[Tonus]

Well then, hopefully the finished version will be to your liking!  Although I definitely skimped on finishing the background, or even providing all the detail I wanted.  But after drawing 600,000,000,000,000 bricks (just about that many, it feels like) I figured I'd better wrap it up and stick my hands in a bucket of ice for the rest of the night.

Drawing larger images with full backgrounds is going to slow my production considerably, but if I just keep doing simple portrait-type artwork without backgrounds I'm going to get bored at some point and just stop, which has happened in the past.  I'll still crank out those types of drawings, but I'll also be grinding out artwork like this.  The more I do it, the better I'll get at drawing backgrounds, and I need a lot of practice at doing that.

[Tonus]

Also, I've added a new journal entry discussing storytelling.  This is the second of what will be at least four, and it considers how changes to facial expressions can affect the story that the viewer's mind will tell when it sees the artwork in question.

[Reason]

It may take some time before I have these finished, so I decided I'd put up some works-in-progress images.

My next Maidens 2009 submission:

Thanks very much for posting these. I'm a big fan of work in progress shots like this as it really gives us a glimpse into the artistic process. I find studying how you've used the perspective guidelines particularly helpful. By the way, are you planning to any journal articles covering some of the technical aspects of drawing, like perspective and figure construction, as well as the excellent ones you've already posted covering the more artistic side.

By the way, you really nailed the low-angle perspective on the figure in the first drawing.

[Tonus]

By the way, are you planning to any journal articles covering some of the technical aspects of drawing, like perspective and figure construction, as well as the excellent ones you've already posted covering the more artistic side.

Thanks for the kind words.  I haven't considered what topics I will cover once I finish this series of journal entries, or even if I will do any more.  While I'm pretty happy with my work overall, it's those technical areas where I consider myself to be very far behind.  Line thicknesses, perspective, background details… those are areas I am still struggling with.  It's another reason that I am doing larger and more complex work- it makes it easier to see where I am taking shortcuts that hurt the final product, which helps me eliminate them and produce better work over time.

I really should add an entry at some point with links to the guide books that I've used, because I consider several of them to be "must have" items for a comic artist or cartoonist.

[Tonus]

Another entry for the Might of Maidens 2009, this is the finished product from the WIP I posted previously:

  It's my first time working with custom brushes in a very long time, and I may look into the custom brush options, because Photoshop CS4 seems to have an endless array of options for it now.

I do not have any additional Ker'cera poses lined up, but that doesn't mean I won't create any new ones.  The Maidens contest runs through October, plenty of time for a few more ideas to pop up and demand to be put on paper.

[Reason]

I think this is probably your best drawing, at least from a technical standpoint. All of the elements have been executed perfectly.

[Tonus]

Thanks!

My next 'project' will be a couple (or more) of drawings of Ultrawoman.  I posted a practice sketch of the character before I begin the heavy lifting.

Yeah, I got a bit silly with Photoshop, hence the 'watermark.'

[ze fly]

But after drawing 600,000,000,000,000 bricks (just about that many, it feels like) I figured I'd better wrap it up and stick my hands in a bucket of ice for the rest of the night.

[Tonus]

Then you might like the next one, unless I screw it up.  :'(

I'm going to try and track the progress of my next drawing in stages, from early sketches to final product.  This is the first image:

More to come as I get through it.  I may also have one or two other images to upload in the meantime.  A lot of the time I will start and complete a drawing while I'm still working on another, it's a good way to work through a drawing that is giving me trouble.

[Reason]

Wow, love the great dynamic poses in this picture. It'll be great to follow your progress as you take it through the different stages.

[Author]

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