I don’t sketch enough methinks. And when I do, I have a tendency to be drawn toward animals – especially my personal favorites. I can’t help myself – with no real direction but a desire to draw something, I usually find my paper decorated with felines! This week I’ve really wanted to draw, though very little is turning out the way I would like. I still would like to work a lot on my shading, but to do that I need some drawings to shade… and I’m not up for using anything older right now.
Here’s a few of the things I’ve come up with recently:
This is a sketch of a big guy named “Shongshar.” He is a character in Clare Bell’s novel, “Clan Ground”. He’s an intelligent big cat similar to a sabre-toothed cat and acts as something of an antagonist in the book. I didn’t get around to coloring this one yet ’cause I’m not sure exactly what I want to do with it.
This one showed up later as I was sketching – something quick, simple. Something I could color quickly. Like I said, I’m still trying to practice this new way of shading – finding its strengths and its limitations as I work.
This particular sketch is actually quite a bit larger than the size shown. The creature is a Khajiit from the Elder Scrolls series. I, in particular, was thinking of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which is an awesome and enjoyable game. This isn’t the character I play in the game – only an idea. She is a Khajiiti mage.
To finish things up here, let’s break away from all the felines. This guy showed up as I was searching the internet for pictures to inspire me. I can’t really claim credit for the pose at all… but he is cute!
He’s based off of a photo from cuteoverload.com. I was working quickly and sloppily.
I decided to practice a new shading technique in Photoshop. I created a small sketch, quickly, just for the purpose of doing so. The creature that came into existence wasn’t something of my own creation, but rather someone else’s. A Pokémon – called Bulbasaur – showed up on my “paper”.
He balances playfully on two legs, a broad smile making him that much more endearing. I proceeded with shading in black and white on one layer, than adding another layer for color alone. It works somewhat like oil painting with one layer for defining details, light and dark, and a final layer for color. However, in this process it is reversed in some sense. I added color last, but underneath the black and white layer.
1. This is what the layer with the color looked like alone.
2. The layer I used to add the black, white, and gray for shadows was copied into 3 new layers. One of these layers had color added to it.
3 and 4. The shadows are the same layer, just layered one on top of the other for more contrast and impact on the shadows.
The final picture has a very simple background, as once again my intent was merely to practice the new shading technique in Photoshop. 😉
Cute, huh?
Rather than leave my front page blank for the time being, I think it might be a good idea to at least give you guys some stuff to look at. All of these sketches are older – they were all drawn around the month of August last year (2011).
Sorry if the layout in this post is awkward – I’m still trying to figure this out. I’m also trying to figure out what exactly looks best when posting multiple pictures. Might just start doing thumbnails. 😉
These sketches come from a small sketchbook a purchased several months ago. I bought specifically because of its colored paper. The paper and the book itself are recycled, which is awesome. I wanted to be able to work with white on the paper, which was part of the reason I wanted something with color in the background rather than white paper. As you’ll see, some of the results are pretty neat!
The first sketch I ever did in this sketchbook!
The B-Man himself!
A fanciful design for the mythical creature known as a satyr. From Greek mythology.
Amri's Sketches 