Drawing redux fun

Decided to redraw a super old sketch from high school (so…2003 o_O). I was kinda lazy about my scan quality, I won’t deny it, but I kind of like the rough smudgy texture of how it turned out. Plus I’ve inked it digitally (WIP of digital painting further below), so I didn’t need the scan to be perfect. Cleaning up scans is just…ugh, it’s annoying.

Both done in pencil – if I had to guess, the first was probably a 0.7mm mechanical pencil. It’s on copy paper, which I used to take in a three-ring binder to classes to draw while listening to various lectures.

The character’s name is “Blaise Gunton” from a fantasy comic I wrote drafts of in high school. I noted she was a mercenary, fought with a scimitar, was very short, and had a bright, bold attitude. In the redux, I tried to actually make her look proportionally shorter – her legs are so long in the high school drawing, but that was pretty much the only way I knew how to draw legs. I also realized I may have wrote scimitar, but I meant cutlass, because she has a sort of paladin + pirate vibe going on.

I’m thinking of drawing some of the other characters from the series – redux drawings are so much fun. ^_^

Below is the WIP of the digitally inked and colored version:

I inked the lines with a standard hard brush, color blocked the areas of the character, and sort of started to color the line art. Then I decided to add a background, to better establish the light source. Next step is to work more on the ground/bushes nearest the character (though not totally polish them – I’ll leave that for last; I am actually learning not to go too detailed too soon *gasp!*)

The sketch was done on super light drawing paper (Daler Rowney 75g/m²) which has a very copy-paper-esque quality to it. It’s been my casual drawing-random-stuff sketchbook. Downside is its cover is not hard at all – it also feels about as thick as a piece of copy paper; I’ve been trying really hard not to let it get all bent up in my bag, but it’s seen some damage, blah. Honestly I need to just carry my smaller sketchbook to work for lunch drawing and leave this one at home.

I’ve been numbering my sketchbooks for the last year-ish, to try to fill all of them. I’ve completely filled No. 1 and 2, and am working through 3, buuuut… I couldn’t stick with the whole “one sketchbook at a time” routine, so I also have a small tan one (dubbed No. 4) and then my newer multimedia practice one (No. 5). Even so, I refuse to just continue my old habits of skipping along to a shiny new sketchbook and giving up on an older one.

No. 4 is a Midori spiral–bound B6 “polar bear” notebook that was from JetPens a couple years ago. The paper is super light weight – I don’t know the specific weight, but at least it is acid free. And it fits perfectly in my purse without being super heavy. When I first got it, I filled it with just general drawing drill sketches and lunch doodles while at work.

The older sketches are a lot like the first one below: ball point pen in black or pink of various drills, mostly from Draw a Box. Lately, I’ve just been drawing whatever – my lunch, random faces, etc.

The abandoned red pen sketch in the background of the quiche drawing was a grain elevator I tried drawing while stopped at a gas station parking lot, between where I live and my hometown. But then I realized my car was facing a parked semi-truck with a guy in it, and it just felt kinda awkward to be parked there, facing him but drawing something off to his left. One day I will learn how to sketch in public without feeling like I am coming off like a total weirdo, creeping on other people. I’m sure the guy didn’t even notice though, lol.

Unfortunately, this week wasn’t as productive as I was hoping, since I was sick Monday and Tuesday, grrr. I did manage a fountain pen sketch Monday night, referencing photos from Pexels. I’ve been concentrating on feeling the difference between thinking in line and thinking in value, though with a pen it’s a challenge to approach a piece from a mostly value side – it still comes out ‘line’ based..sort of…but it’s more about the thought process behind the marks that I’ve been practicing. Meh, it’s really hard to describe what is mostly an intuitive process!

Also been reading Keys to Drawing; On Thursday I finished the soft/hard edges suggested exercise. I really enjoyed how it turned out :3

I have a little travel pack of q-tips that I’ve kept in my pencil bag; I used one as a blending stump for parts of the drawings above.

And lastly my currently reading pile (OK, OK, it’s 3/10 of the real pile >_>*)

I ended up buying Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, because I wasn’t going to be able to finish it by the time the library book was due back T_T. It’s kind of a… slower read, though very witty and enjoyable. I decided I wanted to take my time finishing it while working through other books as well. I also picked up Alice Isn’t Dead, yay! I have been wanting to read it since pre-orders were available, but at the same time told myself I didn’t really need more to-be-read books on my shelf. All the same, I loved the podcast (though…haven’t actually finished season 3…), and I’m hoping the book has the same eerie, quiet quality as the podcast’s first season.

Now to go watch some Critical Role, sketch a bit, and relax ^_^

*Skips off*