Rocket Raccoon

This weekend I was lucky enough to see Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, a fun film about a group of heroic space bandits. It is one of the less known and outwardly bizarre Marvel franchises. The team consist of a human, an assassin, a man bent on vengeance, a talking raccoon, and a talking tree named Groot. While some of the characters have been around for more than twenty years, this incarnation of the team was first published in 2008.The film itself is one of the best times that I have had at the movies in awhile, and I highly recommend it to anyone, even if you are not a fan of superhero films. The music is great too! Enough about the movie, now about this little raccoon guy.

This is Rocket Raccoon. Don't let his furry looks fool you, he is a trained killer and weapons expert with a bad attitude. I'm not too sure how spoiler-y I should get here, so if you want to find out more see the movie of wikipedia. This is just a pencil drawing, hopefully I can get a inked version up soon.

Donatello Marker Sketch

Here's a quick sketch I've created while waiting to get sleepy. This is Donatello, he is the tech-savy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. I have drawn the Turtles a few times lately, I guess I like how colorful they are. I use a sepia toned brush tip marker and Prismacolor markers. The sketch paper really helped soak up the colors and allow for some layering of hues. I am not too worried about the presentation of this piece, due to it just being a sketch so I chose to leave it uncropped. I'll probably be doing some more of these little sketches so be on the look out.

Some Superhero Heads

Here are some head drawings from my sketch book today. I wanted to work with my Pentel Color Brush which is like a sable brush but in a pen. I find that it has better quality lines and more versatility with line weights. For the colors I used my Prismacolor markers.

The two heads I decided to draw were Michelangelo, one of the Ninja Turtles and Daredevil. I tried to keep the details to a minimum and focus on the color at the end. There is a pretty big smear on Mikey because I was too impatient to wait for it to dry before erasing. Enjoy!

Leonardo - Ninja Turtles Drawing

It has been awhile since my last art update, I know that it has been awhile, excuses, excuses. Anyways here is my latest work of art, Leonardo my favorite turtle!

I had a bit of time over the past few weeks and decided to watch the first episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from 1987. I remember collecting the action figures as a kid and the fact that they were all named after Renaissance painters, but beyond that I didn't remember much. After the first 5 episodes, it all came back to me and I was hooked once again. I have not had the chance to check out the original Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird comic stories yet, but hopefully I can sometime soon.

I started this drawing on the computer and printed it out in blue lines so that after I inked it I could take out the blue with Photoshop. Drawing on the computer was a lot quicker that doing the original in pencils. I tend to get really frustrated with the original concept drawing and end up digging a hole into it. With the computer tablet and Photoshop I can at least hit "Ctrl + Z " as many times as I want. Next I moved on into the inking phase. This was odd because on the computer I had only drawn the actual character and vaguely hinted at what I wanted in the background. A lot of white out and frustration ensued. In the end I am happy with the final product. Turtle Power!

Current work in progress...

Here is the current art that I am working on. It is taking a little bit longer than I originally thought it would. Be on the look out for more soon!

Admiral Ackbar - It's a Digital Painting!

Last night I started to paint in the colors for my original line sketch, but I didn't really like the way that they were coming out. I was following a tutorial in Imagine FX magazine and I think I was doing it wrong. I'll Post the image at the bottom of the post. 

I decided to do a study in black and white of the characters face, in order to practice my painting skills. I wanted to not have to worry about color, but more on the actual form. I plan on doing a few more of these, just as practice. Here is what I created.

 

So here is the coloring job I did on the line drawing. I think the problem I had was that I was trying to paint it, when coloring it like a coloring book would have been a better approach. I did a grey under-painting and then painted over the top with a single color. Everything turned out kind of saturated and I decided to leave it.

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Admiral Ackbar - Digital Drawing

It's been awhile since my last drawing update, but here is my newest artwork that I can show you. Admiral Ackbar! The Mon Calamari leader of the Rebel fleet in Star Wars Return of the Jedi. He is famous for his odd appearance and "It's a trap" line. Ackbar and his fellow fish-head friends were some of my favorite Star Wars aliens as a kid.

For this drawing I went completely digital. I drew everything in the computer using my Wacom tablet and Photoshop. This is just a line drawing at the moment but I plan on creating a digital painting. I am not sure if I will be replicating this exact process in the future, due to the fact that it is a little hard to create clean lines in the computer, but we shall see. Also I have included a bonus pencil sketch, enjoy!