I’m jumping on the Pony-wagon and drawing some My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic fanart. So here’s Martin as a Pony, or should I say Brony as he’s a boy? His Cutie Mark is an upside down horse-shoe because Martin’s special ability is being unlucky. Fortunately he’s unlucky for the bad guys too.
Category: Sketches
A realistic-stlye drawing of Epic Fail’s Dirk posing with a sword. In the version of Dungeons & Dragons I play we use a deities system where Clerics and Paladins can choose to serve a specific God. Dirk serves Amaterasu, the Japanese Goddess of the sun, and I therefore consider him to really be a Samurai.
I used this picture as a vote incentive for Comic Hovel for a while, there’s a new one now.
Another doggy drawing!
This is the commission I got from one of the friends I play D&D with. I was for his girlfriend as a Valentines Day present because they both adore Old English Sheepdogs and want to have one as a pet one day. Aww! Apparently she loved it, and now I can post the picture of it here in my blog without any risk of ruining the surprise.
I used photo reference and drew with a very light pencil at first; I wanted to detail as much of the hair as possible, I mean, an Old English Sheepdog is pretty much ALL hair so it’s very important (such a big, hairy and beautiful breed)! Then I gradually added the darker tones and shading, using a smudge stick to gently blend.
It was rather fun, and I got to use a lot of different line types to create the textures in the background. YAY!
Photo: Clownfish
I haven’t drawn anything photo-realistic in a while so I thought I’d see if I could still do it! What do you think?I’m quite happy with it. I love the puppy dog eyes, and I think the eyes are the most important bit to get right because they’re always the thing that grab me and give ‘life’ to a drawing.
I’m thinking of offering Pet Portraits because I love animals, they’re just so adorable how could one not enjoy drawing them? And I want, where possible, to live by my art which means thinking of ways to make money doing it. You’ll probably see a few more of my practises here as I prepare. Please, if any of my artist friends can lend me their experience to this project do comment.
Photo: Clownfish
I haven’t drawn anything photo-realistic in a while so I thought I’d see if I could still do it! What do you think?I’m quite happy with it. I love the puppy dog eyes, and I think the eyes are the most important bit to get right because they’re always the thing that grab me and give ‘life’ to a drawing.
I’m thinking of offering Pet Portraits because I love animals, they’re just so adorable how could one not enjoy drawing them? And I want, where possible, to live by my art which means thinking of ways to make money doing it. You’ll probably see a few more of my practises here as I prepare. Please, if any of my artist friends can lend me their experience to this project do comment.
This Fan Art is of Kinrou from the Fantasy webcomic Children of the Tiger by Melissa Stone aka purenightshade. I am every grateful to her for being the person to introduce me to the fact there is a webcomics community out there, and I read her webcomic regularly. This version of Kinrou is based off a pin-up she drew of him (you might be able to tell).
In the current storyline he is in a love-triangle with Kishandren and Sahiren, but in order to preserve an element of mystery I will not tell you which one he is in love with. Ha ha!
The story in Children of the Tiger very much hinges on the world, and society, in which it is based. It’s a slow reveal, where we’re gradually given pieces to the puzzle that connect events to wider politics. This is an example of a story that is not happening in a vacuum – the main characters aren’t the only people to exist or indeed the only people who are important. That’s something I like, but I think it’s hard to do. I can’t say whether the script succeeds on every level – all the pieces are not in place yet and the author is still learning.
What I like about the artwork is the bright colours. I’ll be honest: the anatomy isn’t great, but I’m a little guilty of that myself. Actually this put me onto Posemaniacs (which I never heard of before) and is such a useful resource. It basically has 3D models of nudes in all sorts of poses that you can move and practise drawing from different angles. They even include muscle structure. I might post some sketches from their references at some point.
Until then, just enjoy sexy Kinrou.
I drew some more fan art, this one of Vigana from the fantasy webcomic Wayward Fall by Taversia Borrelli (now there’s the name of an Artist if ever I heard one)! It’s a fairly adult webcomic with plenty of violence, a dash of sex and a dark, Gothic feel – but what do you expect from a comic where vampires stalk the streets?
And that’s just what Vigana is: a sexy flame-haired, red-and-black-wearing Vampire (just the sort Amuletts would probably go for)! She’s pretty awesome in my opinion – I like strong female characters.
Hmm, I think I just came up with a new tagline for this comic: Love Buffy? Hate Twilight? Read Wayward Fall!
And now I’ve stirred up that shit-storm allow me to explain: The Vampires in this story are very traditional, they are dangerous, blood-drinking creatures of the night. And like Buffy this comic combines elements of both fantasy and horror, with a hidden, dark world of magic and supernatural creatures. It’s not a teenage angsty romance. Well… I mean there is angst and romance but it’s adult angst and romance :p
FAN ART SNEAK ATTACK! This is a drawing of Karlaia, a Tiefling Wizard, from the webcomic Dungeon Legacy by George Ward (aka DungeonWarden), and like Epic Fail it is also based on Dungeons & Dragons, but the more modern 4th Edition variety.
‘Saving the world one Dungeon at a time’ since 2008, Dungeon Legacy boasts 7 Chapters and is fast approaching 200 pages! It’s drawn in a niave, somewhat medieval style that not everybody will like but is very clear from a storytelling perspective and fits the genre.
If you enjoy flicking through the Monster Manual to see what weird and wonderful creatures it contains you will not be disappointed; the heroes encounter many monsters including Giants, Vampires, Drow, Displacer Beasts, Lizard Men, and many more. The story concentrates on the fantasy races and exploring their worlds – there are six main characters and not a human amongst ’em!
I have it in my mind to redesign amuletts.com as it’s, like, a decade out of date. I think it should say ‘This is me’ and be a portal to all the things I do and my places on the web. A hub as it were. So the front page should have a picture of me then nice clear links off to Website Design, Fine Art, Epic Fail (of course) and Epic Maille. I may do the links in the form of speech bubbles.
I haven’t really been using the site to sell myself. I got a stalker off there a while back and ever since I’ve been nervous of putting up contact information. Also, if I have other website commissions I will put them first, neglecting my own. So… first things first, I need a picture of me. I’m an Artist, so just sticking up a photo would be lazy.
This is the first ever self-portrait I have done of myself using Photoshop. Turned out surprisingly well I think – looks like the practice I get drawing comics is paying off. I still haven’t got the knack of drawing with a Wacom Tablet, so I still did the pencils by hand and they’re part of the final image – I set the layer to multiply and the opacity to 70%. I think it adds more depth to the shading. Actually I think I might try something similar with Epic Fail; scan the pencils first, scan, ink, scan again and overlay one over the other… or something. I know what you’re thinking: that’s an awful lot of scanning, but I just use whatever method works for me.
As always comments and criticism welcome (and helpful)! If you like my stuff why not folloew me on twitter?
A page from my sketchbook. I am practising drawing sword-fighting by copying freeze-frames from combat videos. When we get some actual fighting in Epic Fail I want it to look right. Don’t be suprised if you see some of these poses used in the comic.
Oh! And for those who want to pre-order Epic Fail #1 today is your last chance, after that they are closed.
