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

[Hnilmik]

October 25th, 2011

I draw when I'm stressed. This is what I drew in the early hours of the morning, inspired by idol masks and flower skeletons.

http://ajfosik.com/
http://laquiezecedric.blogspot.com/

Expect more stuff like this and animal skulls along with human ones. I've been having a tricky time with planes.

[Hnilmik]

November 10th, 2011

As I’ve mentioned, I draw when I’m stressed and I had an anxiety attack/breakdown before I drew these at 5 AM. Something about flatness versus volume and humans versus animals.

Since I always seem to have a freakishly easy time with drawing animals, including their skulls, I decided to see if I could practice drawing them in different ways and hopefully understand conveying volume/different planes better.

It was interesting drawing extra shapes within shapes instead of shapes around shapes. Same goes for drawing shapes representing negative space instead of drawing shapes around where the negative space is meant to be.

[Hnilmik]

December 14th, 2011

While waiting for the screening of an awesome animation starring yours truly, I was fighting an art block with doodly scribbles of squiggles and clouds.



Curious about the animation in question? Check it; I voice Celeste, the brunette: http://vimeo.com/33763032

More art block-fighting. Tried experimenting with redesigning one of my characters. The long flowing, floating hair seemed like a good idea… ‘Til it reminded me of Adventure Time’s Marceline. Did sketches of both designs to compare silhouettes…?



December 29th, 2011

From right to left, warmed up with my typical stylized flair, got tired of the errors and did a brief animal noggin study, then pushed myself out of my comfort zone into studying my worst enemy: Humans.

The notes speak for themselves, but it was the weirdest/freakiest drawing experience I've had in a long while... Last time was human skulls.

Referenced model from: http://senshistock.deviantart.com/



I think aside from me developing my ability to see shapes in the human form, the best part was me catching myself in the act of almost making the heads/faces look the same as I've always drew them--Flat, because the eyes were where they shouldn't. Hopefully they aren't as bad this time around!

[Astraeus]

Your sektchings wa sugoi desu! Keepu ito upo!

[Hnilmik]

http://hnilmik.deviantart.com/art/Hn...2011-276573833

...'Cause page-stretch and copy/pasta.

[Hnilmik]

January 7th, 2012

Drew these during a few panels at Anime Los Angeles 2012. ‘Had a reeeaaaalllyyy hard time figuring out/reminding myself the right proportions for faces in profile, since I wanted to incorporate what I’ve learned from my studies into my style… While fighting the bad habits I tend to fall back on because of my style. Yeek.

Also, experimenting with the hats/headware/fashions of a race/group of people from a series I’m working on. From a storytelling standpoint, I’m STILL trying to find out why they’re necessary to the story to begin with beyond 1 or 2 things. At first they were like “filler”; just interesting people to meet or fight. But over time, I wanted them to be a bit more significant than that and here’s the most I developed them:

1 - The protagonist either descended or emigrated from these people. Something like that, anyways.

2 - These people are much more about their faith and culture than the world the protagonist was raised in. ‘Tis a bit of a shame that the protagonist is coming back to her people with views that won’t mesh…

Hopefully, the more I draw them, more ideas will be brainstormed up. A lot of my characters are like that—The more I draw them, the more I figure out their backgrounds.



January 16th, 2012

As mentioned in my earlier doodles, I’ve been experimenting… Here, with fashions (Mongolian, Tibetan, robey-robey-Middle-East???), poses (due to getting sick of hand-on-hip poses, action fail), shapes…

Been having a really tough time finding a design for the protagonist and a redesign for one of the antagonists… For a different arc.

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January 16th, 2012

Got tired of failing while experimenting. Tried drawing based on a photo of a Khampa Tibetan woman. Somehow, it’s HARD to study-draw faces compared to studies for bodies. Ack. But I still love the silhouette/overall shape of the head, thanks to the hat.

Hats are hard to draw. Especially from angles other than profile. Yet another drawing goal: Hats…

[Hnilmik]

Trying to find a design for one of the main antagonists. Coming from a race of plasma-based beings, I initially kept giving her fiery hair, like one of the protagonists from this race. Decided to try other ways to get the plasma-ness across, though I keep forgetting that she’s supposed to be more lightning than fire…

Man, it’s hard finding a balance between simple and interesting.



Still trying to find a design for that antagonist… And I think I accidentally made her too young + forgot the lightning aspect again. This might be a design used for someone/something else though, with a few modifications.



After an extended break of drawing one of my favorite (and hardest) to draw characters, I decided to give it a try again. This time, doing something a tad more active than how I’d usually draw him, since my last bunch of action poses were pretty lame.

Not Pictured: STILL having the hardest time ever figuring out how to draw/construct his hair/face/HEAD. His eyes/teeth are way too big for his face and for a character meant to have round, boyish face because of his dangerously playful personality, it’s… Wonky. Can’t imagine an older Skullgirls Peacock and one of my friends suggested that he have a longer face (or smaller features, which I’m battling with). He’s meant to be fox-like (particularly in the face), but his body is CLEARLY more bird-like (hopefully like a raven, but face it—his legs and smock are messing that up). Story-wise, to be honest though, he intentionally conceals his more animal-like features. A fox disguised as a bird.

I might ditch the “cheating his hair” idea (like how Meg’s hair is cheated in Hercules and how Mickey Mouse’s ears are cheated when he turns his head)… Because I don’t know how to do it yet.



Last night/early this morning, some friends asked me to draw some snake-like dragons. To warm up, I drew a snake-cat.

Know any good tips on how to maintain symmetry? I wanna draw more monsters where the other half of its face doesn’t always look like it’s on a conflicting plane.

In other news, no, horses and dogs don’t have the same anatomy and I should do a proper dog study soon.

[JonDoodles]

Know any good tips on how to maintain symmetry? I wanna draw more monsters where the other half of its face doesn’t always look like it’s on a conflicting plane.

I find using a grid helps a lot. You have reference points for every part of the face/body where they intersect your grid lines. If all your lines are straight and your boxes the same size, it should help.

[Hnilmik]

What'll make grids tricky is that I'm trying to go for 3-dimensional shapes, as opposed to flat objects. A 3/4 head turn, for instance; Gotta keep the other shapes/symbols the same proportion, or it'll throw things off. I do know there are grids on 3D shapes though, as I've seen art students practicing this for their homework, so I'll try to figure something out.



January 24th, 2012

I had no idea what I was doing. Foreshortening issue with the arm aside, is he falling backwards? If you ignore the afterthought-squiggles, is he about to slam his skinny little foot? I blame the foot still on the ground. From what I know, he’s just a little bit off-balance enough to imply movement, but I’m gonna have to do better in the “drawing anticipation” department, ‘cause he looks REALLY off-balance.

In terms of combat, I know there’s one significant moment that’ll involve his feet, but for the vast majority of his “combat style”, the closest comparison I can make is “water bending”… But with less “force pushing” and more “matador”-ing. Gonna have to draw more to see how it’ll look with his design.



January 24th, 2012

Kitty doodles. Top 2 + 1 to the right to warm up, left 2 are failed attempts at remembering the proportions of pygmy goat kids, the rest are the beginnings of me trying to sketch my friend’s kitties… Kitties that are CONSTANTLY moving…

& Some of her furniture/fixtures.



January 25th, 2012

Have I mentioned that my friend’s kitties move A LOT? Even when they’re NOT frolicking and chasing a laser pointer? Call it practice in drawing from life.

Had the toughest time getting their heads in proportion with their bodies.

I wish I could study some dogs… I DEFINITELY need to study some wolf/german shepherd-y dogs for the story I’m doing. Birds too, and other animals, but ESPECIALLY dogs, seeing as one of the main characters IS one.

[Hnilmik]

January 27th/28th, 2012

Tried finding designs for characters again, starting from the left. My efforts were embarrassing… Then I accidentally drew what looked to me like a rider on horseback trying to escape something. I got started on a monster’s head, got an anxiety attack and drew the rest of it out to calm down, and liked what I got.

I think I got myself a design for, or at least the beginnings of, one of my antagonists. Not sure which arc, likely the second one, but the aesthetic for the antagonists are beginning to unify. The fire phantom has a wonky horse/croc skull. This fella has a badly foreshortened cat-like skull. Without the rest of the body (to determine WHICH character this one is), I’m already diggin’ the tongue. Long tongues are fun to draw, especially more flexible and prehensile ones, but I always worried about them getting bitten somehow… And I think this is the solution. Perhaps a tongue spirit-thing wearing a skull?

In other news, I need a better way to learn volume to stop getting my planes(?) confused. I also need to heed the advice of “taking breaks to not grow accustomed to mistakes”.