drawing Archives - Page 2 of 13

Superheroine Strength: Marcio Takara’s Female Design Course

Marcio Takara: Female Character Design for Comics online course at Domestika

From Inspiration to Creation: Insights from Marcio Takara’s Female Design Class

I’m always looking for ways to better myself and my art. While on Facebook this week, I kept getting an ad for a figure class on Domestika taught by one of my favorite comic artists, Marcio Takara. I’ve been a fan of his for years, first discovering his artwork on Deviant Art and Tumbler. He’s drawn for both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. I really like his approach to drawing the female super-heroine form. Both feminine and strong at the same time.

I decided yes; I want to take this online course by Marcio Takara. The class name is Female Character Design for Comics. What’s very cool is that Marcio will actually look at and evaluate your character designs. The comic art course is broken up into several sections, these include tutorial videos by Marcio Takara and character design assignments. We share our designs in a group forum.

I haven’t finished the online course yet, but here are a few of my initial female character designs. A hard-knocks street-level hero, a martial artist/psychic character, and an alien or underwater warrior. I’m both having fun and learning in this class.

Creative Community: Participating in the Six Fanarts Challenge

Fan Art Frenzy: Diving into the Six Fanarts Challenge

I’m a little late to the Six Fanarts Challenge. What’s the Six Fanarts challenge you might ask? Well, it’s an art challenge put out by Visual Artist Melissa Capriglione on her Twitter account. The challenge is for artists to ask their followers/fans/friends for six characters to draw.

The artist then draws the six characters in a template of portrait boxes that Melissa Capriglione created and shared on Twitter. The fan art is done in the artist’s style. I do love a fun art challenge, so you know I have to participate too. I learned about the Six Fanarts challenge from other artists posting their work on Instagram.

I asked my followers on Instagram who I should draw, and these are the characters they suggested.

Alucard
Anne Shirley Cuthbert
Aelita Schaeffer
Batman (Michael Keaton)
Gekko Kamen
Kratos

Thanks to everyone who suggested these characters. I had fun drawing them.

Artistic Exploration: Observational Drawing of Armor and Swordplay

Finding Inspiration from Reference and Observational Drawing

There are so many great images and photo references on Pinterest for observational drawing exercises. I found a cool image of a woman in armor and her sword in a cool parry position and instantly wanted to draw/sketch her.

I had fun adding the details to this drawing with shadows and highlights. I really didn’t use much hatching or crosshatching, I used a lot of shading though. The armor was especially fun to draw with all the integrated metalwork on the shoulder and upper arm.

For an observational drawing exercise in my sketchbook, I’m really happy with how it came out. I can’t find the original images anymore or I would cite the source.

Warrior Woman Unleashed: First Sketch for the New Year

Drawing Scarmother Vrynna from Legends of Runeterra

Here’s my first drawing for 2020. It’s a pencil sketch of a cool image I found on Pinterest. I just had to draw this awesome Warrior Woman. Pinterest has become my go-to for image references and inspiration for my artwork.

The original image comes from a collectible card game called Legends of Runeterra. I had’nt heard of it, but from what I found the artwork is amazing. The character I drew is named Scarmother Vrynna.

I had fun with this quick sketch. Just using a cheap 0.7 mechanical pencil I bought from a dollar store and drew. I aim to enjoy the creative process more and try not to worry about always being perfect. Guess this is my 2020 New Year’s resolution, Create Art Today.

Artistic Surprises: Discovering Zapata in a Christmas Sketch

Sketch of Emiliano Zapata, Mexican Rebel

Exploring Latinx Heritage: Drawing Zapata on Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas! This Christmas Eve I felt like drawing something different. I searched Pinterest for some inspiration. What I found was an image of a Mexican revolutionary. I thought this would be fun to draw. I’ve been feeling a pull to create art with some Latinx cultural influence.

After sharing the sketch drawing on Instagram, one of my followers pointed out that the photo looked like Zapata, a famous historical figure from Mexican history.

I went back and looked at the reference image, and it was a photo of Zapata. Emiliano Zapata was a Mexican revolutionary, a guerrilla leader during the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920. I had no idea when I chose the picture to reference for a sketch drawing.

I used a blue pencil for this quick sketch drawing. I forgot that blue pencils don’t erase easily, at least for me. This figure came out a little stiff, but for a sketch I still like the way it came out.

Character Design: Sketching an Athletic Afro-Latinx Heroine

Character Sketching: Creating a Street-Level Fighting Hero

Here’s a quick practice character drawing I did last night. I didn’t use any photo references for this drawing, just what I could imagine in my mind’s eye. I feel like the proportions are good. I wanted to draw an athletic female who is a street-level fighting hero.

I really wanted to draw her as Afro-Latinx like Rosario Dawson or Gina Torres. I also tried to add some emotion to her face. The drawing has my drawing style too. There is no character name yet, but I have some fun story ideas for her.

Sketching Solitude: The Melancholy of an Astronaut’s Smoke Break

Drawing Inspiration: The Take Me To Your Leader Challenge with an Astronaut

Here’s a pencil sketch of an astronaut on his smoke break for the Take Me To Your Leader Tuesday challenge. The Spaceman was drawn with my trusty Pentel Mechanical Pencil. I wanted to give him a melancholy look like he was ready for the day to be done.

Thanks to Marshall Lee and Scott Serkland for coming up with this fun weekly prompt challenge. They started the challenge on their YouTube channels. The challenge is to draw an alien and post it on your social media with the hashtag #TakeMeToYourLeaderTuesday.

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.

Unlocking Creativity: Exploring Croquis for Character Design

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 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.

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.