More Charcoal Stuff.  Perspective Is Fun.

reblogging to my art tumblr, since photography counts for that sorta thing. Sorry for the redundancy.

So, on our daily walk to the McDonalds today, my brother and I took a detour through the waterfowl park, and came across not one, but two geese in the middle of the path, each with a little bundle of baby goslings. I apologize for the picture quality, but all I had on me was my iPod touch, and nothing to brace it on. Also: we didn’t want to get too close, since geese can be very protective, territorial, and irritable. We stood around for at least twenty minutes, and they held up any foot traffic coming through. Every now and then, one of the adults would stand up straight, stretch their neck upward, look around, and hiss at anything they didn’t like the look of. After a time, one bundle of goslings made their way across the path, one at a time, and snuggled in with the other bundle. Occasionally, one of the adults would check out the little ones, and get jumped on, or pick through the grass looking for edibles. Not gonna lie, it was pretty adorable.

We didn’t see any ducklings, but did spot plenty of ducks swimming around in pairs, so you know they’re on the way. X3

Mod pic! Because reasons.

People don't really seem to believe me when I say that I usually look like a total psycho... you be the judge.

I'm not in a bad mood or anything here... this is just my typical "game face" whenever I'm drawing. I'm not kidding: I spend eight hours a day staring at my sketchbook like this... small wonder I get eyestrain so often.

Deregulation strikes again.

“Free market” capitalism does NOT care about raging forest fires, it does not care about endangering firefighters, it does not care about people dying due to lack of healthcare insurance. Unregulated capatilism cares only about making profits, apparently at any and all costs.

Last one, I swear: Watusi Cattle. I swear, these guys look like a cartoon rabbit snuck up behind them with a bicycle pump and inflated their horns.

I start livestreaming, and what's the first thing I do?

Make a banner for my Livestream, of course. Eyup.

Still streaming!

Capoeira is really fun to draw.

Quick little study of my hand, 5-10 mins. Hands seem to put most artists on guard, but I love drawing 'em. Well, maybe more of a love-hate thing. I wasted half my time in high-school drawing my left hand.

Sweet Celestia in a bucket... when I sketch, I just fling lead everywhere, don't I? Tho, some of that is actually hair on my knuckles. I'm kinda scruffy.

Does that mean this counts as furry art? Guh.

People learn by doing, which means that by the time a  piece of art is done, you have become infinitesimally better as an artist than when you started.  Every piece will always be outdated by the time it’s finished. It means you’re improving... if you hate your work, you are doing it right.

Imagine someone who doodles a wobbly stick figure and thinks, “Yeah, that’s all I’m capable of, that’s about what I expected from me.” how lame would that be? Screw that noise: If you demand more from your work, it’s because you still believe you’re capable of better things.

Now, if the work sucks in exactly the same way every time, then there’s a problem. Only thing to do is identify exactly what that problem is, and work specifically on that one issue until it is ground into dust. Once you do resolve it, it shall never trouble you again. X3

Every time I see my art from a week or more ago, I cringe a little and mutter, “I can do so much better than that. That’s so ugly. Why is it there? Why can’t I do art right?”

Bleah. So much fail.

Decided to sit down and see how well I could draw heads from a full range of angles. I think  the worst is the lower left one, since I really wasn't sure what the heck the far side of the face should look like. I'm surprised the right coulomb came out as well as it did.

Two big mistakes on this one... First, the blocks I used to rough in the positions were cubes, when heads are actually 2/3rds as wide as they are tall. I think the left coulomb looks off because the eyes are too far apart (for comparison, the drawing on the right was done with the proportions I usually use). Second, the heads are turned about 45 degrees, and tilted 30 degrees... that's at the extreme end of how far the neck can bend. Comfortably.

For the record: by "mistake" I mean "I should have known better," not "things I did wrong." The things I did wrong are legion, and it'll probably take me a month just to google up the reference images I'll need to study.

(Quickly) inked in photoshop. The pencil and paper version was a mess.

Concept art for June and Jove, characters for a sci-fi comic. Same setting as James, but different storyline.

AI's use virtual appearances for things like video-calls and AR appearances. To make themselves instantly identifiable as AI's, but easy to relate to as people, they use appearances that are lifelike, yet unfeasible or "impossible."

The most standard element of this is to use a  hybrid of animal species for a base appearance: June's a combination of rat and eland, while Jove is a mix of cat and dog. June's rigid gauntlets and boots don't cover the joints (knees and elbows, that is), which is a normally an important consideration. Jove's spandex tights... well, most spacers in this setting wouldn't be caught dead wearing something so flamboyant.

These aren't quite final designs... I'm still deciding on how to mix the features. And I'll probably be giving June a tail.

I need to work on those horns, too.