June and July Sketchdump

If you have'nt taken a moment to register at welovefine and voted on Heidi's designs, now would be a great time to do so.  This post has most definitely been brought to you by Heidi Black's entry for the welovefine Marvel Villain t-shirt contest.  Please take a moment and hit 5 for both of her fabulous designs, starting here.

Between two conventions and the semester starting, I haven't had a whole lot of time for sketching, which is a shame, because I can feel myself stagnating.  Sketching differs from drawing in that sketching is all about experimentation and failure, whereas drawing is usually about producing something.  With that in mind, these sketchbook scans are more drawings than sketches, as there's very little experimentation, unfortunately.

Despite my best efforts (save for manually going in and adding these one by one) these are out of chronological order.  These sketches were drawn between Heroescon and yesterday.

A little Sailor Moon fanart to start you off. 

This outfit was inspired by a 1960's Betsey McCall paperdoll.

Might use this as a banner image later on.

Some concept clothing for Kara.

Preliminary sketch and black placement test for this.

Every now and then, I draw a unicorn girl (based on two previous designs) at different stages of her life.  Here's bratty pre-teen. 

Working on a new design for When I was 13.

Redrawing a ten year old character, and concept for this .

A little shoujo playing some 3DS.

Aging demo that was meant to go in the anatomy presentation, but never made it  in.

Post it note and ballpoint pen sketches.

I think just about everyone loves cyclops these days.  If you haven't bought a Little Book of Monsters, you're missing out, as I contributed several never before seen ink renders, including a rock-a-billy Shyclops.

More facial concepts, this time for the rest of the family.

Thumbnails for inking assignment.

More thumbnails for inking.

Even more thumbnails for inking.  Finished pieces here

Kara wearing 70's insired clothing.

Magical Mini Kara outfit concept (this'll never get used, but  it sure is cute).

A what do you carry in your bag exercise with Kara (her everday carry is way more entertaining than mine)

I've been playing a lot of Catherine lately, and have sheep on the brain.

Mini Ivy, Harley, and Catwoman.

Another, older, magical girl concept.

I'm one of those artists who revert to familiar holding patterns when I'm stressed out or working on another project.  For me, Kara is that character I always draw when I want to draw, but am too brain dead to come up with something new.  Sometimes I'll have an idea for a character or an outfit or a pose, but won't have the energy to generate an entirely new design just to get rid of a brain bug.  I realize this is a drawing crutch, and results in me drawing the same thing over and over, but I only rely on it when I've got other projects going on, and I'd like to draw something for myself before passing out for the night.  Some artists do this with fanart, which is fine, but requires a heck of a lot of referencing (for some reason, I can't just doodle fanart, it has to be ACCURATE) and more brainpower than I may be willing to expend at the end of a long day.