Pencil Lines

While watching a couple episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation tonight, I got the urge to do some drawing. Here are the results! And don’t get too excited, there are only two, really…

Both of the following sketches were drawn with a mechanical pencil filled with F lead. I like F lead better than HB because it doesn’t stain the paper as much, it doesn’t smudge as easily, and it makes it much easier to block things out before going in and refining the lines, making things look much neater. At the same time, it’s not as hard a lead as H lead, which I find isn’t dark enough to produce a strong enough line, and I find it also imprints the paper making it hard to draw again over areas you erase. But Anyway, to the sketches.

Picard has the most wonderful face. I found myself staring at it more than actually watching the episode, so I decided to do something about it and sketch it out of my head. I wanted it to look like a cartoon-ish caricature rather than a portrait, so I tried to exaggerate some things, like his cheekbones, and his strong eyebrows intimidating his rather small eyes.

I do like it a lot. There’s something to be said for cartoony portraits, and I think this is one of my best yet. =) Still need to work on being more abstract and less rigid, but that will come…

Next, the counselor herself!

While watching the episode from season 3 entitled “The Price”, I saw Troi turn towards the screen after Ral first met her in her office and thought she looked absolutely gorgeous with her hair all tousled. So I paused it, saved a screenshot, and sketched it out. Of course, I took artistic license and made her look a little bit prettier (if that’s possible!) and a little bit more in my style, but I still think it looks a lot like her, and it’s not quite as cartoony as my sketch of  Picard. Sometimes drawing beautiful people can be fun, but damn is it hard to get their proportions and everything right when you have such smooth skin and faces like that. Her hair was a tonne of fun to draw.

When I was a little girl I always wished I’d grow up to be like her. I’m certainly not, though if I curled my hair and tousled it up I’m convinced I could get myself to look a little similar…

After sketching it I scanned it and put some colour on it in Photoshop CS:

That was also a tonne of fun. I don’t often colour things, but when I do and I’m able to just relax and finish it however I like I really enjoy myself. I’m especially happy with the way her hair turned out, but as Dennis reminded me, I could have spent a little bit more time on the communicator.

Right, that’s it for me. Any fellow trekkies out there say “Engage!”

Right. I have really been neglecting this place, and for that I apologize. I actually have been sketching a lot more the last few weeks than I have the last few months, so I have a lot to share! I haven’t shared it yet because my scanner was buried under a bunch of stuff and I was too lazy to excavate it. Forgive me!

All right, let’s get started. #1 on our list: Crazy Star Trek fanart and other randomness!

All right! Shake it, Riker! *cough* I think some explanations are in order… my friends and I have been watching a lot of Star Trek: TNG lately. And I mean a lot. And obviously one of my friends found the links to the Jandrew Edits… and now I have a couple more life-long scars. Anyway! That’s where the disapproving Klingon comes from. And the scary “dancing” Riker. Yup. I swear. The rest? I have no clue. Hey, let’s have a close-up of the Klingon dude!

There, that’s better. This guy was drawn from memory; Here’s a picture of the actual disapproving Klingon.*shiver*

Okay, moving on! #2, more Star Trek crap:

That there is a portrait of Captain Heather of the U.S.S. Enterprise. She’s probably staring critically at young Ensign Crusher right now and thinking: “I’m gonna kill that kid. I’m gonna kill him.” Ah, adolescent fan-fiction… We also have a pygmy jerboa, and a beet being chased by a potato peeler, suggested by Dennis. I love Dennis.

#3! A couple girls.

I’ve been inspired by some awesome cartoony artists such as Kt Shy and feeling woefully incompetent at the whole fashionable cartoony women thing.  Not getting too far, but hey, practice.

# 4! Cartoony Portraits!

Dennis is such a unique looking person. So here I am attempting to make him look less unique through cartoons. A few different attempts, still not there; man, I wish I had awesome rad cartoon skillz. Like Aido. *sigh* There are also attempts at cartooning myself, but again, need practice.

Right! Next, #5 and #6, are Matrix-y!

Right! So, a looooong time ago I drew myself as a Matrix character. After showing this to Dennis recently we began talking about what he might look like if he existed in the Matrix; and then I visited friends and it’s spread to them too. Here we have Dennis and d7; both of which are unfinished. I’m more satisfied with Dennis’ than d7’s; I’ll probably redo his at some point. Either way, you other guys need to send me ideas for your Matrix versions; I’m looking at you, Darthmaus and Dabrota! Oh, and can you brainstorm Ben’s too? I’ll have to ask some other friends as well…

Right. Now, here’s where it gets good! #7: Six-headed Giraffe Hydra!!

This is another Dennis-ism. While hanging out with friends (and after drawing the Matrix!d7) I asked for some silly suggestions for a drawing and Dennis suggested a “six-headed hydra giraffe.” Here we go. I love silly suggestions.

Talking about silly; are you ready for this? Here we go! The pièce de résistance! #8: Hitler. On rollerskates. Being chased by a rhinoceros.

I freaking love you, Dennis. You guys have no idea how much fun I had drawing this. I think the proudest moment of my life was finishing this sketch.

Right. That was so liberating. Now I’m going to bugger off and go play some Sims 3; or watch some Star Trek: TNG. Or draw som’more. Hot damn, I love my life.

My very good friend d7 suggested on my sketch suggestions post: “Cheesus, the god of cheese.” Here’s the result:

I know I said they were just going to be quick sketches, but really, this is what I was hoping for; getting an idea that would inspire me to do something fun. I really enjoyed this.

While talking with Dennis about it, the idea of Wallace playing the part of Cheesus popped into my head. It was perfect! What better person to play the god of cheese than the man that built a spaceship in his basement just so he could go to the moon for an afternoon to sample the local cheese? It was Dennis that came up with the idea of playing on the Sacred Heart imagery; he’s such a genius.

I used these pictures mainly for reference: Wallace and Gromit, the Sacred Heart, and Mary. This is the first time I’ve ever drawn Wallace or Gromit; I wonder why I’ve never done so before? They’re so much fun.

Oh, and those are supposed to be large circular wax-covered bricks of cheese floating behind their heads and serving as halos. I was going to put a Wensleydale label on them, but figured I was already pushing it enough as it is.

Here’s the original sketch:

Sketched it out on paper with pencil before scanning it. As you can see, originally Wallace had a beard/goatee to better match the Sacred Heart reference. In the end, though, I thought it took away from the fact of it being “Wallace” and not just a picture of Jesus in Nick Park’s Wallace and Gromit style. Wallace can wear a wig and pretend to have hair for once, and we’ll just forget about the beard for now, hehe…

I worked on the line art in Painter X, which was actually much more frustrating than I thought it would be. I think the problem was that I was working way too large; the original resolution on this is ridiculously huge for something so simple. Also, the simplicity of the picture meant a lot of long, straight, and circular lines that were very tough to draw smoothly in such a high resolution. Just ask Dennis how much I was ranting and grumbling all the way through it! I swear I must have drawn, undo-ed, and redrawn every line in this picture at least a dozen times. Not my best line art ever, but it serves its purpose! I’ve learned my lesson for next time.

I ended up colouring it in Photoshop CS, since Painter X is still kicking my ass in that respect. Used one of Photoshop’s default brushes for the whole thing, which is a brush I really love the texture of. I thought it would be great to give it a painterly texture. I’m really happy with the look of it.

The rays were done using the polygon lasso tool; I just selected a bunch of “ray” shapes, feathered them a bit, and then drew inside the selections with a lighter brush to give it the look I wanted. I also inverted it and used a darker brush “behind” the rays to deepen the contrast. I like the effect it gives, and it’s quick and easy. =)

Anyway… I’m really happy it’s done (now Dennis can stop bugging me about it). This is the first coloured thing I’ve done in a long time, and I’m really happy with it. Yay!

For those who don’t know, Wallace and Gromit are the intellectual property of Nick Park. He’s rad. And for those who don’t know Wallace and Gromit; what’s your problem?! Go watch the shorts now!!

Not too long ago I came across Brian Oakes’ Caricatures Blog and I was enthralled and fascinated. I haven’t been able to get caricature out of my head since.

The thing about it though, is that I have no idea how they do it. How do they take a regular old face and turn it into something so exaggerated, so hilarious, and so compelling? It’s something that blows my mind.

Yesterday I was patrolling DeviantART and LastScionz’ deviation “Jelly On My Collar” was in my message centre. I had it open on my screen while I got a burst of energy to draw, and for a lack of any idea of what to draw, I just turned to his face.

It doesn’t look like him in caricaturist terms; I probably should have tried to make the top of his head rounder rather than square, and there are lots of other things I would change too. But I do like it, just in “cartoony portrait” terms. I love doing this kind of cartoony work; a lot of my old highschool and college binders and notes were filled with sketches and doodles of people with crazy, exaggerated features. It’s a lot of fun.

Anyway, just thought I’d share! Drawn with F lead in a mechanical pencil. Look, there’s shading too! How fancy.

Well… maybe not “back”. I should, um, be very frightened if the 30’s were back, actually.

Was sitting around with Dennis, was thinking about some of the things John K. have said in his blog posts, and suddenly got this urge to sketch one of those old-timey, spaghetti-legged characters with the pac-man pupils.

And, I dunno, an anteater seemed like the obvious choice. Isn’t it?

So here are some sketches.

This was the initial character sketch, where I just drew everything down using broad shapes and trying to keep things simple. But I’m sure John K. would say that there isn’t enough construction; he’s just a bunch of lines floating in space, there’s no meat behind him. Ah well, I’m still learnin’ here!

Asking Dennis what I should draw him doing next, Dennis replied an action pose, throwing something. So, next sketch:

I can already tell there’re a lot of things about him I have to work out, but it was fun to try and figure out how his body would work from a different perspective. Maybe I should try a turn-around and see how well I can reproduce him from other angles?

Then I figured, where’s an anteater without their long tongues?

Now this one looks the least like the original character, but I think it has the most construction. Ah well, practice… I should have drawn his tongue straight for the most part and flipping back and forth only at the end; maybe I’ll do that the next time I draw him. =)

Anyway, it was a fun learning experience. I liked him so much I brought him into Painter, inked him up using the scratchboard tool, than dragged him over to Photoshop CS to “colour” him up:

I used only the basic web colours for his shades; only six different shades of grey, including black and white. I figured that would simplify it and give me the best tonal range. Maybe not… I’m not as satisfied with the tones, but I’m not as certain what is wrong with them so I can fix them. Added a couple paper textures from mayang.com to finish the old-timey look.

It was only after I finished this up, saved it, and uploaded it to DeviantART that I realized I forgot his ears. D’oh! Ah well, that’s something to remember for next time.

There’s something I really like about the weight of him; he’s big and bulky, yet he has that adorably droopy nose and long arms that makes it look like he’s almost melting. I love that. I’ll have to try some more oldie cartoon characters, this was a lot of fun to do!

If you were to make an old-timey, 1930’s style cartoon character, what would you do? I’d love to see anything anyone else comes up with. =D