i am hoping to get down a more solid reference for the kinds of body types/body language i have in mind for characters.
left to right: alexis, charade, james/rage.
it’s not perfectly what i have in mind, but it’s close.
alexis needs to be fit, and he needs to look ‘balanced’ in terms of proportions. not particularly thin, not particularly thick. muscular, but not to james’ extent. when he’s in his element, he should show a kind of animalistic grace. no issue with being forced into vulnerable positions or being forced to play up his vulnerability either.
charade’s form should be almost birdlike in its delicacy but he still has some muscle tone. the latter comes into play more as he gets older. unstable or uncertain poses when he’s younger, shifting into a subtle, modest kind of poise as he gains confidence.
james should look pumped up, even when he’s a late teenager. it’s part of him being noticeably mutated. at the same time, though, his body language should make him look immature to counter it.
more sketches, but this time these are sketches that i might ink and colour in the distant future. mainly because: i REALLY haven’t had enough practice drawing people from the back, and the reference photo has GORGEOUS LIGHTING that i want to study. putting the reference photo through reverse image searches didn’t yield anything fruitful unfortunately so i’m at a loss as to where the photo is originally from, but like the others it’s a photo in a large folder of photos of men from all kinds of different angles, with different poses and actions and props etc. very useful! i wish i could remember where i downloaded it from, i’m absolutely certain it was a mass download with a bunch of art books and other anatomical references.
but anyway i’m posting these two sketches because i’m just interested in how something as simple as the position of the head can change the mood of a picture entirely and make it look more cohesive.
the first one is based off of the reference more closely, except for the hands. in the reference photo, the man has his hands more in a ‘hide and seek’ position. i may adjust the sketch to reflect this later on if i want to go for a ‘coy/playful’ pose, but for now i want to take the sketch in another direction and go for ‘submissive’ instead. so i changed the hands, but the head stayed the same - mostly upright, like in the reference photo.
in the second sketch, i felt having his head upright with his newly adjusted hands felt wrong. there was an issue of depth, for one thing - putting hands in that position gave the illusion that the man was standing further back from the wall than the original reference photo. but also mood wise, i was unsure of how well the head matched the actions of the hands. so i lowered the head, turned it slightly to one side - and i really like the difference! lowering the head helps with the depth issue, turning it to one side makes it submissive but still with a hint of uncertainty, or anticipation, maybe.
…th…this isn’t meant to be porn, by the way. i just want to be able to create a variety of moods. >_>
another body sketch using a photo reference. doing a reverse image search seems to make the photo come up as ‘Peter H by Dylan Rosser’ if that’s any help. :S the model is skinnier (not by much), but for james’s sake i pumped up the muscles and widened the body, made the hands larger (the model had surprisingly small hands proportion wise? not a bad thing, just interesting! also that partially explains why the sketch’s arms look weird and ‘off’ - what i had in my head wasn’t matching what was in the photo - the other reason is that i’m just plain shit at that part of the arm). doing these exercises just makes me realise how much work i have to do in figuring out how to draw the muscles of men. i need to figure out how to make them more distinct - since in my head james and jack are pretty mutated, they’re both huge and hulk-type, but for alexis and alexander, i want them to look muscular but balanced. diego is muscular too but definitely leaner, more sinewy. dana’s toned but skinny, and owen’s similarly nicely toned but a bit thicker, etc etc. i really need to figure out how to make all those differences apparent!
ps. ha-ha-ha i named the file unhappy.jpg because james is probably unhappy that he is being forced to wear briefs. tough luck bro that’s what the model was wearing.
doing body sketches. i really think i need the practice. :\ every time i return to the work i’m meant to be doing, i keep on picking up on these annoying anatomical mistakes that just make me cringe. so here is a sketch of alexis again (he is very fun to draw), using a picture of ‘male model oraine barrett’ (if the image name is to be trusted) as a reference. it’s a reference in a huge pile of art resources/references that i have on my computer, so i’m not too sure about the source.
as for his tattoo, that’s actually the design i created for his back tattoo when i gave his details for a commission, rather than the design i created for his belly…but i’m planning on reworking the designs anyway, and at this stage i prefer this design to the one i originally had for his stomach so, i just slapped it on.
if you were to ask me what i was doing, i wouldn’t be able to answer. i have essays i need to do and this is a way to relax in between reading loads of shit.
sigh nothing is coming out like how i want it to and i need to get back to studying and writing these essays so i have to stop drawing for the night. here is a sketch of alexis that took me maybe 5-10 minutes? i enjoy drawing his face but his hair is a nightmare. worked on it in between attempting to finish the art trade and commission bluh.
Quick sketch of myself from last night. Went out for excellent/cheap dim sum with friends and oh god I was so full afterwards, stuffed myself with chilli pepper squid and glutinous rice balls and beef belly with oyster sauce and so many dumplings aaahh. I’m already getting cravings again. I got really sleepy afterwards too, hence the dopey expression. Peter gave me his scarf because I was cold. \o/ I can’t remember the colour though so I just made it up haha.
AaaaaaH. I have been having so many problems with my tablet. I thought it was fixed, but then it just started getting worse and even more unusable…but after replacing the cable and fiddling around with my computer everything is fine. …For the meantime. My skills have kind of taken a turn for the worst though so I am sketching up some crap in hopes of working up to doing the work I need to do (seriously belated art trades/art collabs/commissions - I’m contemplating doing extra pieces to make up for the horrible belatedness) since the stuff I am producing now is not really as good as it coul be.
SO here. Sketch of a new character I’ve been playing around with. Alexis/Alexander used to have a proper story when I was younger and more stupid lol but I’ve been destroying and recreating it over time. I’m hoping that Grayson will be a permanent addition though, I like him even if I haven’t really got a lot of details in concrete. I’m still wondering how to make him look more distinct by tweaking his facial features and so on but at the same time, I want him to look really generic - so he can blend into places fairly easily, and not be terrible recognisable. So this is the first of probably a number of designs for Grayson.
His base concept is made to mirror Alexis - where Alexis is confident in public but shows startling vulnerability to public opinion underneath, Grayson has constructed a shy, clumsy and bashful persona for use in public which contrasts with his inner confidence and remarkable self-control.
unfinished doodles from a while ago. Candice can be really hard to draw! I really enjoy drawing her facial features, like the particular shape of her nose/eyes/mouth, and her body but her hair especially is difficult for me to get right.
A while ago, a friend asked me to help him out with an Egyptian-themed band project. The idea was to get a bunch of different arty people to submit a piece each to follow along with the solar barge myth, and then they’d be collated into a printed booklet to coincide with the CD release, or something? My memory is pretty bad. We were given a lot of freedom and it turned out to be quite interesting! I got the part of the myth where Apep/Apophis appears and tries to swallow the sun, I think? Anyway it was kind of embarrassing to be included in the booklet when there were all these artists who were ridiculously talented. I mean I like how much I’ve improved personally, but at the same time I definitely do not think I am at a level where I can call myself an ‘intermediate’ artist, I’m still amateur at best when you look at the kind of work I’m doing and take a step back to look at the wide range of skill/talent in the art world. And that’s all right! I’m cool with that. It just means I have a long way to go. It also means that I feel a wee bit uncomfortable if I’m asked to do anything that sets me up against advanced artists, but it was still a good opportunity to try something more similar to the art projects I did back in high school though. At first I decided to try creating a piece done in Thai traditional style to depict the Egyptian myth, since the way Thai art depicts Nagas is pretty fun, but then I decided that I wanted to play with texture and composition more. So this was the final result.
