Rey - Star Wars

 

After watching the latest Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, it was almost imperative for me to draw Rey. So many questions arise from this character, it will be interesting to see how she develops. So glad that we finally have a Star Wars movie that's worth watching over and over again. I've Jedi minded myself to ignore episodes 1-3, hehehe.

Sketches

Just a couple of sketches I did today during the morning as I was contemplating if I should stay in bed or confront the fact that it's winter and there's no escaping it... Sigh

Highlights and Shadows

 

I am really pleased with the result of this illustration, I like everything about it. Starting from the texture and color of the paper up to the way the highlights and shadows give the contours and volume of the face and body.

With a bit of imagination, you can almost see Princess Leia's iconic hair-do.

And now for something different...

 

I thought it would be a good time to try something different from my usual type of illustrations. For a first attempt at obtaining a water color effect, I think it was alright. However, I can see lots of flaws and I definitely need to practice a lot more. There are some areas where there are some nice highlights but most of it is quite flat. This was done using photoshop but I'd like to give it another go with real watercolors next time. Oh well, back to the drawing board I guess.

Holding

I have just read a blog in which a couple decided to do an experiment in which they had to hold their hands for 8 straight hours without letting go once. Now that sounds a bit extreme but it's a no easy challenge. I once did a similar thing for a movie promotion I was in and it's a very interesting experience. It's a trivial thing to do, to hold hands or to hold somebody close, yet we don't tend to do this with anybody. Occasionally we'll do it with strangers because we want to show that there's some kind of support or unity for a cause, but when you do it with somebody you know, there's much more meaning to this simple act. We don't give it much thought really but there's a lot of meaning to just holding hands as a couple. Apart from reflecting intimacy and closeness with each other, there's connectivity and support. You show that you're at ease with that person and that you accept them as they are, even if there may be some traits you dislike. There's even more to just holding hands that we don't realize, maybe it's over thinking the whole situation but we tend to have a certain preference as to the way we hold hands and which hands we use. If both people involved are right handed or left handed, one of them will have their "useful" hand engaged and then you get into who's the dominant person in the relationship and other issues. I had never thought about too much about this. Who knew that a simple act as holding hands had so much meaning? So maybe next time, when I'm in this situation I'll be more aware of what's going on in the background... Or maybe not, and I'll just enjoy the company and warmth of the person I have next to me.

Latest sketch

 

This is week two of being self employed and it has been a bit difficult to get into a proper schedule. However, this week has been much better than the previous one, I'm a bit more focused and trying to stick to "work hours". The problem is, since I don't have to leave home in order to get work done, I find myself leading a very relaxed schedule.

In any case, waking up every day and feeling less stressed is an improvement that I embrace effusively. I'm also making an effort to improve my drawing skills and this is the first sketch that I've done, hopefully in a month's time I'll be able to see a difference. Not trying to run here but I assume I will have more time to do things that I really like.

We'll see how it goes!

The Professor

The first of two cards that I will make to illustrate an article on the MacDiarmid Institute website that talks about the efforts of bringing together the scientific world with the business world in New Zealand. The New Zealand government is promoting the commercialization of science and has set in motion several programmes in order to achieve this.

Spring Fairy

 

Practicing with some brushes, trying to get a watercolor effect. The end result is quite nice although didn't quite obtain the effect I was after. Definitely need more practice. I do like the tones of the skin though, nice and peachy! It's spring finally and a fairy seemed like a good idea to draw :)

WIP

This one has been waiting for quite a while to be finished. There are so many details that need my attention still but here's a small preview of what's to come. Inspired by the girl with the most beautiful smile! Come back again soon to see the final version.

Girls!

This Christmas break I don't have pictures of my travels around New Zealand or any other parts of the world that I can upload. Instead, I stayed at home this time and decided I should do something to cover some of the bare walls.  My solution was to gather some of my girl illustrations I've created over the years, print them and create squares which can be hung on walls or placed around the house. So far, I've made 22 of these squares and they encompass sketches, pin ups, vector based illustrations, hand drawn and mixed techniques. The result is quite colorful but I think I should make even more.

In the future, it would be great to have at least one illustration per week so that by the end of the year I would have 52 new illos! Let's see how many I end up with.

Happy New Year guys!!

Blue Dreams

This sketch was made on my iPad some time ago, on the 12th of September at 2:19am to be exact. I was trying out the free Sketchbook Pro app but I finished it in Photoshop. The only thing that was tweaked in Photoshop was the change of font for the title of the drawing.

Steampunk sketch

It's been a while since the last post and many things have occurred. I'll put a few things up in order to catch up with what's been going on but in the meantime, here's a sketch I just finished today. I originally penciled it in the 16th of September but only colored it until now. Wasn't too sure about the color of the pants but I settled for this brownish grape tone in the end. The other possibility would've been a dark grayish olive green. Hahaha, I guess it would be easier if I told you the Pantone values.

Enjoy!

Midnight sketch

Last night I finally decided to try out the free Sketchbook Pro app on my iPad and I must say I was quite pleased with the way it performs. It takes a bit of practice to control your finger at first, even though this is the first tool we use as kids to paint. Back then we're not too fussy about the turnout of our painting, we're just pleased we can get our fingers grubby AND make something with all that gooey paint.

Since you get no real feedback from the smooth glassy surface of the iPad, and your finger tip can be wider than the brush you select, you sometimes end up guessing where your line is going. To be fair though, this is not a precise application, it's designed to make rough sketches and it works perfectly for that purpose. The free version comes with the option of creating 3 layers and that helps up to certain extent but it does take us back to the days of Photoshop 3 where you would save your file every step of the way because it was lacking this feature. The complete version may have the option of having more layers though, I don't know. You can also control the opacity of each layer and you can order them depending of your needs.

The app also allows you to play with text and gives you several fonts to choose from. The only problem I found, was that when I wanted to place the text at the bottom of the sketch, the keyboard would block this area. I'd have to type the text on the upper part of the sketch and the drag down to the position that I desired. You are not able to hit the return key and get a second line. You must type this one as a separate element and if you want to place it underneath the previous line of text, you'll find once again that the keyboard obstructs the view. As I said before, this app was not intended to be precise so it's forgivable.

Overall, I was really impressed with Sketchbook Pro and as you can see by the date on the sketch, it kept me up until basically 2am. I think it's a great tool to improve your speed painting skills. I highly recommend it!!

Asleep

Another sketch made possible thanks to my ever patient and inspiring model, hahaha. The face needs to be tweaked a bit more so you can count on seeing an updated version of this sketch some time soon. Overall though, the colors, the lighting and the shadows turned out to be quite acceptable. Having a great time making these sketches!

Sleep

Lately I've been having the help of a fantastic model who not only is extremely patient but also pushes me to do these sketches more regularly. I've been spending so much time designing with the computer on a specific project that sometimes it's really refreshing to sketch something just for the fun of it. It doesn't really matter how rough the result is, it's just practice and a way to get back to basics.

Unexpected

This is a rough version of something I'd like to spend more time on. However, the hours I spent on this sketch has been more than you could expect. It actually took me several days to get to this result. I'd advance a lot on some days but on others it felt like I was hardly accomplishing anything. I'm still not sure about the background though, I'll have to play around a bit more and see if this will stay. It seems like the lines in the back are giving the illustration a confined feel to it. I'm looking for a more relaxed atmosphere. Love the textures though!

Allegro

Slight modification to a previous entry entitled Reflectere. Even though I was really pleased with the results obtained then, the feeling it portrayed was that of emptiness. This second version has a totally different feeling, needless to say, a feeling of warmth, presence and happiness can be perceived. Not only is this shown through the facial expression but can also be seen through the warmer color pallet that has been used. Also, this looks more like the true nature of the one who has inspired me.

Here's the previous image:

Fantastic smile

There are some people that have the ability to transmit positive energy with just a smile. One feels charged in such a way that it's impossible to not smile back. For those brief seconds, everything else around you vanishes and you feel a certain peace... although sometimes, if you like the girl who's smiling at you, peace is definitely not the right word. It's more like the urge to run towards her... or away from her depending on the situation between you two, hahahahaha.

Reflection

Hot Chocolate!