One More Prehistoric Lady

This time she's with her pet Triceragriff.

Barbarrella

Sketch Dailies topic yesterday was 1968 cult sci-fi movie character, Barbarella.  The 60's-est thing I've ever seen.  And I love it!

Prehistoric Sabertooth Ponycorn

The Sketch Dailies topic from yesterday was #MYCOOLLITTLESHETLANDPONY.  I took some liberties and continued with my theme from the day before.

Prehistoric-ish Stuff

I decided i'm going to actually start taking pictures of what I'm sketching day to day like everyone else and avoid the inconvenience of scanning things daily.  And since I don't have a smart phone, we're going to have to do this thing sans instagram and vintage filters.  Sorry everyone...

Friends Along the Way

Whenever I sketch and draw for myself, I really enjoy that part of the process of starting with a vague story or idea that then develops into the drawing itself.  Maybe I just like creating strange and bizarre images,  but I do think it's fun to see how other people interpret what's going on in a piece.  

All I know about this one is that this girl is on some kind of grand journey and she met this guy along the way.  She's the more down-to-earth and rational one, while he, despite his intimidating appearance, is venerable and clumsy.  I'm pretty sure he has some kind of magical power though.

[Pen and ink, Grey Copic/Prismacolor Markers, Digital, Grey Illustration Board, 11''x17'']

Original Sketch

Mid-Toned Sloths

I recently purchased this tiny 5.5x 8.5'' toned grey sketchbook.  Man, working on mid-toned paper is just a ton of fun.  I thought I'd christen the sketchbook with a first full page of sloths.  [Micron, Copic Marker and white gel pen.]

Skyetches

Some more scans from my moleskine.

 

Teaching a Kid's Drawing Class

This summer, I had the pleasure of teaching a small drawing class for elementary kids over at the Salvation Army community center here in the area.  It's not the first time I've worked there as a camp counselor for their day camp program they offer every summer.  The class wasn't terribly intensive, but I was able to touch on some basic fundamentals.

It was certainly an interesting process gauging exactly what easily distracted kids who come and go from week to week can handle in a 45 minute block.  I brought in my guinea pig to sketch, which was a huge hit.  They also liked drawing characters from cartoons and designing their own from simple shapes.  Who doesn't love simple shapes and designing characters?  No one.

Near the end of the summer, I thought it would be cool to do a final larger piece that everyone could have a part in while still being able to draw their own thing.  So I gave each small group of kids a sheet of 8.5 x 11 white paper (that I had defined the areas they couldn't draw within) then told them to go crazy.

The camp is run by The Salvation Army, hence "The Salvation Army".

Of course, I had to draw some things too.  And since this is MY art blog...

I'm proud of my minions.  I think they did a great job.

This generation is clearly raised by the internet.
Both terrifying and kind of hilarious.

Hey that globe face thing
 looks familiar...

Beckoning

Wow, it's been a while since my last post.  I have a ton of sketches to scan and post, but in the mean time here's a drawing I did Monday while watching the E3 conferences.

Sloths

Sloths.  Sloths are hilarious.

Upcoming Project Concepts

Here are a few concept sketches for a children's book I've been working on with a local author here in Troy.  More details to come!

Lakmi Beast Design

This semester, I've had the pleasure of working with a group of writers that have been developing a steampunk themed epic for the past year or so.  They've commissioned me to do some concept work for the vast world that they're building.  This first creature I designed is called a Lakmi.

The original basic directive for the creature was that it is a forrest dwelling primate similar to a Baboon with wolf-esque elements.  Oh, and of course, it has four eyes.  Here are a few progress sketches developing these elements.

I really wanted to design a four- eyed skull in which two different faces could be seen and recognized encompassing both sets of eyes.  I decided that giving the skull a front-facing and side-facing set of eyes would help make this work.

The Lakmi is nocturnal.  The second, bigger set of eyes is opened at night to let in more light or during the day to appear more threatening.  The claws were also really fun to design.  We wanted the Lakmi to have retracting claws, but also have slightly more humanoid hands with opposing thumbs.  Most animals with retracting claws, (mainly cats) have claws that fold in between the bones of their fingers (as seen in the lion claw sketch above on the right page of the left image).  To make this work on a humanoid hand that still would have any sort of dexterity, my solution was to somehow give the last joint of the finger a space for the claw to swing between and to store when retracted.  

The Lakmi walks and runs quadrupedally, but can also stand on two legs and walk short distances bipedally.

 Lakmis walk and run on the knuckles of their front arms.  If they need extra traction they can flex their claws slightly, acting as a sort of cleat.

Here is the final turnaround as well as a few details of various aspects of the Lakmi.

Shaved Lakmi.

Detail of the claws and relative scale. 

The baboon-like crest on the bridge of the nose is used to attract mates.  The vibrance of the crest also is a factor in determining a hierarchy in the herd as well as the alpha male.  This crest is also part of its eyelid, which closes from bottom to top.

Just for fun, I started thinking about the colors and markings Lakmi might have depending on what other types of environments it live in.

Forrest of Jungle

Savannah

Arctic

An "elder" Lakmi

 This type of fantasy concept art is something I don't do as much as I'd like, and it was a good exercise in inventing creature anatomy.  There will be more of this to come.  I can't wait till the story is finished!