Pencil Lines

Well, all finished!

I’d like to say thanks to the awesome Teresa of Lost In Wonder for the wonderful advice she gave me on DA. Of course this is just a small practice painting, but I am new at this, and her advice really helped me decide what my next step was going to be. Please give her blog a visit, she’s insanely talented, and I absolutely adore her paintings. You won’t regret it!

For sale, if anyone’s interested! Originally offering for $5, but feel free to make an offer if you’d rather pay less. It’s 6″x4″, postcard sized, has a postcard address/stamp layout on the back. Front is pretty much just as you see here, except without the website watermark.

Keep reading to hear me ramble about the process and what I learned. =)

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Right, so I’ve been trying to think of ways I could practice my watercolours without ruining too many things, and thought up the idea of making a series of small illustrations of dog breeds and/or cat breeds or something and painting them. So excited of this prospect was I that I ran out at the first available chance and bought an awesome post-card sized pad of watercolour paper just for this occasion!

I actually defied my law of procrastination and sat down and started one on Tuesday. Here’s how far I got:

Now I’m looking for suggestions/critiques/advice/what-have-you. I know very little about watercolours, really only the very basics of how to use them, and I still have a long way to go.

What I’d like some advice on if you’ve got any:

Shadows: Should I add another layer of shadows, possibly in a purple colour? What areas do you think would benefit the most from this? How stingy/generous should I be with this to really make it pop?

Background: Simple gradient, simple shadow on the ground, something more elaborate…? What colours do you think would work well in a background? Should it fill up the whole rest of the paper, or form a smaller rectangle/oval around the subject? Should it have hard edges or fade into the white of the paper? I’m pretty stumped here, actually!

Pom detail: Is there enough detail on the pom? Too much? Should I attempt to do more, and if so, what would you suggest? It’s kind of hard to see from the crappy photo I provide, but I did try to lift some of that yellow off the edges of the fur and in certain places to make it seem lighter. I also went in once with a darker orange colour and added some little swipes with that; blah blah.

Right. So, basically, I suck at colouring things. I have very little practice, and a lot of the time my coloured pictures turn out looking very preschool-ish. Since colour in watercolour paintings is so important, I thought I’d ask for advice; and any technical advice/critique you have to give for now, and for the next one would be so welcome!

Thank you in advance for any help you’re able to give; and if not, I hope you like the look of this (poorly drawn) pom. =) My internet was down when I started drawing it so I couldn’t look up refernces; I hope it’s recognizable. If not, I’ll do better on the next one!

Anyone interested in purchasing this for $5 when it’s done, or others in a series like this?

Here’s a comic I took about three hours to do last night:

I’m not sure if I have to explain this one or not; but sure, why not. I’m not sure if it reads well enough, so I might as well spell it out. =)

In Pokémon, obviously the point is to catch as many pokémon as possible. You do this by going out, walking around in long grass for a while, until a wild pokémon attacks you. At this point, your job is to get its HP to as low as you can possibly get it without allowing it to faint. If it faints, the fight is over, you win, you go home. You have to get its HP as low as possible, chuck a pokéball at it, and hope that it’s now weak enough to not be able to break out.

The thing I’m wondering is; why can’t you catch a pokémon that has fainted? Is there some ethical, chivalrous rule saying that a fainted pokémon is now off limits, or something? You’d think that a fainted pokémon would be really damn easy to catch. All you really need is a sack or something.

Anyway, so that’s what I’m trying to make fun of here. And even though I make fun, I must say, I am one of those oldschool Pokétards. I was ten years old when Pokémon was released in North America; I was the target demographic, and hooooo boy, did they hook me good. I knew everything there was to know about pokémon and the games from Pokémon Red through to Crystal; when Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald came out I was in highschool, and trying desperately to pretend that I wasn’t that much of a geek anymore, and I couldn’t afford a GB Advance anyway, so I never played them. I did, however, replay Pokémon Red and Crystal dozens of times on my old GB Colour…

But now they’ve re-released my favourite games of the series; Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver for the DS (it’s so hard to believe those were released ten years ago!!). So now I’m reliving my childhood again, going on epic adventures with my Quilava and having a gay old time.

Anyway, yeah, that’s what inspired the comic. I needed to get my pokémon excitement out somehow, since none of my current friends are even remotely interested in it. So yeah! Hope this is still amusing for those who don’t give a damn about Pokémon stuff.

I do have a few other sketches, but it’s really hard to pluck up the energy to scan them at the moment. Maybe I’ll share them a bit later. Until then… I’m going to see if adding colour to this comic makes it any easier to read.

This one was a lot harder to draw and figure out than the others, and even so, I’m still not sure it reads very well. Ah well, that’s what practice is for!

The first four panels are a true story. Dennis is a huge stickler for little things like pronunciation, which is rad and I love him for it. I learn a lot, and I don’t look like such a git the next time! Still, I thought this was a rather funny idea and thought I’d make something of it.

In the betta tank there’s supposed to be a small figurine of a Zerg Overlord from Starcraft II. Not sure if it translates, or whether it just looks like a bunch of weird scribbles. I suppose it would read better if it had colour or at least greyscale gradients to help make out the shapes.

Look! Something semi-topical! Go, me!

I have some time off school, and so I’ve been doing some sketching.

More Donald Duck because, hey, let’s face it, Donald duck is freaking awesome. What’s also awesome, is Michael Sporn, who’s been sharing a lot of gorgeous Donald Duck model sheets on his blog. Thank you so much Michael.

And this is trying to use what I’ve learned in designing/drawing my own old-timey animation character, Roy the Numbat. Of course, I’m using a lot of old Mickey Mouse in his design until I’m confidant enough to try something else. =)

His nemesis, Wilmer the Anteater, can be seen a few posts back. Roy’s a young orphan during the depression. Wilmer has a job as a construction worker. Hilarious (and rather sad) antics ensue as Roy tries to steal Wilmer’s lunch.

That’s the idea, anyway. =)

Edit: Oh crap! I just realized I’ve still been signing my work ‘09 instead of ‘10… darn! Will have to fix that.