Into the Fiery Pit!

I wanted to draw something with a bit more realism this time. Usually I have my ideas prepared by this time I didn't, regardless I overcame the blank mindedness to create something wonderful.

I found a picture on Pinterest of someone who was holding on to a chain, if this person were to let go they would've fallen. It immediately made me think, villain about to fall to their doom. I've only got a small handful of villain characters eith out designing a new one and the favourite villain, Agrius Moth, has two extra arms which would not work in this illustration. That narrowed it down to Foey Flawson and given his rather gritty style this image felt perfect for him.

Most of the work came in the form of Foey himself. Not only did I have to replicate the pose but I had to make Foey look as realistic as possible, which was not so easy around the face. There's always that fine line between the right amount of face detail and too much of it, I got it right on this occasion and then added the scabby scars on his right cheek. The hair was additionally challenging since there would be loose strands to add and the hair would have a flow as if it was caught in the wind. This was to even out the details of the illustration, the top left was looking too bare.

The clothing wrinkles was initially a great challenge but I used my own clothes as reference for the jacket and the image inspiring this piece for the trousers and the shirt. I'm greatful that the man in the image was dressed in similar clothes because I had no idea what I was doing, I'm hopeless with clothing wrinkles! This is also the first time I've drawn a realistic cap head on and I'm pretty satisfied.

The last thing to do after inking was to add the fiery background, which would be burning from directly below. I had to turn to The Hunchback Of Notre Dame for reference illustrations, particularly the scene when Frollo falls to his death. I wanted this fiery background since Foey's primary colour is Orange so the background would reflect him quite well, I had no intention of colouring Foey himself. Towards the right, some of the fire is too dark but that was my mistake when watering the watercolour pencil, I had started brushing on the darker colours.

I'll look back on this illustration with pride and hope to reach it's quality or higher again very soon! What's your best illustration of a human person? If you're a Facebook user you can share it to me, or you can do another piece to see how you're doing in the present day!

A Serving Of Sore Hand

It's a nice day out and Droey was out playing tennis, teaming up with John. It turns out John had brought him along so he could impress Ida, who was also going to be there. But John's mission didn't go as planned.

Droey didn't mind playing tennis, it was a bit tedious but at least the tennis courts had fencing to prevent the balls from going too far astray. Back in school Droey would often be having to leave the court to go and find the tennis ball. As you can tell, Droey and Tennis did not mix well. But John was in a rush today, and not because he was trying to get work done. John had recently found out that Ida was going to be playing Tennis with Anne Natalie and he was determined to be there so he could impress her.

In the time that John had to arrange his outing, Droey and Tenvad were the only ones available. Tenvad only played virtual sports or game with little physical activity, as many Technobians do. John had a straight choice; take Droey to Tennis or go on his own. So Droey and John were now in sportswear and armed with racquets, early.

'Okay, be sure to look cool at all times!' John instructed. 'Ida should be here on about fifteen. She'll see us, we'll keep going- keeping it smooth, then we'll go play doubles with them.'

'You've really thought this through, haven't you?' And John had, for just like he said, Ida would arrive with Anne Natalie fifteen minutes after they arrived. By now, Droey and John had already joined a doubles match against a friendly duo. John noticed Ida's arrival and suddenly his exaggerated confidence was switched on.

'Alright, Droey, this is it!' John murmured. By giving these instructions, John wasn't focusing on where the ball was headed. Droey was also distracted, but saw the ball coming and swung for it. He knew now would be the worst time for the ball to pass them, but it did. Droey was no longer focuses on the ball, because he'd struck something else. The sound of a racquet dropping could be heard andJohn was rubbing his hand as he helped in pain! Anne Natalie was surprised as Droey and Ida tried her best not to laugh, though a snorting sound forced it's way out of her mouth.

John was ambidextrous so for the remainder of the day John would play with his right hand. They still had a good time after their game with the friendly duo and when they challenged Anne and Ida. It wasn't what John had planned but he had managed to sort a day at one of the arcades, which was a win for him. John's hand was none the worse the next day but John was adamant that we would not be taking Droey to play Tennis again!

I Tried Digital Painting!

I had some free time and access to Photoshop, it was the perfect oppurtunity to try out digital painting, so here's the result!

Here's a very realistic looking Ida Noe and John Esposito, done in the space of three days. For most of the process I stuck to using the brush and smudge tool. This was certainly challenging but I enjoyed working on this very much. It all started with a reference I took on Pinterest which can be seen below.

I started out with Ida by working on the skin, this would take longer than anything else did. I'm still loving how her left arm turned out! The base that I referred to has no shading so I had to work all of that out for myself. For some parts like the hands and neck I would use references or look at my own body for the 3 Dimensional anatomy which resulted in about an hour's work on just Ida's right arm! Once her skin was done Ida was dressed up and given her face, all done in the same method.

I was confident enough to say I could finish John in just a day and so on my final of the three days I got started. I made the effort to shade his skin since at this point I was debating wether or not to dress him in his jacket (it was most amusing to be creating him topless!) but decided to give him the jacket, even though I think the shading is fairly weak.

It was when working on John that I started to illustrate the hairs on both characters, John was first. I looked up some tutorials though I don't think I mastered it quite the same. I enjoyed doing John's hair, in fact his head overall is my favourite part of the whole piece! I can't remember which tutorials I looked up but if you search on YouTube I don't think you have to scroll very far. Lastly John's cap was illustrated and then cut to fit under some of his hairs and the illustration was... almost complete.

The colouring on Ida's skin didn't feel right and I remembered how DrawingWiffWaffles suggested when digital painting to play with the colour balance tool. This worked it's magic and made every colour work together beautifully! If your colours don't feel like they belong together, don't hesitate to try this.

So that's how my digital painting went, be sure to have a go yourself and see what beauty you can create!

Colours Personified 2 - At last!

For the longest time we've had two characters Albiona and Redd, both of which can be found on the Droey's Draws website. They were part of an intended line of characters based on colours. I was always saying how I would add to this list but in over a year I never did, until now.

I have made the effort to add to the colour series with four new entries, here are the colours blue, yellow, green and black!

I'll go from right to left, simply because the designs get more interesting towards the left. First of all is Mazarine. I went for a calm character with flowing features, leaning towards the traits that are connotation with lighter blues. I've noticed not many of my female characters have hair that goes straight down, so I chose to give her no accessories in her hair, allowing it to flow to it's full potential.  Mazarine wears a bodice with a long skirt, decorated with a wavy pattern along the bottom. You'll notice something new with Mazarine, and that's the addition of visible lips. This has only been done on one character before, and that's Tenvad. I've always wondered how I'd go about with lips in this style, forgetting that all this time one of the main characters had pink lips! The style is based on Kim Possible's lips, though that may have been obvious.

The second design contains another first. Eurion Bowie is the first child character in the collection, young adult teens excluded. This is because when researching the colour yellow, it was said to be considered very childish among males as well as careless. I'm not sure if Eurion is going to be this size (compared to the other characters), but was drawn this size so I could focus on the design. Going for the careless look I gave him scruffy hair and mismatches shoes as well a dark overalls to make a mess in. I don't know what Eurion's been eating but it's turned his tongue a bright yellow!

This next design was actually going to be one of the Sbookies that I covered in Inktober but was rejected. Lucky for this scarecrow, the thought of using green led me to design one and is perhaps my favourite of the colour character designs! Autumn Green is the result of decisions taken to go for something farmyard style and has gone with the Spud the Scarecrow vibe. This one's not a trouble maker, just a mute Scarecrow living a quiet life.

I was concerned about putting hay in her design since hay is yellow, but with these character designs are restricted to a single hue so I had to stick to green. I was needing to use a lighter shade to balance things out in any case so chose a lime green that in comparison might look close enough to hay, I have no regrets about doing so. There's the idea that colours should be used to be other colours, since in comparison to sorrounding colours they will look different. I can't say if it worked or not this time but it's a good enough result.

Lastly there is the black character design. I didn't want to go for an evil character but black can represent death and power, so it's either grim character, super villain or Batman. I went for the grim character, but using the idea of black having a professional look to continue adding to the Sbookies world. This is the grim reaper's manager I suppose. He does all the paper work and keeps grim informed. He shares similar design features with the grim reaper as seen in Sbookies, such as the thin body. His name? Mr. Kieran Blackwell, he dealt with the Grim Reaper and became a partner in business, being granted immortality so he could do so.

So what do you think of these characters? Let me know who your favourite is and in good time, hopefully sonnet than later, I'll be making more colour themed characters!

Sunset Duel

Remember Foey from several months back? If you don't, not to worry because he's back! One evening saw him duelling Droey Drawson far away from the town. He was armed with a knife but Droey was wielding a spoon?

I was inspired to draw a battle with a spoon by that episode of Doctor Who featuring Robin Hood. Of course I'd be wielding the spoon but I couldn't decide who I'd be duelling against until I remembered Foey. As a result I gave him his knife and the two of them did battle near the edge of a cliff.

Another thing I wanted to prioritise was a background, something I'd really like to improve. I was thinking of placing Droey and Foey on a tree trunk but I changed it to a cliff edge with a distant view. The addition of a motorway was to take away from some of the green which would otherwise consume the background, the sa,e goes for the lake. I didn't want the sky to be blue since it would destroy the contrast for Droey. Given that most of Foey's cap broke the border I decided to give the sky a golden sunset with red clouds, it makes a nice change from the usual blue skies.

So Droey's evil counterpart, Foey has returned. Does this mean Plottie's going to make a comeback, only time will tell!

Protector Of The Pork Pies

I recorded this one for YouTube, I feel the videos prior to this weren't me working at my best so I gave it my all for this one and looking at it, I think it paid off.

The inspiration for this crazy idea comes from a picnic in which the food required protection from the local animals. That's excactly what Lottie's done here and now she is being praised by a group of Pork Pies. I'm sure Lottie's honoured to be declared the protector of the pork pies!

The prop design was simple, take pork pies and turn them into other things. This includes a crown and a staff. I can only assume that the staff can be used as a weapon on both ends so that Lottie can do her protecting. The crown won't actually be made of Pork Pie, neither would the staff, it'd be made of wood and a few bits of paint.

You'll notice that Lottie's looking a little different today. So as to fit the crown on her head, Lottie's ponytail has been undone and she's gracefully let her hair down. Additionally she's done her eyelash differently (okay so that was an illustration error but let's pretend it's not!), her lash usually curves up. She's also got no blush on, that's a first!

Do you ever accidentally illustrate a character incorrectly? I'd be interested to hear how you try to cover it up or excuse little mistakes, what reasons have you come up with?

She's Gorgeous!

Time to give the spotlight to a couple of characters, not excactly friends they don't hate each other. Here are Evangeline and Alannah.

You may remember Evangeline from the previous post in which Lottie and her friends hijacked a showroom car, and Alannah has been around for as long as Gary and Lexi. Wanting to draw both of them but not knowing how to put them together, I came to the conclusion of the 'there is no specific beautiful' sort of concept.

I gave both of them some patterned clothing just to make the designs a little more interesting, most of my designs use symbols and plain blocks of colour rather than patterns. I really like the costume designs done for these two, Alannah's is an adaptation of the outfit seen in her original illustration, which included a blue shirt. The underwear colour has been used for her leggings the design of which (alike the new shirt) are inspired by some fashion research.

Evangeline's glasses originally had no lashes but because she didn't look so feminine I added circular lashes as a part of the glasses' design. Her costume design is based on one of Jenna Coleman's outfits in Doctor Who. It's colour scheme taking natural colours, focusing on green in particular.

So that's Evangeline and Alannah introduced, I hope you look forward to seeing them again in future artworks.

Steal The Show Car

What started out as an idea about a road trip became a bit of fun in a car showroom! Jirou, now working there, is not best pleased about this!

Lottie was out with Anne, Ida and Evangeline when they passed the showroom and saw the nice looking car on it's pedestal. They wanted to get a feel of the car but Jirou was using his spare time to 'protect' the car. The girls wouldn't have any of it, so using supplies brought by Anne for her costume designs, they tied Jirou up to the roof rack and got in! They never actually drove the car anywhere, instead they just sat in it mucking around while Jirou lay restrained in humility.

Two cars within the same six months? That's a big step up for me I suppose! This car was based on no real design but would probably look like Postman Pat's van with four seats! This doesn't garuntee a future of car illustrations though, probably only when the situation calls for one.

I'm not too fond of the colouring on this one but I did one away from home so I only had a limited set of colours to work with. Evangeline's skin is much darker than I wanted it to be, but the rest of the colours aren't far off from what I wanted.

Have you attempted art with a limited set of supplies? Try seeing how much you can do with so few supplies, good luck!