It's been awhile since I've shared some of my stuff, and what better way to break that streak than with a sketch dump! These sketches were completed from late May (around the time of the Mini Comics Expo) through July, and include a variety of subjects, from Kara concept to life drawing. The media used range from non photo blue lead and graphite to china marker.
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| Working on some paper children for my convention setup. I'm a sucker for them, I think they're really cute. |
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| Just some noodling around, trying to find an idea I like. I don't like sketching with pencil, but with pen or china marker, that way I can just get down the gesture without trying to perfect it. |
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| A thing for a thing. |
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| Gesture studies- china marker. |
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| Character concept for 7" Kara. |
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| Sartorial sketches. Originals were photos on the Sartorialist. |
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| Lolitas! Even though they give me the stink eye at conventions, I love lolita style. Sweet, hime... |
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| Wa-loli, and kodomo. |
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| More sartorial sketches. |
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| I was reading Dororo at the time, and really liked Tezuka's moth onis. |
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| It's important to get some life drawing in. |
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| Joseph drew the umbrella at the top! |
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| The sea-monster girl is for Sarah Benkin, as part of her graduation present. |
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| Link! I've been playing Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past lately! |
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| I've always thought he ate the fairies to get hearts. |
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| Gesture. |
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| Noodlin' with Copics in my sketchbook. |
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| To Kara, a slice of apple would be HUGE. |
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| Zoning out at the coffee shop. |
I really love sketching with china marker, but the ones made by Sharpie are pretty crummy. Do you guys have any suggestions for decent china markers? I bought one in Japan (long gone now) made by Mitsubishi, and I loved it. It was fantastically creamy and glinded on really well. The Sharpie china marker I'm using right now skips a lot, which is awful for sketching (awful for ANYTHING, really). It's very waxy and tends to transfer. I also like sketching with Hi Tec C pens, which I've noticed have made the rounds on the pen blogs lately. That's pretty cool, they're a great series of pens ranging in a variety of sizes, my favorites being .25 and .4, and if you let them dry, they're fairly Copic safe. I use them for those Copic doodles I'll do in my sketchbook from time to time.
I'm pretty persnickety about what I draw with and what I'll draw on, although I'll try anything. I dislike Moleskin sketchbooks (paper's too smooth, pricepoint's too high), and have been using some form of Strathmore Sketch for years. I've favored the spiral top sketchbooks for awhile, its a great combination of features, although the paper's a little thin. I feel that with more expensive sketchbooks, you have to overcome the actual quality of the product to get any work done-- there's this expectation of perfection in this perfect product.
Even though I haven't been posting art or sketches lately, it doesn't mean I haven't been working. I'm doing roughs for a new installment of When I was 13, and I spent A LOT of time writing a post for Copic Marker that'll be up on July 3rd. I appreciate all the guest writers who've contributed lately, but me soliciting them for posts isn't because I lack my own material, but because I feel like they have something valuable to offer that should be released in a timely fashion. I look forward to sharing my projects with you guys in the future.
