (traditional): "Tortan"

Working on improving those watercolor skills as well as putting colors in shadows. I always run to black but this is an attempt at putting some blue instead.

daily sketch (traditional): king

This is a pretty cheap one, but whatever. Enjoy this simple doodle.

daily sketch: butterfly wing study

Sorry no sketches yesterday. I was feeling pretty sick. Expect two sketches tomorrow!

daily sketch (traditional): Happy Easter!

daily sketch (mixed): man-o-war study

My dad is pretty big on the "Master & Commander" book series and has gotten me a lot more interested in old wooden ships than I thought I could ever be. I'm also surprised by how technical illustrations of these ships get. 

Daily Sketch (mixed): "Do Not Pet"

I recently found out about the phrase "petting the line"- it's when you keep applying strokes to a line in a drawing until you get the right look/ shape. Pretty normal thing to do, but sometimes you can go overboard and get distracted by minute details. I drew this with all single strokes, no petting involved. 

Daily Sketch (digital): "Farmer Toop"

Daily Sketch (digital): "Hopper"

Daily Sketch (digital): "Sock Eye"

My coworkers are pretty big on hunting and fishing so this one is for them.

Daily Sketch (traditional): "Cabblosz"

Sketched this during lunch at work today. Tried to draw something with loose lines and tried to not overwork it. Is it a crab? Is it a lobster? The world may never know.

Daily Sketch (digital): Faces

I'm trying to get better at characters and something I've never taken much time with was actual faces.
Above are some sketches of slightly different styles.

Daily Sketch (digital): "KuhKlang"