May 2015 Art Challenge - 'Ancient vs Futuristic'

Here is my entry for Draw with Jazza's May 2015 Art Challenge - Ancient vs Futuristic.  The idea is that they are a kind of secret service MI5 (or Men In Black) top secret government agents in Victorian times, fighting Aliens and Futuristic Robots.  Hence the lady and gentleman on the left, are fighting a spider-like robot from outer space, in a Victorian sewer tunnel.

This is my first artwork in quite some time, I think it might actually have been a couple of years since I last tried to create some colour pencil art.  I still doodle in pen and pencil, but I've not tried to create some real art in ages.  I was really rusty.  But I really enjoyed doing this, and even enjoyed sketching out and colouring in bricks in between ad breaks on the TV.  

I joined this Art Challenge late on in the month, having only a couple of weeks to come up with the idea and create it.  If I'd had a little more time, I would have liked to have continued darkening the background, and just had a light glow around my heroes, and from the robot's laser bolts.  But as it is, I still enjoyed it.  And I want to create more!

My Artwork:  Colour Pencil, on A5 Sketchbook paper.

Fantasy Creature - Gryphon

Today I had a go at Wetcanvas' Creature Feature - the challenge this month is to create a Gryphon, a fantasy creature with combined elements of an Eagle and a Lion. I have since discovered that I need a little more practice at drawing animals, as that's the best way to learn how to create convincing supernatural creatures. I am pleased with how my beak turned out, the eagle's head is good although I think I shortened the neck a little too much. The wings I would move further along the back, and possibly make them larger. Proportions are very difficult to get when you are combining various elements of different animals! Here is the reference photos I used to create this Gryphon.

Sketch #6 Sea Serpent

Today I nearly ran out of time in the day, I literally sketched this in 15 minutes before I went to bed! It's a small sea serpent inspired from a childrens drawing book. Drawn with less details to make it quicker to do, but I did enjoy adding the pattern and changing the shading for under the water and above it. A fun sketch.

Sketch #2 - Fantasy Doodles

Today I just doodled for fun, I started off drawing sweets, a heart, then a white rabbit, and his magic rabbit hole, a pocket watch, a little more stippling, and then a fantasy door to finish things off. It was nice just to relax and not worry about doing something 'right'.

Eachy Concept & Lizard Dragon Sketches

Here are couple more Eachy inspired sketches, my Eachy concept first...


followed by a rough sketch of a Lizard Dragon. He had a gorgeous expression on his face, he seemed so alive.

Trying Concept Art Sketches

After being inspired by Christopher Burdett's blog post, and his amazing monsters that he loves to create so much, I thought I would have a go at designing and creating my own monster. I decided to do the Wetcanvas Creature Feature, which this month is a mythical creature called an Eachy. An Eachy is described as a species of lake monster from Northern England and Scotland. It is typically a large humanoid being of gruesome and slimy appearance seen to occasionally emerge from the lake. It is described as a 13-foot-long (4.0 m), triple-humped, python-headed creature.

Following Christopher Burdett's method of using reference photos and concept sketches/thumbnails, I gathered many images of python's heads, hunchbacks (of notre dame), and even the odd hunchbacked gargoyle statue. I looked for 'humps' so I could look at camel humps. For future reference, make sure you add the word 'camel' to your search, or you get a lot of humping and no camels!!!

These are some of the suitable reference images I found...

I like these reference images, and I got a basic idea in my head of what I wanted my Eachy to look like. So I started sketching my first ever 'concept sketches'. I've never done concept sketches before, I've looked at some, (especially those in Art of Star Wars books), I've sketched fun cartoony images before, and drawn from reference images before. But how do you draw an imaginary creature, from reference images that obviously are not a photograph of the imaginary creature you're trying to make up? Well, I had a go, and embarrassed to say my drawings looked like a child's drawings! They looked awful to me! I shaded them in and went over the lines a bit, and they seem to have improved a little, but they're definitely not the best sketches in the world! I know concept sketches aren't meant to be the best art ever, just show the design of whatever it is you're designing. Which mine do, just about. I just hope I can make a better creature when I come to doing my final drawing. I really think I need help on using reference pictures to create imaginary creatures!

Here they are, I hope you don't find them too poorly drawn. Any help and advice anyone can offer would be gratefully appreciated!

New Sketch - Lady Hawkmoth

I've started my 'Lunchtime Sketches' again! Here's a new sketch I've just finished of a fairy. I've been looking at Amy Brown's art, and thought I would have a go at emulating her style of doing fairies and see how I did at it. So I thought about doing a sketch of a fairy dancing, I expected to do Amy Brown style clothing on her, with the striped tights that I love so much. But as I started drawing her, she seemed to take on a life of her own. I started thinking more and more how my fairy would dress, then how I wanted her wings - I've now discovered how difficult it is to draw the wings, trying to get them even in size and shape, and as symmetrical as possible. I've now decided that if they aren't symmetrical, not all things in nature are, so it makes her look more natural! :)

I love Hawkmoths, so used them as inspiration for the decorating of the wings. At first I was going to have the wings behind her, so you would only see the tips, but then I thought as she was dancing, she would probably have them out on show, a bit like a Peacock does when trying to impress a potential partner. So maybe this is the dance of love, and she is trying to impress a potential fairy partner?

I'm having fun inventing my own fairy world to play with!

Art - Teaching Myself

"Frozen in the Moonlight"

I am a self-taught artist, and still in the process of improving my skills. You can see a sample of my art in the header of this blog, plus some of my works I have uploaded here. Just click on an image to see a larger version of it.

"Gargoyle"

"House"

"Spider"

I haven't done much drawing in a while, I like pencil and colour pencil art - that's what I do best. I'm just not skilled with a paintbrush, probably due to a little too much playing and paint fights in school for me to learn much!

I want to be a fantasy art, I was first inspired by Boris Vallejo, I got a calendar of his back in the 90's, and it kicked off the fantasy art bug in me. I've since sought out new fantasy artists to add to my inspiration, I moved on to the works of Chris Achilleos, Luis Royo, Clyde Caldwell and Greg Horn. I would love for my meagre art talents to reach these standards, then I would be so proud of my work!

So what do I need to do to improve? All the above artists tend to focus on people in their artwork, very realistic figures. My figure drawing leaves a lot to be desired (in my humble opinion), and I want to be able to do amazing and realistic figures. I also don't have a lot of experience doing fantastic creatures, monsters or dragons. I would also love to do more backgrounds to my images, so landscape, and most especially cityscape, I would love to improve on. The simple answer to this - Practice! Now I've figured out what I want to imrove upon, I need to find reference images for these types of images, and practice them over and over again until I improve! So here's a simplified list of what I want to improve:

- Figure Drawing
- Fantastic Creatures, Monsters & Dragons
- Landscapes (Greenery)
- Cityscapes (Buildings & Architecture)
- Still Life (Weapons, Fantasy Objects)

For the fantastic creatures, monsters and dragons, I will need to collect reference images of animals, both furry and reptile animals, to be able to draw fantasy creatures. Once you can draw realistic normal animals, you can learn to draw fantasy animals really well. I've added still life as it occurred to me I don't have hardly any practice of drawing weapons, and the few I have done, have not been very good at all. So it's time to improve on them as well.

If I stick to this plan with my art, and work on these various subjects, by the end of this year I should be able to do these subjects with much greater ease, and be much more able to produce high quality fantasy art of my own. Wish me Luck!