Evolution of a Drawing

Sometimes I forget to talk about what this blog was meant for. As my crude subtitle would suggest this is meant to chronicle my journey from being the slacker of an artist and person I used to be to becoming... something more. It's a journey that is still in the making, and it involves long days with a pencil or a stylus but is more rewarding than any other thing I've set myself to in the past. Soon I am wrapping up a phase of my life that has lasted a long time, preparing to graduate from the Maine College of Art. Wrapping up with my thesis work has kept me from posting as much as I otherwise might like to and I still have a bit to do, but I thought it might be cool to share the evolution of my most recent piece from thumbnail to final.

So here it is, feel free to skip the words and just look at the pictures:

The first is one of about 10 to 12 thumbnail sketches I did, it wasn't my favorite but my independent study mentor saw promise in it so I went on to develop it.

 

 I had to turn out a full illustration from this point in two weeks, which is a tight deadline for me. Perfect in that I need to speed up my process though. So I went straight to the computer and started to change around the composition in order to get something more dynamic.

  

 I decided the direction was promising but I wasn't convinced about the perspective or my giant's (whom you may recognize from previous posts) intention to harm these little barbarian spearmen. So after a bunch more sketching frustration I ended up with this sketch.

 So this is where I am at now, with a fur coat type thing added in I believe I hit the mark a lot closer to what I was trying to achieve than I would've not all that long ago, and in a shorter time frame. My next lesson though? It's time to learn to render in Photoshop from life, something I haven't given myself a great chance to do and something that ought to make the below image achieve something far greater than it is now, so that I can spend more time worrying about what's being said than trying to get metal to read as metal.

It's all about the detail shots!

Here's a bunch of pics of a just next to finished sculpt of my little giant.

The last one is a scale shot for all you D&D nerds like myself. I believe that this guy falls into the colossal category on the play mat.

Skeletons are Neat

Sometimes a shot of something or a part of something in progress is as cool as the finish, in some cases possibly cooler. I kinda hope this isn't one of those but I strongly suspect it is... either way I'm pretty certain this awesome metal hand doesn't go with the rest of the sculpture.

A few hours ago it looked like this:

  

Now it looks like this:

 

It's still in need of some tender loving care to get just quite right, and hopefully by the end of all this sculpting (tomorrow perhaps!?) it'll look more awesome than his bionic hand.

Here's a picture of the full figure...:

...and a lovely mugshot:

He's missing a few teeth right now but that will be fixed soon enough.

Picknit

Here are the most recent updates to some of the character drawings I've done. Some have minor adjustments from recent postings on this blog, while I believe most are brand new here but have received major editing within the last week, particularly as I discovered how bad the first two characters I drew were after the experience of drawing the last six.

So (re)introducing; a Nobleman from Nortmark, distinguished veteran of many a border skirmish, a Noblewoman from Pellidar, groomed in the lap of luxury, a High Priestess from Vitrusca, whose decree can set a nation to war, and an elvish Mercenary of the Nula'Hiashk, whose centuries of practice with blade and magic make her a foe to be reckoned with.

In this second set; a Warrior from the barbarous tribes of the Varang Kol, who refused to just die when a raid destroyed all she loved, a Stonemason from the Underkingdom Schutgreich, an artisan with as much delicacy as strength, a mysterious Lord among the Wild Elves, whose sinister deeds are more vile than most would care to know, and finally an Orc Elite from the Fel'Krag Badlands, whose most prized possession is the belt of shrunken heads he's collected from the fields of slaughter.