Vive La France

Learning to Draw, pt. 1

Drawing has proven to be such a refreshing change of pace that I'm beginning to really enjoy it, even if I'm really only playing around at this point.

This is the character who I want draw.

This is Gabriel. She has a backstory and a character concept, but I won't go into it right now. After a few hours twisting my hand over the Intuos, I came up with this.

As poor the quality is, it's pretty good for me at my current skill level. She was birthed from a particular drawing technique (I forget the actual name) where you constantly draw over your original drawing as you refine and sculpt the features. As you do this, you flip the canvas -- that basically resets your mind, so you can see proportions better.

So Gabriel actually started out like this:

Then this:

Here I resized Gabriel's shoulders to be not as broad.

Gosh, Gabriel's getting pretty! Look at that face!

Here Gabriel's hips look less like they can stab people.

She's getting there now, but her hips are still too wide, and it's this point I notice her head really isn't sitting well on her shoulders.

Here is the final sketch. A this point, her proportions are right. Of course, there are things wrong with it, the arms don't really sit right, her neck is a little triangular, and she's not "clean", but those things come with practice.

Here is a group portrait with Gabe and all her prior incarnations.

Drawing Again - Art and AIF

I've decided I'd really like some graphics for my next game, but I don't want to shell out the money for complex graphics programs and all the assets that come with it. So yesterday I bought myself an early Christmas present: an Intuos draw tablet, and I've been playing around with it ever since.

Believe it or not, I used to be a reasonably good sketch artist. I'm not so much anymore, I'm just not in the position to draw for fun like I used to. So it's not just getting used to the tablet, it's reaching my former level of proficiency.

A self-portrait. Sort of. Of my own internet avatar, not of myself. I'm much handsomer in real life.

As you can see, it's going to be a bit before I can draw something legit nice. The best I can hope for are portraits in the meanwhile. It's at least fun drawing again, and I can say with certainty the Intuos tablet works really great.