Widow Maker...

Black Widow/E-Surance mascot. This was going to be for the Weekly Sketch Group on PencilJack, but I was too embarrassed to post it. I tried to go for the solid color approach that worked out alright on the pirate chick I posted earlier, but the further along I got, the more I realized I had no idea how to light this fucking thing. So I did what any god fearing American would do, I quit! I really need to spend some time learning about color and lighting, it's killed enough of my projects that I should start swapping out the word "color" with "AIDS."

Redraw #1

I'm going to indulge myself on the "blog" part of the sketchblog for this post. Sorry...

I was going through the shit in my Photobucket account today, probably the first time I've looked at any of it in years. It's like a time capsule that when you open it, a fist flies out and punches you right in the face. Seriously though, it was kind of nostalgic, and a little surreal. I don't do ANYTHING the same way any more. I used to work mainly in pencil and Micron, whereas nowadays I do a quick sketch in a red animators lead at best, and then do most of the work in the computer. Previously, I favored straight lines and sharp angles, now I try to keep things as soft and round as possible. I put thick black outlines on everything, until I eventually wised up to the fact that doing so flattens everything out and kills any sense of depth. My coloring is still atrocious, but a few years ago, I handled everything with the airbrush tool in Photoshop, giving all my stuff a smudgy, dirty look. Today, I mostly stick to big blocks of color, and while I admit that coloring is one of my biggest weaknesses (still, I can't resist doing it), I think my current technique is at least cleaner. I used to hide the things I couldn't draw, or leave them out completely, as is clearly demonstrated in the following image. All of my figures wore big, baggy pants because I had no clue how to draw legs. I was influenced by anime and manga. I shied away from women even more than I do in real life. Unless I was feeling particularly adventurous, I drew strictly head on, or in profile, with hardly any action at all. I mean, I was a disaster. Shit, back then I used to sign my name to my drawings, instead of the little "diamond" symbol I made that I use now. SO MUCH CHANGE.

It's really inspired me to go back and redraw some of that garbage. Hopefully to see some improvement (I could wipe my ass with most of this stuff and improve it tenfold), but also as an experiment to see how I'd approach the same subject the way I draw now. First up...


I remember how unusually proud I was of this when I first did it. I drew a girl! I drew a girl in 3/4 view! This was also one of the first things I ever colored in Photoshop. As soon as it was done I went flying off to conceptart.org to post it... WHERE. I. GOT. KILLED. "Her nose is too big. Her head is too big. What's up with her lips? She has the neck of a giraffe. You call that a coloring job? Motherfucker, she has an ADAM'S APPLE!" It was one of the first (soon to be many) times I was evicerated on a public art forum. The feeble minds of these godless savages were too infantile to recognize the greatness I had lain before them! I probably made the most progress I've ever made during my early days on conceptart, PencilJack and The Drawingboard, simply because I had my ass handed to me so often, and I was so embarrassed, that I HAD to practice to avoid further flogging. It was awesome.

I'm well aware I'll never be known as a pin up artist. I'm just not very good at drawing women. But at least now I'm not scared of them, and the fact that you can (usually) tell when I'm trying to depict the fairer sex is a MARKED improvement from past efforts. The 2009 version is far, far from great, but I do think it's at least better. I got pretty lazy on the pigtails and feathers, my coloring is wack, I wish I hadn't overshadowed under the jaw, and I'm not sure my proportions are accurate. All that said, no adams apple=WIN! Progress has been made! The composition sucks, but I wanted to keep this as close to the O.G. as possible. My main goal was just to draw less of a circus freak, not to make a print or anything.

Anyway, I'm rambling, but I needed to exercise the heebie jeebies I got browsing through those old drawings. I'm not trying to imply I'm king shit now or anything, or even that I'm any good at all, but I did need to prove to myself that I've made some strides, however small.

I labled this post with a #1 hoping that it will motivate me to do more. Unfortunately, one old habit I've never broken is my incredible, contemptuously disgusting laziness.

Sorry for the long post.

Eye Rape...

Straight up, this is just total shit:



That was my attempt at an unsolicited caricature of my sister. Next time I'll save myself two hours and just say "Hey, want to see a caricature of you I made?" then I'll punch her right in the mouth. Her huge, ghastly, duck lipped mouth, according to what I've represented here. This isn't even a caricature, it's candy colored cartoon slander. It's libel.

That said, I'm going to make an effort to post more out and out garbage here. I know I trash talk my own work all the time, but speaking candidly (meaning, arrogantly), a lot of the stuff I deem failures I secretly am able to find small victories in. Like that "sasquatch" I posted a month back. I mean, it doesn't look like sasquatch (werewolf Hulk Hogan yadda yadda), but I think it's an overall solidly constructed face. It's like, if I made you a shit sandwich, yeah, it's probably going to be fucking disgusting and hopefully you're not going to want to eat it, but if it's got two slices of bread, some lettuce, perhaps a little provolone, I dunno, maybe an olive speared to the top with a toothpick, I still succeeded in executing the basic concept of a sandwich, right? Of course, it's an unfortunate deal breaker that it's got my shit in it, but even if I can't find my car, I'm still in the right parking lot. I think my astute and eloquently worded analogy has gotten my point across. Anyway, I want to post more stuff like this that just sucks out loud. Like, has no redeeming value whatsoever. Mostly to artificially inflate my post count by showing 9/10 of the stuff I actually draw, but also to hopefully stop worrying about presenting crap an allowing myself to move outside my comfort zone.

As an added bonus side effect, maybe you all will come to realize that I am not an infallible art god, and am instead just really, really, supernaturally good.

Oh god, now this is just embarrassing...

Let it never be said that I pull any punches and only post what I consider to be "my good stuff."



So why am I posting this trash? I dunno, maybe in a year or so I'll be able to look it up and laugh at how bad it is compared to what I can (hopefully) do then.

I've never really invested any time in putting my tablet to use, which is retarded considering what I spent on it. I figured I'd start breaking it out and trying to familiarize myself with digital artwork. Holy shit is it hard. Really fun, but HARD. I need to improve my coordination so that I can get the fucker to actually do what I want.

I think this might be my first stab at a 100% digital "painting." I'm not sure though. I'm going to spend the next 9 hours at work pouring over tutorials, as I definitely want to keep practicing and get better.

Fuck, look at her face.