Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “Sketchworks”

Day 108 and Camp Nano 12

centaur 0
moore sketch Quick Sharpie sketch of Roger Moore. Head's a bit squashed, but it's not too bad. I admit, I threw my first drawing away and made myself start over, rather than deal with one messed up line in his right jawline. It's interesting to me how much of the character of even a very young Roger Moore is made up not just by that whale of a jaw, but by the subtle lines all over his face. He was strangely old even when young. moore picture Drawing every day. -the Centaur P.S. Only ~800 words today, which was quite a struggle. Roger Moore came up very tangentially when Dakota was snarking about a vampire looking like a cross between Roger Moore and Leslie Nielsen.

Day 107 and Camp Nano 11

centaur 0
apsara sketch Quick Sharpie sketch of an Apsara dancer, a mythical spirit appearing in Southeast Asian cultures. Came up in some tangential research for a scene in Dakota Frost #7, SPIRAL NEEDLE, but decided this was too rich a mine of mythology for a throwaway line, so I ended up using something else. apsara dance Drawing every day. -the Centaur Oh, and on Camp Nano: just got ~1000 words so far. Not sure why I got fewer words when I had more to do yesterday than today. Perhaps I need to break more paintings?

Day 106 and Camp Nano 10

centaur 0
mongkut sketch Quick Sharpie sketch of King Mongkut of Thailand, the famous king from The King and I, and also, not a bad mathematician and astronomer. Tangentially came up in today's Dakota Frost Camp Nano adventure (2300+ words today, still behind, but catching up). The real guy's head is more egg-shaped, and the left eye has an iris placement mistake: we are near the limit of what I can do with a Sharpie, but it's still the best tool I have to keep myself drawing when it's super late and I'm tired. mongkut headshot Drawing. Every. Day. -the Centaur

Day 105 (and Camp Nano Day 9)

centaur 0
capaldi sketch Sharpie sketch of Peter Capaldi from the Doctor Who episode "The Pilot," which is lightweight in tone and stakes but stands up surprisingly well to repeated viewings, especially Capaldi's knockout speech about time in the beginning, the Doctor's amazing office, and the introduction of the TARDIS. The sketch is ... OK. Slightly squashed, and I'm still doing eyes too big (likely a function of the Sharpie sketches, which put a minimum size on the features I can draw). But it ... kinda looks like him? His head's not turned the right way, and I still have trouble getting the "landscape" of the face right. capaldi drawing Still, drawing every day. -the Centaur P. S. Only got ~50 words on Camp Nano, but I feel good about those words, as they're stitching parts of a scene together so I can really roll with it tomorrow. 11K words behind, but I've been behind worse.

Day 104 (and Camp Nano Day 8)

centaur 0
chipman, pruitt, bolton Quick sketch - much of it, just a dry erase marker, not even a Sharpie - on Strathmore 9x12. Not completely terrible for the first two, but I sure did squeeze Bolton's head. Sorry, man. chipman-pruitt-bolton reference Drawing every day. -the Centaur P.S. Only 250 words with Camp Nano, but then, I still feel that maybe-vaccine headache, so, ugh.

VAC-CI-NATE! (and Drawing Every Day #103, and Camp Nano …)

centaur 0
vac-ci-nate So! I got my first shot today, and other than a little arm soreness, a headache which may or may not be related, and some tiredness which may just be because it's 3:21am, I have not yet had any ill effects. I was totally lied to by my album covers though, and have not been able to hack into Bill Gates' secret global network through the tiny implanted computer chip in the vaccine, maybe because neither exists. centaur, vaccine 1 Ouch. First picture failed for some reason, so we get this charming shot of the needle coming OUT rather than going in. But it didn't really hurt at all, maybe because I was fiddling with my camera. Our Dalek friend below is proud that he was able to contribute his catchphrase to our cause: dalek toy ~500 words on Camp Nano, still behind, but I am too wiped to write more. Drawing, writing, being a good citizen every day. -the Centaur

Day 102

centaur 0
mohawk drawing Character study for a Dakota Frost picture, inks on vellum over a roughs with inks and blue on Strathmore 11x14. Required some Photoshop surgery as I didn't anticipate how the shading would riff off the hair and make it look like the model had a beard. Compared to the original, the forehead is too high and the nose too large. Back to practicing, sigh. I think the below is from the Peles Salon Instagram, though I actually found this picture from like 1,000 different Pinterest boards. mohawk photo Drawing every day. -the Centaur P.S. Got 600+ words on Camp Nano. Picking up speed, more in a bit.

Day 101

centaur 0
rapier centaur sketch Aborted character study from the Lace and Steel box cover I did with a Sharpie. I think the drawing is improved, but the composition that I originally did straight on the box is too hard to work with. Better to start over with something that I can use to show off the various parts of the drawing like the rapier and the weird double-bladed fan/shield/thingy. This composition, of course, was totally off-the-cuff: lace and steel cover Based on the Lace and Steel RPG character book cover: you can see the inspiration, but the off-the-cuff composition was too slavish in recreating some of the elements. I need to start over with a wholly new composition to get the effect I want with this drawing. lace and steel rpg Apparently you can buy Lace and Steel online at Drive Through Fiction, with art by the incomparable Donna Barr, who has a video about drawing horses, which I am going to watch before trying again. -the Centaur P.S. ~400 words on Camp Nano, but that's OK, as I am going to bed "early".

Day 100

centaur 0
dakota rough sketch Quick Sharpie sketch of Dakota Frost, based on the model from the BLOOD ROCK / LIQUID FIRE covers. I tried to do this upside down at first, to "see" it better, and OH BOY it did not turn out well - the landscape was all off. So this is an even quicker sketch, because I need to get to bed early. dakota skull small Also, Camp Nano only got ~150 added words, but again, I need sleep. Rough draftiness:
“Your voice,” the priest said, taking another step back. “If not a vampire, surely … surely not a werewolf … but your voice … why do I know your voice?” I spun, rolling my neck, unfurling more vines into a soft green halo that lit my face. “Do you know me now?” I asked. “Oh … God,” the priest said. “You were on the news, the mother of that weretiger—” “That I am, and if she is here,” I said, “you should point the way … then run.” “She … here?” The priest blinked, then his eyes flicked at the coffin. “But it’s not—” My heart fell. The prisoner in the coffin was not Cinnamon—but as the priest’ eyes went wide in terror, I realized that in his shock he’d given away there was a prisoner in that coffin. I drew a breath, my face flushing, feeling my blood pounding in my ears.
Hopefully I'll pick up speed now that I'm out of the Lenten "Jesus and Godel" series. I wrote 45,000 words of nonfiction in Lent, which is nowhere near the needed Nano rate, but I think is probably the fastest rate and largest single body of nonfiction writing I've done since perhaps my thesis. But what I really did today was move boxes into the room that's going to become my wife's art studio. Drawing, writing, moving every day. -the Centaur

Day 099

centaur 0
capaldi eyebrows Quick Sharpie sketch, sans roughs, of Peter Capaldi's eyebrows. capaldi eyebrows picture Not terrible, but still needs work - the eyebrows are more angled in the realz, and the eyes are more round, and there are subtleties to the hair and temple that need work. Nevertheless, drawing every day. -the Centaur

Day 099

centaur 0
chesterton sketch G. K. Chesterton. Got the landscape of the face a bit off, down and a bit twisted; I guess I didn't really believe he had that much of a double chin. (The error is even more obvious mirror-reflected; time to start drawing these sketches upside-down again). It's really hard to do these quick sketches with no roughs, but doing so is forcing me to pay close attention to what I'm doing and to plan ahead, even on a blank canvas with few to no guidelines (I did draw a box, cropped out of this picture). chesterton picture Still, drawing every day. -the Centaur

Day 097

centaur 0
philip k dick drawing Quick sketch of PKD. His face got a bit distorted, but it's not terrible, methinks. pkd picture Also, I did the following sketch on a box of the roleplaying game Lace and Steel, which is "centaurs and friends in the age of the Three Musketeers." I'd lost the original box somehow - I seem to recall it being mis-sized or having something wrong with the cover - and the generic white box was easy to lose in the shelves. So I quickly flipped through the character book - AMAZING art by Donna Barr, as I recall - and drew, without roughs, the following character on the cover of the white box, so I could find it later: lace and steel cover Centaurs and rapiers and Sharpies, oh my. Drawing every day. -the Centaur

Day 096

centaur 0
dedekind drawing Quick Sharpie sketch of Richard Dedekind. I think I squished him a little, and with the Sharpies it's hard to get eyes pointed right. And his neck kind of stretched down a bit on the left. But I'm not super unhappy with this one. And it means I get to bed 30 minutes earlier than otherwise expected. dedekind picture Drawing every day. -the Centaur

Day 095

centaur 0
Quick sketch of Tony Stark as Iron Man. In an interesting reversal, I think the picture below looks a little squashed, and I unconsciously stretched his face back up to a more normal proportion. Actually, this one wasn't totally terrible - I had to learn a language for drawing the hair, and to pick which parts of the drawing I was going to render as pure black. Also, contra my earlier suggestions, the Sharpie wasn't totally permanent; I actually used whiteout to fix one overwritten line - can you tell where? iron man small Drawing every day. -the Centaur

Day 094

centaur 0
good friday vigil drawing Still stuck on Sharpie drawings while I am simultaneously (a) doing a Lenten series (b) unpacking my library as it is shipped from California and (c) dealing with end-of-quarter objectives ("OKRs"). Above is a drawing of Saint Stephens in-the-Field as set up for Good Friday Vigil: I deliberately simplified it as there's no point in doing a super-detailed drawing when you're trying to do it super-quick. Still, I discovered, as I was drawing the simple shapes of the Cross, something I've suspected: my lines have a wobble to them. This could be practice, or it could be a lingering side effect of my serious RSI episode in the late '90's, which I am still managing to this day (typing this on a lowered keyboard tray as we speak). good friday vigil small Drawing every day. -the Centaur

Day 093

centaur 0
Quick Sharpie sketch of a scene from Ghost in the Shell. Man, it is hard doing this when every line that lands has landed forever - the landscape and proportions of the features are so hard to get right. ghost cell Still, drawing every day. -the Centaur

Day 092

centaur 0
dee drawing John Dee, again with the Sharpie sketches. I like the layout of the face better this time, but while it gives me practice on overall shapes, the resolution of the Sharpies is so broad that it makes it impossible to do a good rendering. So that which makes it easy to do a drawing makes it hard to do it right. dee picture Still, drawing every day. -the Centaur

Day 091

centaur 0
tiberius drawing Quick Sharpie sketch of the Emperor Tiberius. Eh, meh: forehead's too big, and the whole Sharpie sketch thing, while it forces you to commit and gives you practice, is nevertheless a technique which makes it hard to get the shapes quite right. But, hey, it is quick, and it got me to bed earlier. tiberius picture Drawing every day. -the Centaur

Day 090

centaur 0
rogers sketch Sharpie sketch of Fred Rogers. Meh - it was too hard to recover from a few small errors to make the face really look like him, even though the overall face landscape isn't too terrible. rogers picture Still, it's before 3:30am, and I'm drawing every day, 30 minutes earlier this time. -the Centaur

Day 089

centaur 0
gandhi drawing No-regrets Sharpie sketch of Mahatma Gandhi. Actually, some regrets, in that the no-roughs state of the quick sketch sometimes creates problems - like, his egg is more head shaped, scratch that, reverse it, and his smile lines cup more to the chin, and the mustache doesn't overlap enough with the nose. Ah well. gandhi picture But even if it's late and I'm tired, I'm still ... drawing every day. -the Centaur