Clothed, standing, coloured

Quick and dirty (but SFW), this - was bad and didn't draw the skull. It probably shows. Bloody hands. Slipped up on the inking a few times, which is annoying - made her neck too wide, and correcting it has left her with uneven shoulders. Oh well. Compositionally I probably shouldn't have gone for blue for the dress, but she isn't the sort to much care. Colour has been bleached a little, but it was shoddy anyway. I'm fairly pleased with the skin though - rose on brown on yellow ochre, no underlay.

This isn't actually Heresy, the nose is different and she's younger. Could be her first cousin in another universe though, she has the same attitude to life. I think her name might be Gifreda.

I think they had a small decorative rapier-type sword in mind, Gifreda. Would you have the heart to take it away from her though?

Inking slips apart, what's wrong with it? :D

Clothed, sitting (Halhigil)

I was too lazy to colour this, so I had a go at shading in biro instead. This one is fudged all over the shop; I have no excuse but idleness. His hands shouldn't be hidden by that paper, unless they're both curled up, but he has hyooge hands so they shouldn't be hidden. I just started inking then couldn't be bothered to fix. Very Bad Self. He should also have a foot visible but oh god feet.

So yes, not very polished, this. Halhigil is a very old RPG character of mine. This is not amazingly faithful, but it's the best I've ever managed to get him yet. Elves are usually of the willowy persuasion. Halhigil... isn't really. Don't mention it to him. He's a little touchy about it.

Brush pen, fineliner and biro. What's borked apart from the above? :D

The plaits are the only thing stopping the hair from taking over the world. He has *gratuitous* amounts of hair.

Clothed, standing (Heresy) FINISHED

Finished the bugger! God her skintone is difficult. I'd have thought fair skin would be harder than a deeper sligtly sallow complexion, but it's really not. Suspect my lack of a decently brown-toned pink doesn't much help, but I'm reasonably satisfied with what I did with what I have. (brown on yellow ochre, no white underlay) Salt-and-pepper hair is difficult too - haven't managed that very well.

Curious how much more manic she looks in this than she did in pencil. Colours a bit dulled by the fading daylight.

Full length. She looks orders of magnitude more manic in the fullsize original.

Top. OK, she does look fairly manic here. I think it's the whites of the eyes. Also her irises are off. Grr.


Plain inking, for completeness. Is kind of terrifyingly psychotic.Was thinking about doing it monochrome ink except for the red.


What's borked? :D

Clothed, standing (Heresy) WIP

Another WIP. Not sure why I thought drawing someone holding something straight in front of them was ever going to be a good idea. It's actually quite hard to hold a single sheet of paper like that. Looks better than the other ways though and nicely obscures the ARM OF HORROR.

This may be a vision occasionally haunting the nightmares of a couple of Heresy's old friends-the-enemies in what is now the Church of Justice. Nobody in their right mind wants to work with someone like her, even if they weren't routinely locking her up ten years ago. :P

Heresy Smith would never forge Temple papers just for the entertainment of trolling some old enemies... Probably. (Full view)

Top half. might have overspaced the eyes, but usually I do them too close together.

What's wrong with it? :D

Clothed, standing (Meredith and Mary Sue) FINISHED, coloured

FINISHED! The pencils work much better on this rougher, cheaper paper, which is worth knowing. Reasonably pleased with this now, apart from Mary Sue's borked left shoulder, which is annoying me greatly but it's too late to do anything about.

Drawing plate is fun! Mary Sue, naturally, has the right to wear all the colours in the Morvanian hierarchy and is a blonde Norscan stereotype. Meredith only has the right to wear brown and has somehow entangled herself in an old bandage, which sums up her standing in the Church pretty well actually. :P

Full view. Rotated just a touch to compensate for having drawn it at a slight angle.


Meredith closeup. Screwed up her mouth a bit. Quite pleased with how the skin turned out given the paper was dying a bit.

Closeup of dear Mary. She has a slightly odd-shaped head to my eye. Oh well.

Just because it's finished doesn't mean I don't still want to know what's wrong! :D Thanks to everyone who commented on the WIP, your comments were really really useful! :D Whether I draw too much hair visible because I'm taller than a lot of my friends and so usually see people that way is an interesting question. Working on correcting that tendency may be my next goal.

Clothed, standing (Meredith and Mary Sue) WIP Mark II

ETA: Inked the bugger! :D

INKED. I think dear Mary *is* listing slightly backwards. Perhaps she's drunk. Even Sues aren't perfect.

The consensus of comments on the last incarnation of this bastard was really helpful, thanks guys! :D Seems I was massively overcompensating for previously making heads too small. Hopefully they're at least somewhat back in proportion here. Changed what Meredith was doing to make her slightly more disorganised. I'm not entirely sure how she managed to get a bandage trailing around her leg, but shit happens. Finally referenced a pair of boots and tried to fix Meredith's shoulder. They're the work of the devil.

The paper over Meredith's head is now so rough and bastardised from the amount of rubbing-out that I'm not sure I can colour this. Hmm. What's *still* wrong? :P

Morvanian Sue is very tall. But she has a nicer spear. And Sues are larger than life. :P

Clothed, standing (Meredith and Mary Sue)

Another WIP in pencil. This is Meredith and a Morvanian Mary Sue. Meredith's Mary Sue, in fact. Meredith would like very much to be tall, look impressive in plate, have neat hair and look her age. Unfortunately she's on the short end of average, baby-faced and will never, ever have neat hair.

Morvanian Mary Sue is kind of a smug bitch.

Tell me what's wrong! :D This one is a clusterfuck of annoying difficult angles and HAND WOE. The feet need a lot of work. Ugh.

Sitting and standing, clothed (Robert and Sophia) WIP

Another WIP, this time of my M&M character and her cousin Robert, played by Entimix. I don't know what even possessed me to try someone playing the piano, let alone at a horrible angle like this. Madness.

Robert, incidentally, is intended to look a bit girly, or at least ambiguous. Difficult trying to do that, keep some family resmblance between him and Sophia, and preserve some of the physrep's features too. He is not supposed to look like his arms are on backwards though. I think I might have made his face a bit too long - are the eyes a shade high? Sophia's hands are fucked and I can't seem to unfuck them. She has a much longer nose than me. I think she may have just discovered how good a pianist her cousin Robert is. She looks excited, at any rate.

Not sure whether to ink this or colour it. I dunno. What's wrong with it? :D

Full view. Goddamn Regency pianos aren't tall enough to obscure his hands.

Detail. Mr Robert Faulconer is a very... *pretty* young man.

Clothed, standing (Heresy) INKED

Finished the bugger! Dunno whether to colour it or not. I might just leave it. Not sure about her jaw still.

Brush pen makes the fineliner much less scary! :D Thanks to porange for holding my hand while I flailed and went "wargh what do I do with the scary ink" :P

Heresy does like singing. Just not with people listening. Full length,

Headshot

Commentry, criticism and advice still as welcome as ever! Anatomy, technique, composition... you say it, I'll listen :) :)

Clothed, standing (Heresy) WIP Mark III

I fiddled with it some more. Then - gasp - I had a go with a fineliner! May have a go varying line weight in the next incarnation. Scary scary. Surprised and pleased that I didn't utterly fuck up - I was dreading the face, especially the mouth. I think I prefer it in pencil, but it's good for me to ink. Also I've still overdone the chin probably. OH WELL.

Next question is do I colour it... and what's still wrong? :D

Pencil, full length

Pencil, top half

Things learnt: ink spreads on this paper. Pencil lets you fudge things much more thank ink does. The hands are never, ever big enough.

Inked, full length

Inked, top half

Clothed, standing (Heresy) WIP Mark II

I had another stab at the head, did the skull underneath using Henrietta as a ref first, though doing it at a slightly different tilt was hard. (Also looking at lots of boobs on the web. My life is so hard.) I'm convinced there's something wrong with the chin, even though the Skull Says Yes. I disbelieve. My soul also insists that the ear is fucked and can't possibly be that far back, even though the Mirror Says Yes. I dunno.

If you can work out what's wrong, please tell me! :D I'll probably have one more stab at getting this right before I have a go at getting everything wrong with ink. :)

Full length. Chin is a bit exaggerated in this shot, don't know why.

Headshot. I think the "underpinnings" are still visible in some bits. This paper dislikes erasers.

Things Drawn On Skulls

What goes on skulls?

KETCHUP.

But also, faces. So I drew some over some skulls. Playing with ink, also trying to get a feel for how faces go on top of the skull structure. The one I drew from Henrietta is stupidly too long because my second sketch of the first sketch was, surprise surprise, shoddy and I failed to check it, so I didn't realise it was wrong til the face looked weird. Oh well! I have named her (him?) Elsa.

Elsa on top of stretched Henrietta.  Followed the bones rather too closely  here.

Leaf dude of indeterminate sex. Neck dodgy as cribbed from a dodgy picture online. WHy do they have a vine tattooed on their head? I don't even know! Why don't you?    The chin may take over the world someday.

Words of criticism and advice much appreciated! :D

Here there be SKULLS.

I've been mooching around ebay for a while, after a cheap anatomy atlas and not finding one. Then I remembered that I, er, collect such things and indeed have an anatomy book on my shelf. From 1942, admittedly, as I collect *old* medical books - but it has some nice plates in it. And so began the skull menagerie and its bastard offspring. Mostly for my own reference really. SKULLS. I may have got lazy on teeth. Bad self.

Murray the skull. Bob to his friends.

Boris the skull.

Henrietta the skull, commonly known as Hettie.  Henrietta was reffed from a photo online of a skull that's a hundred thousand years old in China or something. I dunno.

The inside of the human neck looks like a jungle gym.

Clothed, standing (Rosien, Calemir) WIP

Last one! Another A3 WIP that looks blue for reasons best known to my mum's camera. Rosien again, this time with her older brother. I'm not sure what's on the paper, but I think she may have impressed him. She looks smug enough. Not sure whether to colour this. On the one hand, A3. On the other hand, her HAIR.

God almighty I really cannot draw men. At least he doesn't look actively like a girl. I needs lots and lots of practise at drawing men. Also argh folded arms. Tell me what's wrong with it! I can even attempt to correct it! :D

In which we observe that I can't draw men.

Clothed, standing (Heresy) WIP

One day I will manage a batch without Heresy in it. One day. But look! She's happy! And not in trouble or anything!

She hates me so much for this. Nobody is allowed to see Heresy singing. This one is A3 and unfinished. I'm in two minds whether to colour it or not. I don't know why it looks blue. What's wrong? I can even attempt to correct this one as it's WIP! :D

She's actually a good singer. Full size.

But not what she was thirty years ago. Top half.

Colour, clothed (Rosien, sitting)

COLOUR!

This batch comes with the caveat that I am tipsy. :)

So after a fair old while of restricting myself to pencil only, I finally caved and got some pencils. Not expensive ones. I think they're Derwent academy ones. I've used much nicer, but these will do for the likes of me, as it's not like I'm producing anything stunning anyway. They seem kind of reluctant to give up their colour to the page. Am finding it hard to get a deep or even shade with them, which is probably me rather than them. The greens are the hardest though. Difficulty in getting them to blend or layer effectively. PRACTISE. I'm not going to buy expensive kit for now, I'm not good enough to justify it and anyway it's probably good for me. (See under why I'm not trying to get to grips with image correction on a computer. If I ever get actually good I might look into it.) If I can do it without all that then I know I can do it properly. Does that make sense outside my own head? I don't know, I'm tipsy.

Here's someone new: Rosien, who I chose partly because of the HAIR. I have colours, let's use them! :D Alternatively, "Adventures in attempting fair white skintone without an appropriately coloured pencil, and subsequently getting camera to report it." Scanner failed utterly. Camera variable, hence more than one shot - the daylight one is true-ish to everything but skin, the warmer one true to skin and little else. :P My current best effort for pale white skin is white-->yellow-->rose, as I can't seem to do any colour straight onto the paper pale enough, and the white pencil stops it laying down too much colour.

Any and all criticism and tips on this gratefully received. Things I have learnt: Colour offers 43567 new and exciting ways of getting it wrong! Woo! (Sodding bloody fabric.) Also her nose is too long, I just noticed that. I have an odd feeling this needs inking or something but am too afraid. Does it want inking?

Rosien does not like being interrupted when she's working. Daylight.

Not even when the colours are warmer.

Standing (Rosamund, cheesecake)

I. Er. I accidentally some very tame Rosamund cheesecake.

The books. Oh holy God the BOOKS. They took longer than she did. There are 130 of them visible if I counted right. I am never going to draw anything with a bookshelf in it again. It is an exercise pleasing only to the mad, the foolish and the terminally bored. This must be post-baby, because she's not that thin in this. her right leg is wrong and I can't seem to get it right. This looked better with the skirt seethrough - legs made more sense when fully visible. The ladder is wrong but I'd drawn too much by the time I'd put it in to tweak everything enough to get it right, so I left it. Or is that just me? This was mostly an exercise in fabric folds (ugh) and legs. And BOOKS.

Actually SFW. Contains (gasp) legs and (double gasp!) loose hair!

Rosamund must be teasing her husband...

Sitting (Heresy, clothed, in prison again)

I swear I will one day stop drawing Heresy at various points in the criminal justice proceedings of Albion. It's just so much fun. Not so pleased with this one, but I got bored of it. I don't like the face, there's no real expression in it. Doesn't look like a person. Tell me what's wrong! :D

What Heresy Did On Her Holidays

Kneeling from behind, sketch (Heresy)

This one is only a rough sketching-out but I thought I'd put it here for completeness. Trying to work out a) posture b) positioning c) fucking fucking fabric folds.

Sketchy sketch. Do I ever draw Heresy looking happy?

Lying sideways, head and shoulders (Meredith)

A new position for me. (Hurr hurr hurr. Though not hurr for Meredith, being Morvanian and all.) Trying to make all their faces actually distinct. Tell me what's wrong and I will cover you in noodles of glee! Um, internet noodles. Or something. I dunno.

Contemplation

Head and shoulders (Heresy, bleeding)

This batch are from over a couple of weeks. One day I will draw Heresy less. One day.

*   *   * SELF INJURY TRIGGER *   *   *

Religious fail is an amazing thing in CUTT. I'm trying to play with expressions a bit. Sodding hands, I can't seem to get these right. Tell me what's wrong, and optionally why! :D

When your judgement is in error...

Clothed, head and shoulders (Heresy)

 Last of this batch. This one probably took me longer than either of the others by a long way, mostly on the eyes and the hands. The left hand isn't quite right to me - it doesn't quite look as though she's resting her cheek on it. Does it need to be a smidge higher, or is it something else?

Heresy knows there isn't really any solace at the bottom of that bottle. Bonus points if you know what's in it.

Clothed, sitting (Meredith)

Decided to have a go at something with legs, 'cause I need to practise them. Meredith has a big bum and thighs. She resents this deeply. I don't think she cares in this picture though. Am better pleased with the boots in this one, but I still need to stop being lazy and find one and sketch it a lot til I can draw the buggers. Her left hand looks wrong - I can't seem to get it right so that it looks like it's taking the weight of her body being pulled up straight by it, and it's not really a position I can reference from myself. Hmm.

Tell me what's wrong! :)

Meredith is looking at something. Possibly the sky.

Clothed, sitting (Sophia)

All this lying around healing is making me draw a lot. It's still Megan's fault.

I hate this one most of this batch, so it goes first to get it out of the way. Her face looks too far forward, and her left shoulder is totally fucked AFAICT. Cannot get puffed sleeves to look anything other than wrong. Also, horrible drapes of fabric. Curse you Regency fashions!! Legs were/are a bugger, though the "draw it as a volume/designate front" did help make it less of a bugger. Gave up on the shoes as I got bored and I'm dedicated like that.

Sophia has a flower. Not that sort of flower, you perv.

Lying 3/4 (Heresy, clothed)

And to finish, it's this old cow, once more in a setting more familiar to her than some might assume. This was difficult, but at the time of posting I think I like it the best of any of this batch, at least from her waist up - first time I've drawn Heresy and been even remotely happy with her face. The legs are fucked, and I can't work out how to unfuck them. Boots are my new nemesis. Any ideas on how to unfuck them? Anything else that's wrong? Goddamn breasts. Breasts are difficult.

 Pencil.

The (ex-)Ishmundi did not, do not and never will like Heresy Smith.

Sophia and Cerine, faces

Here we have Sophia, my M&M character, and her little sister Cerine, played by Chess. They're very close. Very close.

Pencil. This fills a side of A4. I like Cerine (on the left) much better than Sophia, who I can't seem to get right. Obvious caveats for my own mental image of someone else's character. I think Sophia's hand is too long or something. Also, I apparently have real difficulty drawing closed eyes. Any tips? Please tell me what's wrong :)

Sisterly affection...

Undressed, sitting, back view (Heresy)

*  *  * Self-Injury TRIGGER WARNING  *  *  *

And here we have Heresy as she has spent too much of the last few weeks: having a spectacular breakdown in gory fashion. Probably not long after her flogging. Pencil.

I don't like this one. It's weak. It looks wrong, and I can't seem to correct it. Any thoughts?

Let no crime go unpunished...

Rosamund, face; Rosamund, standing, clothed

Rosamund is by far the most difficult of my characters to draw. I don't know why. Maybe it's all the bones. I'd have thought regular classic features would be easier, but they're apparently not. Both of these are pencil.

The first one is horrible. It's awful. The jaw is wrong, it's too far forward, and the wrong shape, and why do I insist upon doing this 3/4 stuff when I can't execute it properly? Oh wait, I can't execute anything properly. Lulz. I hate the full length one slightly less. Tell me why it's all wrong! Criticise the drawing, term used loosely! I will not cry, indeed I will pile on hugs and gratitude! :D

Rosamund face, 3/4

Rosamund does not like big parties.

Taking a pulse (Meredith, clothed, ink), disgusted face (Meredith, ink)

So these are the two attempts I made at using ink. Well, two of three; the first one was too embarrassingly dreadful to post. These are also dreadful. Have I mentioned that ink terrifies me? It's all indelible and one shade and black and stuff, and as will become apparent, I have no clue how to use it. It's scary! I did these in pencil first and then went over it, because I'm too cowardly to try sketching in ink from the outset.

This is what happens when I draw hands without a reference. Le sigh.

Meredith wants a pocket watch.

"Ewwwwwwww." Even doctors get squicked sometimes.

The degree of stylisation is not a deliberate choice, it's an artefact of my not knowing what to do with ink. :P Tell me what's wrong! How to fix it/tips on using ink is a doubleplus bonus!

Hand, sitting, perspective of horror (Heresy, anonymous Ishmundi)

I hold Megan entirely responsible for the tidal wave of shite that's about the begin. She very kindly gave me a very nice sketch pad, mechanical pencil, rubber, a fineliner and a brush pen when I was on my tod in hospital, and doom occurred. Posting these in the order they were drawn in. This first one is a hybrid though, as I modified the face today because it was all wrong. It's probably still all wrong. Tell me what's wrong!

Well, the perspective on the hand is wrong, I know that. What I don't know is what possessed me to even try combining the twin horrors of hands and an awkward perspective. Also, God I hate this scanner. It looks almost like biro from the scan, but it's actually pencil.

Heresy Smith has spent at least as much time in the dock as she has on the bench...

Clothed, lying face down (randomer)

So I got bored and decided to have a go at someone on their front semi-propped-up. Because I'm mad. With boobs. 'Cause I need to practise those!

Randomer lying down

Bloody hell this is hard to draw and still have the shoulders look like they're connected to the body. Her right hand is fucked because I got bored with it and couldn't be bothered to correct after I'd taken photo. Any criticisms? :)

Clothed, standing, random mage

And this one I did today instead of revising, with a pencil I found at the bototm of my drawer. Hooray for procrastination! I like this one better than the last lot, but that might be because I haven't had time to see it properly yet. This one was based loosely off the standing-three-quarter-view construction that porange very kindly sketched for me in the pub.

With flash (larger): http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5229/5634916559_5d169c15cf_b.jpg

Without flash (smaller): http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5148/5635497518_41821e1297.jpg

She's an apprentice mage! I don't know who she is or what college. I think her name might be Sarah. What's wrong here? That's all for today - here endeth the shitespam :)

Clothed, sitting slumped (Heresy, drunk)

It's this old cow again, this time in a situation more natural to her. (Why is she so much fun to draw?) There is something far wrong with the head and hairline, but what I couldn't say. Any ideas why it looks wrong? (The bottle is also awful.)



http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5224/5634916231_54b1a09517_b.jpg

Kneeling (Heresy, resentful)

I don't know why I both like drawing Heresy so much and fail at it so hard. I hate this. It looks wooden and wrong. And how in buggery's name do you draw someone kneeling in a skirt?

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5186/5634916343_fbe77bd630_b.jpg

Any ideas?

Dreaming - face down lying

Hah, I'm finally back with access to a camera. Some catching up to do, so a few old ones now that are already making me cringe! Pull the buggers apart! :D

First up:


http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5143/5635496884_9314f78e03_b.jpg

I *think* this is the first of this lot. The face is too long, I know. Anything else wrong? (Semi-self-study - used glances in the mirror for general reference)

Clothed, sitting sideways (Meredith)

Meredith's face is not yet fixed in my head, but she has softer features than Heresy.


 http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5050/5370154395_ca8a776b89_b.jpg

This is a work in progress, partly to show the construction lines so people can advise me on them. Unlike the others, this one has been altered in Paint (I don't have another image programme) - she had a neck like a giraffe. One of her legs is longer than the other, which I need to correct. I think there's something wrong with the perspective, angle and her legs. Any thoughts?

Clothed, sitting (Heresy, young)

She hates me slightly less for this one. Slightly.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5284/5370154309_87211cb069_b.jpg

I drew this one first after the basic construction. Originally the bandaged leg was up on a table, but then I went "OH GOD FORESHORTENING OH GOD" and wimped out. She looks too much like me, but then she would, because my default Generic Face looks like mine, and I haven't worked out her face shape.

She is meant to be holding the tankard with her fingertips given the rest of her hand is bandaged, but the hands are still wrong. Tell me what else is wrong and why :)

Topless from the back (Heresy)

My God does she hate me.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5085/5370154227_d2b99fb08f_b.jpg

The mouth is wrong. (She's awkward because she talks out of the side of her mouth.) Also, there's something going on with the back. When I look at it, it keeps shifting like an optical illusion. It is not obviously as "back facing, turned slightly" rather than "front facing" torso. The shoulders are off. The fall of the skirt is wrong wrong wrong. What needs changing?

Basic construction (Heresy)

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5004/5370154171_a1d9358d48_b.jpg

Unfinished. I was googling around for something on body proportions, and this is what I drafted as a result. The next three ones are based from this; I figured I should probably try out "standard" before trying to get clever with individuals being differently built.

Not an inline image because... linking it in makes me cringe less? OH GOD I DON'T KNOW my brain is funny. Proportions are hard, I will love you for help with them in everything in this blog.

So.

So. I've started drawing again. I'll say now that I am not good at drawing. I know this. I want to get better though. Particularly, I want to get better at drawing people. My instincts are really to bury my drawings at the bottom of a drawer, but that won't help me correct the many things wrong with them. So I'm going to stick them here. That way, any generous people who want to help can help me out, even though my scrawlings are of no interest to the general population of the internet. :)