Sketch-a-Doodley-WHEE!! - [3 YEARS OF STUFF, MY GAWD]

[Hnilmik]

May 17th, 2012

Work in Progress: Part 1

While my sister was graduating this day, I decided to fight my art block by doodling as they went through the names of every graduating student in the school. Comfort zone creature drawing, basically. I didn’t know where I was going with this drawing, so a lot of the body was afterthought.

Eventually, I wanted to draw something eerie and off-putting. Some parts worked towards that, a lot of it still felt very… Plain. So what am I supposed to do? Add more “decorations” beyond the horns? I lost inspiration and left the drawing alone for a while.



May 24th, 2012

Work in Progress: Part 2



So, I lost inspiration in the first pass of this. The face, while interesting, wasn’t selling the mood, and the more I looked at its foot, confusing chest, and wonky skull, I was bugged by them… In part because I put the drawing away from me upside-down and noticed these errors. So what was I to do? I always sketch in ballpoint pen and I rarely/never have enough time to try drawing digitally. But then it hit me that while I was unconsciously following the tips given to me by multiple artists, I might as well do something Chris Sander does, that my bestest best friend shared with me.

http://floobynooby.blogspot.com/2012...h-process.html

Sticky-note edits. The foot still needs work because me no comprende foreshortening, but I think it’s better than the first pass. Wanted the overall feel to be more eerie, scary, and unsettling. In the first pass I tried seeing if I could infuse one of my original characters (concept-wise; the “flying serpent”), but the face was too inquisitive than manipulative, as his fingers implied. Fixed the head and added an expression. Still can’t draw humans, so I drew a few to find a pose that worked.

Pass 1 - Too willing/”hopeful”

STICKY NOTE - Pass 2 - Too un-engaged/uninteresting; Not enough going on to count as subtle

STICKY NOTE - Pass 3 - Ehh… Too curious

STICKY NOTE - Pass 4 - Defeated. Awesome.

Next pass, I intend to add chains, maybe a lantern or two, and other things lurking in a hopefully dark scene. Eventually I want to color this and what usually stops me from trying to color is “too many mistakes and once the drawing is ‘finished’, there’s no going back”.

This whole time, for the “flying serpent” character, I focused too much on snakes and how to make them scary (since snakes don’t scare me—born in the year of the snake and have an affinity for them). Over time, I puzzled out that lots of deadly, frightening animals aren’t scary to an animal lover like me, but what they CAN do to me is terrifying, and I might play this angle more over how “undecorated” he looks. I seem to prefer this over his “cat skull with floating eyes and long tongue” design.

[Tiffa]

Ooo very cool. Haven't seen your 'finished' works here- looking forward to it!

[Hnilmik]

XD It's like everywhere ever is asking for finished works! Which... I've rarely/never done before, so I'm tad apprehensive about trying, but alas! It has to be done eventually!

[Tiffa]

lol it's a common affliction for all artists. We do a hella lotta sketches but maybe finalize 1/100 of them @__@. But yea, it's just a matter of pushing through. Nevermind what the result may be, just enjoy the journey xP.

[Hnilmik]

I stopped drawing for a while because of an art block and a fear of making mistakes, no matter how hard I try to correct them. That wasn’t helping me, so I fought through the art block with a “SCREW MISTAKES—MAKE ‘EM SO YOU LEARN FROM ‘EM” + “DRAWING IS SUPPOSED TO DESTRESS YOU; WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT?! kind of attitude.



Warm up doodle of Elsa. I tend to draw her doing a variety of poses/things, but I wanted to draw her beginning to transform from head down. Last time (http://hnilmik.tumblr.com/post/8861949853), I drew her entering her fire phantom form via her arms.

Going off my personal proportion notes (elbows meet the end of your ribcage, b00bz are between those two points, and our arms are long enough to finger ourselves—SORRY FOR THAT IMAGE)… Yeah, the proportions are WAY off. Ooowwwww torso/chest is too small and head is too big…

Yay for putting effort into giving her noggin more structure!? …Needs to be better.



I’ve only drawn Amanda… 2-3 times before this. I want her to be scary in a “more plant than human/animal” way. This is… HARD. I need to study plants. Lots and lots of plants. How do I make plants scary… The only remotely scary thing she’s got (not pictured) are strangling, tentacle-like vines… Gonna play with more horrific ideas…

Ever heard of “doll’s eyes” berries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actaea_pachypoda)? They tend to kill children because they’re all like “YAY!!1! SWEET BERRIES!!” and they eat them until they’re poison-killed. Ack.

Effort was exerted in giving her head/body more structure. Lost control when I began drawing “arms”. I like how her “hair + flowers” turned out though.

i swear to gawd if she unconsciously turns out like double from skullgirls—



Yeah, the proportions are WAY off here too. UUUGGGHHHH the arms are too long, the chest/torso/midsection lacks structure, and the head feels weeeiiirrrddd…!

But yay for putting effort into giving his noggin more structure!? …Needs to be better. But seriously, I’ve NEVER drawn a head look down PROPERLY before. While the rest of it needs work, I’m proud that I drew something different, AGAINST my bad head-drawing habit, and it worked! Actually, these last 3 drawings feature head positions I’ve never drawn before (properly, I mean), so while I’m not improving everything, I’m happy to have tried at least 1 thing new!

I’ve NEVER drawn Nathan’s human form before. EVER. So this is DEFINITELY a “design-finding” doodle, like my many design-finding doodles of his “flying serpent form” (latest one here: http://hnilmik.tumblr.com/post/23688610603). I always wanted him to be a pilot, in part because I <3 bomber jackets (like the one I threw onto Kirbopher’s character once: http://hnilmik.tumblr.com/post/8587396828), though I’m learning that I need to understand structure, or it’d just come off as baggy than appealing. The chains motif is growing on me. I want him to be attractive. I’m not feeling it here, and he’s slowly looking too similar to another character in a not-plot-helpful way, so I’ll keep design-finding. I also need to figure out a way to make him a different kind of attractive compared to my other villains-meant-to-be-attractive…

I don’t think I’ve drawn too many pictures of my male villains… But there’re at LEAST 2-3 more villains (all male) from this story and they aren’t quite as “outwardly” menacing as the last 3 villains I drew. Yet.

[Hnilmik]

June 22nd, 2012

SO I HEARD THAT THE ANIMATORS AT DISNEY MAKE THEIR INTERNS DRAW 100 HANDS TO BUFF THEIR SKILLS. TRUE OR NOT, I SUCK AT DRAWING HANDS, SO I DECIDED TO DO THE "100 HANDS CHALLENGE" TO STUDY.

6-7 hours total for 50 hands. Referenced photographs and my own hands (especially the right hand 'cause I'm a lefty), tried figuring out the basic shapes and proportions this time around 'cause I HIGHLY doubt I'm good enough to use those gesture sites (yet), battled through pointy fingers and yaoi hands. I STARTED GOING INSANE AROUND HAND #30 AND MY FACEBOOK BUDDIES SAW ME LOSE MY SANITY THE MORE HANDS I DREW.



HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 100 SKULLS CHALLENGE AFTER THIS HAHAHAHAHA NOOOOO PLEASE NOOOOOOO--::sobs:: /after i get a better sense of form

[babyred]

I hate drawing hands myself. I've gotten better of the few years though. Nice work.

[Hnilmik]

My 100 hand challenge continues.

These are hands #051 - 080.

Some pairs of hands I count as 1 to make up for the badly drawn hands I did, hahaha… ha… Half of these I drew while out and about with friends of mine~ WAY messier than my first batch of hands since… I’m still trying to get the hang of drawing fast, and from living, breathing, ever-moving people. I thought I’d be going insane the more I drew again, but it actually became peaceful the more I went and I’m paying more attention to hands now~



Some folks liked the clean-ness of my lines / line economy and gave me feedback to focus more on motion / (line of) action. I… Had no idea how to do that for hands, but I tried my best, so hopefully I did! Aaannddd I’m happy that I’m SLOWLY understanding perspective/foreshortening because the various different angles are forcing me to try drawing them.

Oh! Here’s something I know that IS true, based on sitting in at animation panels with industry professionals from Disney, Dreamworks, Nickelodeon, Fox, and so on… From what I know, they like seeing characters interacting with props/objects, scenery, and other characters in portfolios. Yeah, I drew some hands interacting with objects last time, but my good friend Jii-Jii also featured hands interacting with other hands and ledges and stuff … So I took her lead!

[Hnilmik]

I finished my 100 hand challenge! I even drew more hands because I could!



To sum things up, 5-ish days to draw roughly 100 hands + extra hands to make up for the really derpy ones. Along the way, I even got to practice perspective/foreshortening, and even a little shading/lighting! I learned a lot while doing this, even though I think I have more to learn, but I feel mighty accomplished~ I even think I probably DO have the patience to do FBF animation, if I really stuck with it! Probably!

xD NOW. TO CATCH UP ON OTHER WORK I OWE BEFORE EMBARKING ON ANOTHER ART CHALLENGE.

[Hnilmik]

I drew a bunch of tribal designs while in high school, often as gifts for friends. I was proud enough to show them to a tattoo artist friend of mine in college. She said the lines were icky. Fast forward 2 years and I realized that she was right—They WERE icky. I said I’d clean them up someday. That someday never came because I too was busy.

Add 2 more years-ish. Decided to play with the pen tool and experiment with a Photoshop tutorial I found.



Well, at least the lines look a tad cleaner.