Pencil Lines

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.

As I mentioned in my introductory post, I’ve been in a bit of a slump creativity-wise for the past couple of years. I’ve had many urges and wants to draw, write and otherwise create, but my brain would be empty of ideas to actually put down, and anything I did come up with would be ruined by my impatience and frustration.

So when I pulled out one of my pens the other week and started randomly sketching on a whim, I was very excited when I actually managed to draw something. Something other than a mess of confused and irritated scribbles! Yay!

So here is the result of that sketch fest that lasted about a half-hour:

No references, and certainly no ideas. Just random sketching. Had some issues with the character in the lower left corner, as you can see; I have a tendency to deface the sketches I immediately hate. The horse at the bottom of the page and the figure with it’s back towards the viewer on the right were contour line drawings; drawn with a single line, without lifting my pen. I thought it would be fun!

Here’s my favourite part:

Creature. =)

A day later I did a second page:

I used a reference picture from DeviantART for that eye there, but I have since lost the link to it and my searches are turning up nothing. How unprofessional of me.

The mermaid was a remix from an old design of mermaid I used to draw constantly when I was fourteen. I must say, they’ve gotten a lot creepier since then!

My favourite part:

I really do enjoy drawing with ink. There’s something so beautiful about a single line, and being forced to use what you put down without the ability to erase. The drawings seem so much purer somehow, and it’s always fun to add more and more detail. They come out looking so delicate, and it really helps to teach you how to steady your hands.

Next we have a drawing of a horse I sketched with blue col-erase pencil a couple months ago. I inlcude this because I am known for drawing horses, and I thought I’d show people the fruits of my labour in all things equine from the past year or so:

‘Eh. Could be better. I’ve fallen behind a lot in my quest to be better at drawing equines, though I hope to try and pick it back up again! I have done better than this, and I want to get back to that.

Next is what I came up with yesterday, after watching “Enchanted” and “Mary Poppins” and being inspired by memories from my youth spent incessantly rewinding VHS tapes in front of the TV. Didn’t draw anything reminiscent of my youth, or anything really pertaining to the movies (except for a bad cartoony bust of Mary Poppins), but I’m glad I had the drive and the patience to draw anything at all!

I apologise for the vulgar language- er, actually, no I don’t. I’m actually quite proud of that there derierre, I’ve been trying for the longest time to catch those curves and I think I might have acheived it this time.

I love caricatures and stereotypes, and love drawing them. The lady in the center is one of my attempts at depicting a stereotype, and I’m quite proud of her. I imagine her name is Mabel, and she works in the office of an elementary school. Perhaps she brings in home-made cookies every Friday for the staff and her favourite students to munch on. I imagine she’d be the kind to play favourites, while doggedly asserting her fair nature. Hey, everyone has to have faults!

That’s it for my first sketch-dump. I promise, future entries will be smaller; at least, I hope they will be. I just wanted to share all these things at once, and see what happens.

Thanks for reading. =) We’ll see what I come up with next!