The Return of Red Haired Girl

I was so happy with the Red Haired Girl Sketch that I did (I think I only spent about an hour on it) that I wanted to keep going with it. My original intention was merely to finish her hand so that all of her skin was well developed and the abstractness would come in her surroundings, but I ended up doing a major overhaul on her face and hair (as well as defining her dress). So basically, I spent a whole lot of time fine tuning this little sketch. Perhaps her hair could get a little brighter and more out of control? Maybe some time this weekend after I finish my pile of Freelance work!!!

(A side note: I listened to Peaches the whole time that I was working on it, which is probably the most opposite type of music I possibly could have chosen)

Also for your viewing pleasure is the photo that I was working off of. I think what I did to the piece in these revisions has made it a lot more "mine," but still I give full credit to the stylists, photographers, and the pretty young thing responsible for this ad (which, again, is Fall 2006 MaxStudio)

Red Haired Girl

Here's a quick little drawing that I did tonight. It's based so closely off of a gorgeous MaxStudio ad from fall 2006 that I don't deserve any credit beyond the media application (which this was intended to practice). I've been wanting to do something really high contrast like this for a while and also have wanted to portray fair, youthful, and glowing sking. I think I've finally figured out how to use red in the skin efficiently (well, for this drawing at least) so I'm pretty happy about it.

I'm also pretty happy to point out that this is the first female portrait that I've done during the last two months of having an art blog. I've kind of been avoiding that because women are so delicate that they really require a lot of extra care. (for instance, it would be a very bad idea to use a lot of heavy brushstrokes in a woman's face because it appears blotchy in a way that wouldn't register on a male portrait). I think I'll do some more women.

Next step: come up with some ORIGINAL artwork!!

Forest Ranger

Here is my latest entry to He-Man.Org's bi-weekly redesign competition. This week the contest called for a redesign on a concept character that never made it off the drawing board at the toy company, referred to only as "Female Forest Figure."

I wanted her emblem to be an owl to link her to the forest and I imagine her as a mysterious and speedy character, origins unknown. Artistically I'm trying to develop a way of stylizaing my Masters of the Universe drawings in a way that would lend itself to model sheets for a cartoon. She could potentially live in the same world as the Sea Hawk I did a couple weeks ago.

A man from the Urban Outiftter's Catalog

I had the urge to do a little "drawing" tonight, so I tried another male portrait. It accidentally ended up with almost the exact color scheme and "technique" as the Steve House portrait I did last month, so I made it a little bluer. Now it kind of reminds me of one of those paintings that were done for the Star Wars prequels--probably because the figure glows out of a cold-looking environment.

The Sea Hawk

Another She-Ra post--this was done for a redesign contest at www.He-Man.org. I wanted to capture the spirit of the original character as well as show him in my style of cartooning. Errol Flynn provided some good inspiration for this.

This is also the first thing I've done in at least a month that started with traditional media (penciled, inked, scanned, then colored). I'd like to find a better way to merge my two ways of working, but it seems that right now I can do some serious cartooning or serious painting, but I don't have the control with my Wacom tablet to be able to do both at the same time.

Catra

This is my interpretation of Catra from the "She-Ra: Princess of Power" universe. When I was a kid, I always thought that the chick that played Cassandra in Wayne's World would be a great casting choice if a live action She-Ra movies was ever made, and I think that ever since then I've had a place in my heart for an Asian Catra. Actually, though, this image is based off of a gorgeous Anna Molinari ad that was so much Catra already, I couldn't resist pushing it a little further (and the moral of the story is that the model in the ad was of Asian decent).

After leaving this piece rest for about a month and returning to it today, I think that I'm finally done with it. I'm not absolutely in love with it, but I really put the finishing touches on it today and don't know that I'd be interested in returning.

Additionally, this piece came before all of the lads that I'd been drawing in early December and was the first time that I made something with Photoshop with the sole intention of making it appear to be a traditional drawing or painting. Revisiting it today made me realize that I've figured a lot out in the past month, so I'm pretty happy about that.