RSC Arts

Sci-Fi Vibes: Illustrating an Epic Female Alien

From Sketch to Color: Creating an Alien for Take Me To Your Leader Tuesday

I love a good art challenge and there are so many good ones these days. So I was excited to participate in a fun art challenge called Take Me To Your Leader Tuesday. This challenge was thought up by talented comic artists Marshall Lee and Scott Serkland.

I follow both these fun and energetic artists on youtube. They started the challenge a while back and decided to start it up again. The challenge is to draw an alien and post it on your social media with the hatch tag #TakeMeToYourLeaderTuesday. I posted my alien on my Instagram page.

I wanted to draw someone fun and show the whole figure. I’ve been focusing on drawing faces lately. So I knew I wanted to draw the full figure. I drew a female alien with a staff and antenna on her head. First I started off with a sketch using my hb mechanical pencil. Then added details and shadows in the pencil sketch. I feel the drawing came out well. Maybe a little stiff, but I like it.

Then I inked the pencil sketch and added a few extra hatch lines. I’ve really started enjoying inking my drawings. I then colored the inked drawing with Prisma color markers. I tried to add shadows and depth with the colors. I colored the character’s skin blue and didn’t even realize I made her look like an Andorian from Star Trek. Andorians have blue skin and antennae on their heads.

This was a fun challenge to participate in. I really enjoy Sci-Fi so drawing an alien was right up my alley.

Unlocking Creativity: Exploring Croquis for Character Design

Example of Croquis Templates by Ralph Contreras

Streamlining Character Creation: Embracing Croquis Templates

Character Design is one of my favorite things to do. In fact, I’ve probably created over 100 characters in the past few years. For my comic book, design challenges, and just for fun. but sometimes I feel like I’m spending way too much time just drawing the form. So I decided to give Croquis a try to let the creative juices flow. A Croquis is a figure template you can trace over and add a character’s costumes to.

Character created by Ralph Contreras using a Croquis Template

A few years ago I created a female Croquis for my other blog Comic Book Graphic Design. I took that template and extended it to have 3 figures. Here’s one of the characters I created using the Croquis. A Roller Derby type character with spikes. It was fun just to add the elements of the costume to the character and not have to worry about drawing the form. I traced the figure and added goggles, spikes, and a big “A” on her belt. She has a very 90’s X-Men feel, well at least to me, lol.

I’m happy with the way this character came out. I’ll have to write a short comic story with her in it or put her as a background character in one of my comic book projects. I’ve included a youtube video of me drawing over the Croquis and creating this character.

Quick Sketching: Capturing the Essence of a Face

Finding Beauty in the Unfinished: The Story of a Sick-Day Sketch

A few weeks ago, I started a face drawing that I didn’t finish because I got sick. Despite its incomplete state, I think what I drew came out good. Even though I wasn’t feeling well, I embraced the challenge and focused on drawing as much as I could. I was able to sketch this full-page drawing of a Japanese man.

This was a quicker sketch, about 10 minutes with my 0.7 HB pentel mechanical pencil. I’m particularly proud of how his eyes came out. Sometimes, things take unexpected turns like getting the flu, but we can adapt and make the best of the situation.

Going Big: Exploring Larger Faces in My Sketchbook

Challenging Myself to Draw Bigger and Bolder Faces

I recently completed a few new face drawing in my new sketchbook, and I wanted to challenge myself by using the entire page for one face sketch. Usually, I fit around four faces or heads on each page. So it was a challenge for me to fill the entire page with just one face.

While I strive for accuracy in my sketches, it’s important to note that my sketchbook is all about capturing and expressing creativity, rather than achieving perfection. So, I embraced the imperfections in this drawing. Her eyes may be slightly oversized, and her lips a touch too small, but overall, I’m still very happy with the outcome of this sketch.

As with many of my sketches, I found the original reference photo on Pinterest. It’s an incredible platform that provides a wealth of inspiration for drawing.

Faces Unveiled: A Gallery of New Portraits from My Sketchbook

Sketching Expressions: A New Sketch Book and New Faces

Here are some faces from my new sketchbook. I’m always buying new sketchbooks because they inspire me to keep creating. I have a small stack of unfinished sketchbooks though, lol. I found a nice variety of different faces on Pinterest, which served as a great reference for drawings in my new sketchbook.

I’ve been challenging myself to draw as many faces as I can. A few months ago, I attempted to draw 100 faces as part of the 100 Heads challenge. While I didn’t quite reach that goal, I had a lot of fun in the process. Now, I’ve decided to start again and continue drawing as many heads as possible. It’s not about the specific number this time around, but rather about the practice and improvement.

Each of these head sketches took me about 20 to 30 minutes to complete. I wanted to strike a balance between capturing the essential features and maintaining a sense of spontaneity in my drawings. And I must say, I’m really pleased with the way they turned out. I learn something new and gain more confidence in my artistic abilities.

Exploring Shadows and Highlights in a Side View Portrait

Side view sketch drawing by Ralph Contreras

Quick Sketch with a Focus on Light and Dark

Here’s my latest sketchbook entry. I decided to draw a side-view portrait. I found a photo of Zoe Saldaña in her iconic Gamora makeup as my reference, although I didn’t focus too much on capturing her likeness or the details of the character. Instead, I wanted to experiment with shadows and highlights, emphasizing the play of light on the subject matter.

For this sketch, I took a different approach by incorporating more dark shading than I typically do. I’ve had success with using shadows in some of my recent drawings. So I wanted to create go deeper and bring out the contrast between the light and dark areas. It was a quick drawing session, lasting about 5 minutes, I used a 0.7 HB Pentel mechanical pencil for the drawing.

Although the resemblance to Zoe Saldaña or Gamora may not be immediately recognizable, I’m very happy with how the overall sketch drawing turned out. It served as a valuable exercise in exploring different shading techniques and capturing the subject with shadows.

Leap into Creativity: Sketching the Energy of a Jumping Pose

*Drawing set up of Ralph Contreras’s drawing table*

Embracing Dynamic Movement: A Sketch Inspired by Pinterest

Here is another full-body sketch from a reference I found on Pinterest. I really wanted to draw something with a lot of movement. And I found this fun photo of a dude jumping in the air. He shows a lot of emotion on his face too. His arms, legs, and back are bent backward. It’s a very dynamic pose and I really enjoyed drawing it.

I put the image in my Amazon Fire Tablet and placed the reference on a shelf I made for my drawing table. I tried to use a lot of shadows in this illustration. In the drawing, I elongated the figure a little. It’s not a perfect rendition of the reference image. But that’s ok, it was a fun exercise in drawing the figure. I drew this sketch with a 0.7 Pentel HB mechanical pencil and ad a good time with it.

Finding Inspiration on Pinterest: Drawing a Cool Swordswoman Pose

Drawing set up of Ralph Contreras’s drawing table

Embracing Imperfection: The Beauty of Quick Renditions in My Art

For last night’s sketching session, I searched on Pinterest for something to draw. I found this cool swordswoman pose on Pinterest. Pinterest has proven to be a treasure trove of great reference photos and inspiration to me these past few years. It offers a bunch of resources and references for artists like myself.

The original photo was taken by Jessica Truscott, AKA as faestock. I pulled up the image on my Amazon Fire tablet and set it up on a makeshift stand I made for my drawing table. The photo was the perfect reference for costume and pose, providing me with a foundation to work from.

Instead of trying to draw a perfect replica, I approached the sketch as a quicker rendition. My sketchbook has been focusing on faces, but this time I wanted to challenge myself by drawing the whole figure. I drew this sketch with a 0.7 Pentel HB mechanical pencil. I’m really happy with the way it came out.

The Power of Colors: Revamping My Main Character Sylvia Light

My Process for Redesigning the Color Scheme of Sylvia Light’s Armor

Last night, I spent some time working on costume redesigns for one of my characters from an upcoming webcomic project. Specifically my main character Sylvia Light, also known as Aurora Light. I was redesigning her basic look.

The idea of Aurora Light came to me a few years back when I was challenged to create a superhero team for The REPLICANTS Project. Sylvia is one of Lilith’s warrior daughters and the greatest warrior in her army.

In her original look, Sylvia was a blonde with gold and red armor. Here’s a blog post with her original character design. I wanted to switch things up for her redesign and make her a brunette. Here’s a blog post where I 1st attempted to redesign her look. I also experimented with different hairstyles to see what would work best for her. I drew her three times with small variations in her armor and hairstyles to see what would look best.

I placed tracing paper on top of the sketches and used markers to come up with different color schemes for her armor. I tried out several color combinations, including yellow and black, gold and yellow, gold and black, and gold and red. This helped me to narrow down my options and find the best color scheme for Sylvia’s new look.

Redesigning Sylvia’s costume was a lot of fun for me. I’m someone who loves world-building and character creation, and working on her costume redesign was fun. I’m happy about the changes I’ve made to Sylvia’s look.

Seizing the Moment: A Quick Sketch on a Post-It Note

Taking a Mental Break with Post-It Sketching

Seems like I always want to draw and create art at work, but when I get home I struggle with keeping that motivation. So I decided, why wait? I’ll just do a fun quick sketch on a Post-It note during my workday.

I drew a horned female character. With armor and a mythic warrior vibe, she would fit right into my First Legacy webcomic.