Squid Woman Progress

Starting in some background color:

And now for something completely different

Thought I'd post a progress thingy, as I haven't in a while.  

1) Come up with a really weird idea and doodle it on the edge of the freelance you are doing: 

2) come up with rough layout and pose: 

3) Lineart

I feel like her face lost some of it's delicacy in the last step, so I want to play with that some more...I mean, she may be a monsterous squidwoman, but that doesn't mean she can't be feminine.  I'm sure that part of it was due to loosing the lines on the bottom half of her face, but I think that something in the forehead/eye area kind of got funky too.  So I need to see what I can do about that.  And I think I need to drop her far shoulder down a smidge.  But I think that's all for tonight.  My brain feels ready to relax and read silly fanfiction and drink tea, so I think that may be exactly what I do.  Will post more of this as it goes along. 

Art stuff and June weddings

I have officially moved on to the next stage of my freelance project.  I sent off sketches to my client and will be making some additional sketches today.  I haven't heard back yet, but hopefully I'm at least going SOMEWHAT in the right direction.  

I've been doing warm-up drawings every day at work and some days when I'm home, and I have been liking what I've been getting, by and large.  

I keep waiting for what I'm learning doing studies every day to show up in my personal art.  

Okay, that is partially an exaggeration...I can see improvements.  There are areas in which I can tell I'm learning -- my ability to draw hands is getting better, for one.  I'm just at a deeply frustrated place with my personal art this week.  Nothing is as good as I want it to be.  My brain knows what it wants to do but my skills don't obey.  

Also, just due to being full of freelance, most of my personal projects have been of the 'quick little doodle' variety...I haven't had time to spend on anything big that OTHER people get to see in a while.  My deviant art gallery is looking sparse.  I love the project I'm working on, don't get me wrong.  I just...wish I didn't have to sleep.  Or interact with other people.  If my brain didn't INSIST on occasionally interacting with other people in order to stave off madness, I would have more time to work, and the time  I was alone for a whole weekend would be more productive, and after a day and a half or so I wouldn't reach the point where I was lethargic, zoned out and twitchy.  

I just want to be really good at art NOW and have magical beauty drop from my fingertips and leave all viewers in awe.  Is that REALLY too much to ask?  *sigh*  Of course, it always heartens me a little when artists that wow and stun me complain of the same problems.  I hear that where one's hands are (skill-wise) is perpetually about 5 years behind where your brain is?  And I know I'm better now than I was even a year ago.  Progress is just so...time consuming.  And if i could just draw ALL THE TIME I'd get better faster.  

But I can't because the world and jobs and journeys exist.  

That was my smooth segue into mentioning that in a couple weeks, I'm flying back to California for a friends' wedding, and as I'm not in school and have a job that I will have officially been at for one whole year this coming week, I have proper vacation time, and rather than flying out for a hurried and exhausting weekend, I'm staying an entire week.  I've been saving up audio files of Cabin Pressure to listen to on my trip, so Benedict Cumberbatch's voice and British humor can soothe me as the joys of flying coach surround me.  I should pick up some better headphones....

So, I obviously can't show you any of my freelance work yet, but I can share some of my favorite warm-up drawings and also, some of my personal art, about which I have mixed feelings.  

So, for the past 2 weeks, I've been adopting themes...stuff that either intrigues me or that I specifically want to improve on...or at least that's the plan, as it's only been two weeks so far.  

Week before last was headphones.  Because I like people wearing headphones.  

Last week was hot and humid, so I decided to do languid summer images, and started with a girl with a surfboard, using kind of simple and stylized line work and color, rather than detailed rendering, to capture the shape of her body and the shadows on it, rather than trying to shade in every detail.  Then my coworker decided to find me two more photos for the next two days...perhaps I should have her find me photos more often, as I really rather like both of those she contributed: 

(If you would like to see larger versions of any of these images, I have them all in a folder in my Deviant Art gallery)

Other stuff I've done in my free time, with which I am sometimes happy and sometimes not, is pretty much silly fan art right now.  I did one large piece, experimenting with style--shading, lighting, crosshatching and frameless sequential art, that was another bit born of my Sherlock obsession.  Sometimes I like this and sometimes I hate it and there are aspects that I love and others that are dreadful, but I did really enjoy playing with an unfamiliar shading style and with the blended sequential art that kind of travels from one idea to the next.  I hope to try this again in the future. 

Then there was this, which was a silly idea for which I made a silly sketch...but I feel, in execution really leaves a lot to be desired.  It didn't end up at all where I wanted it...I think I really want the stylization to be different, and the colors less saturated, and the poses a bit different and the anatomy and movement is overall bad-- but it was hot, my AC had broken, I was sweating and miserable and just reached a point of wanting the darn thing done.  So I may revisit this in the future, if I get the chance.  The Doctor and his TARDIS: 

And on that note, I have a pile of laundry and a pile of art waiting for me.  Allons-y!

Hot weather and art and other things.

I tried to post yesterday but there was a glitch and a distant shrieking that suggests that particular entry died in a rather horrific fire.  

So we'll cross our fingers for the safety of today's natterings. 

I don't think I am a) old enough or b) British enough to use the term 'nattering'...I think you have to be at least one of the two.  

The weather in western Pennsylvania is getting solidly warm.  A friend helped me install my AC unit, so I will probably survive. 

I wish I could simply skip to autumn. 

Honestly, if it weren't for the detrimental effects it would have on production of food and probably life on the planet, I'd be happy to switch back and forth between autumn and winter, avoiding the more annoying months completely. 

But at least I can keep my apartment cool enough to work in.  Otherwise I'd be haunting diners in the small hours, just to find an air-conditioned place to draw.  I'd probably die of a pie overdose.  

I actually had time to do a lot of personal work this weekend, due to a conjunction between being caught up on freelance and having no plans with other humans.  I didn't make much GOOD personal work, unfortunately (isn't that always the way?  Finally have the time you've been dying for and inspiration flies away on leathery wings, cackling darkly as you beg for it's return?) but I did a bit of playing with color and started on a larger project-let.   Something for me.  And the internet, because I like to share.  Whether the internet likes it or not. 

I've also been doing regular warmup drawings. 

Some are good and some are...not good.  

Here are some of the good. 

Or at least, that I like. 

Also, I made this for a friend.  He wanted a picture of a giant squid. 

Finally, speaking of art stuff, if you have not yet listened to Neil Gaiman's speech at the University of Arts commencement, do so now. 

Quick update

Wow, have I been slammed lately.

So, I just realized I never said a thing about my cool opportunity, I think.  I got asked to illustrate an animated short.  SUPER exciting.  AWESOME opportunity.  UTTERLY exhausting.  

I have been continuing with my '5 hours of sleep' schedule, which I can MOSTLY pull off...but when drawing on my lunch break yesterday, I totally just fell asleep in my chair.  

However, this is definitely in the category of 'killing me but worth it'.  I want to work on personal projects.  I want to sleep.  I want to spend days goofing off.  But then I think about the project I'm working on and what it might mean for my future and how cool it is to be involved in something like this and...well, I get a second wind.  

Also, I am finding time to sneak in the occasional snippet of personal work.  I have found that doing a proper warm-up sketch at work really knocks my brain into gear, so I've been doing some photo studies and character studies.  Also, I have claimed Thursday nights for Spain.  That was my pizza night with the ex, but since he traipsed off to New Zealand, I have decided that having one night that is for ME each week is probably healthy, and on that night, I draw, or I write or I curl up on the couch with a cup of tea and a cat and read fan fiction.  

Sorry for this rambling and disjointed post.  Have I mentioned that I'm not getting as much sleep as I should?  Oh, excuses...my journals are generally rambling and disjointed.  

Here are some of my warm-up sketches: 

...and a few smatterings of fan art doodles, experimenting with style, color, and character design.  Sherlock, of course, because I am stupidly obsessed. 

(a gift doodle for a friend of mine, a response to her Sherlock/Friendship is Magic crossovers)

Anyway, until next time, kids...eat cupcakes for breakfast and watch BBC shows!