sketchbook: July 2010 Archives

Actually, I was planning on not doing the Tuesday sketch this week. I have a lot of work to do on the comics for Thursday and Max is going on vacation so I have to do Saturday's Hellcat Cosmos as well. But after my daily workout today I was in ore of a mood to sketch than I was to color, so I decided to give it a shot.

As always, I'm glad I did. 

I always like to give myself different challenges for the Tuesday Sketch. The first week I did my Wonder Woman sketch entirely on computer. The second week, I decided to draw with graphite sticks. This week, the theme was "Favorite Literary Characters." I couldn't decide which one I wanted to do, so I decided to do three. And I was going to draw three different sketches, I figured I'd have to quick sketch them all. 

It's actually really good practice. When you quick sketch, you have to learn to not care as much about technical precision. I gave myself about 10-15 minutes for each sketch and was watching TV while I did them so as to not pay too much attention. It was all gesture based and just getting the idea down on paper. I used graphite sticks again because I love them so much, even though I didn't do as much blending and such as I did the first time I used them.

In any case, here are the sketches. I have a great love for mythology and folklore. As such the literary characters I chose all came from classical fiction. Let me know what you think. As always, click the any of the images to see a larger version of them.

-Mav

∑8x)

 

I had so much fun doing the Wonder Woman Tuesday Sketch last week that I figured I'd try it again this week. At the very least, I figured, it'd be good to practice my quick sketching.

Last week's sketch was done entirely on the computer with my Wacom Sketch Tablet, so this week I decided to go a different direction. I used to love freehand sketching, so I got out my graphite drawing sticks (funky, all graphite drawing pencils for those who don't know) and waited for them to announce the Tuesday Sketch on Twitter. 

Well, it turns out the Tuesday Sketch is normally done by an entirely different website. So after I sorted that out, I took the "secret ingredient" (a nod to Iron Chef) – which was "fairies" this week – and went to work on my sketch for this week.

As I said, I went in a different direction this time. Rather than drawing the whole thing on computer, I did the initial sketch with good old pencil (well graphite stick) and paper. After completing the freehand sketch I scanned it and quickly colored it with the wacom tablet and Adobe Photoshop. And what you see to the right is the results (as always, you can click it to enlarge it).

Another note about the drawing. In my mind magical fairies don't wear clothes. There just really doesn't seem to be any point to it. But, in an effort to keep both this and the Tuesday Sketch website at least somewhat worksafe, I figured I'd make a small concession and so they have tiny little translucent outfits. It's the least I can do.

Let me know what you think. Oh and if you're not following us on Twitter yet, then please add @cosmichellcats and don't forget to add our Facebook page as well.

-Mav

∑8x)

So here's a funny story. When I wrote the current strip, I just told Max to draw a succession of sexy and silly outfits for Sarah to be trying on and I would write jokes for whatever he picked later. That's actually pretty common for Hellcats. We sort of collaborate. I write a basic plot, and then often I'll base some of the jokes off of whatever occurs to me with Max's art.

When Max sent me inked artwork, I was surprised to find out that he'd actually drawn her in a Wonder Woman outfit. The funny thing here is that if you've been paying attention to your comic book news, DC Comics actually decided to change Wonder Woman's outfit this week. 

I actually almost made a joke in the strip about Sarah choosing the outfit because Diana Prince wasn't using it anymore, but I opted out and went the way you see in the strip above. But I kept thinking about it.

Then while perusing Twitter this morning I saw that the website Area 51 comics was running a "redesign Wonder Woman" contest. The idea being that since DC was redesigning her outfit this month, it might be fun to see what other artists might do give the chance to do so as well. I thought it might be fun to give it a whirl. And I figured, while I'm at it, why not throw in a bonus Wonder Girl as well. (Cassie is one of my favorite comic book characters.)

I wasn't really thinking about what I was getting myself into. I used to paint and draw a lot. That's even initially what I went to college for (I eventually switched my major to creative writing with an art minor). But, I've more or less gotten out of practice the last few years. I've spent way more time writing than drawing. But as I said a couple weeks ago, I had so much fun picking up the pen again (and by pen, I mean Wacom Sketch Tablet) that I resolved to do it more often. Since I drew that Hellcat Cosmos by hand in Manga Studio I figured this time I'd give it a go painting the entire thing in Photoshop. I didn't really realize that I'd gotten so out of practice that it'd take me all day. 

No matter, I was resolved to do this dammit! It's not quite as good as I wanted, my pen control has definitely suffered due to atrophy, but I am relatively pleased with it. Especially since I did it freehand on the computer rather than drawing it on paper and only coloring on the computer (the way we normally do the comics). While not as technically proficient as I want, that's something I can work on. I'm certainly happy with it stylewise. If I get more time to practice with it and get to where I want to be, both speed and qualitywise, I'd love to maybe do a special edition comic this way. 

Some day maybe.

Anyway, for now, please enjoy some rare (well rare around here) non-Hellcats artwork. Let me know what you think. Oh, and much like the comics, you can see a larget version by clicking on the image.

-Mav

∑8x)