Inktober 2017, Days 1-5

My first few drawings for Inktober. It might also be Drawlloween as I've chosen a Halloween/horror theme, although I'm not using the Drawlloween prompts. 

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Sketch

Guy

An incidental character in The X-Files who had a great face.

The Path More Taken

I don't draw enough these days. Here's a scene I see almost every day that I had to get out of my head (and awkwardly scribble in a small notebook.)

Nessie

Quickie, Possibly Inktober

It's been a while since I've done any personal work, so since that it's Inktober I'm going to have a stab at some drawing, time and inspiration permitting. I was just scribbling tonight, no ideas, ended up with this. Look for no more explanation.

A Brief Encounter with Death

I returned to a project Moleskine to do some work and found some sketches I'd forgotten about.

Just for You

Updates from the Train

Every kid in Glasgow looks like this, right down to that bag (long, baggy shorts interchangeable with tight, skinny jeans).

A few people said Trooper looked too 80s. I guess I just needed to make her clothes bigger/smaller (preferably the former).

Draw Something; Creative Obstacles

I'll soon get round to posting some of the work I've been doing lately, but in the meantime here's something I drew on my phone's touch screen that I'd like to tackle in Photoshop one day. Not very original, but it'd be fun practice.

Incidentally, if you play Draw Something, add me, Mark_H_ - I got back into this game last night.

One of the thing that inspires me in this game is the limitations. I can't get accurate brush strokes, I'm limited by brush thickness and I've not that big a colour palette. I find I thrive with such restrictions; where it's a sort of do-what-you-can-with-what-you've-got situation. It frees you up. I used to love Biro pens, MS Paint and Adobe Flash for that sort of thing, where as if I'm using Photoshop there's just too much choice so I end up over-working things - which is definitely something I've encountered with the recent illustration work I've been doing. I wonder if I just need more practice at it because I'm straying outside my comfort zone, or if introducing some kind of restrictions before starting would be a better idea, such as a stricter time limit, or picking a colour palette before painting.

It's maybe not a good example, but compare the first Star Wars film, which was fraught with production problems, experimental effects and a tight budget, to the prequels where George Lucas could basically do anything he wanted. Finding creative solutions of obstacles often seems to produce better results than just having the power  to do everything exactly as you see it in your head.

As for my own work, I next want to experiment with bold, simple colour. I shy away from it too often when given the choice, but I really do like some of the stuff I do in Draw Something that reminds me of the limited palettes and primary colours of old video games, which I mentioned in this post.

Any other artists/illustrators have any thoughts on this subject?

Ben

The weekly sketch jam has been a bit quiet lately, most members have been busy, but I shall try to get something of my own done this week for the sake of keeping up my drawing, once today's work is done. In the meantime, here's a doodle. Maybe a rival London 2012 Mascot? I don't know. But it's iconic, chibi and has a catchy name. Not that I'm at all against those terrifying monsters Wenlock and Mandeville...

Hellboy Prophecy - Dreamt

This image is straight out of my dreams. I tried to draw it exactly as I saw it. I don't know what was going on, all I know is that all three of the characters represented Hellboy in some ways, and the whole thing was a prophecy of his demise.

Yoshis, Fight!

This week's sketchjam theme was "fight". I was in a bit of a retro games mood the other day and thought "hey, there's lots of fights in computer games!" and since I so rarely do any kind of fan art I thought this would be a good opportunity. So this is inspired by one of my favourite games of all time, Yoshi's Island for the SNES. Yoshis are fun to draw. Except that yellow one, he came out looking a bit odd.

And here's a few scribbles I did in MS Paint that led up to the final. Post-it notes and MS Paint are the freest mediums for me when it comes to sketching ideas.

Six Pints of Bitter. And Quickly Please, the World's About to End

Happy Towel Day!

He's Going to Eat It

A sneak peek at a personal project I'm working on. Stage 1 of 3 is finally complete - a little behind schedule, but all the hard work is done now.

This was meant to be Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty from Blade Runner, but it ended up looking a lot more like Gordon Ramsay. I've changed him since, but I still feel that this looks more like Ramsay than the new one looks like Hauer. Bit disappointed.

Go-go is So Yesterday

I trying to sketch some famous faces from memory instead of sleeping like a sensible person. After drawing her face, however, I couldn't think what to next. She changes looks more than a chameleonic metaphor (...meh heh heh...) This somewhat dated version of her is all I could remember.

Simpsons, The

Some 10-second scribbles. I'd really love to animate these characters if I were allowed to loosen them up from their model sheets. I love the early characters where Matt Groening's style (or at least some sense of cartooning) can be seen. None of the later characters are any fun, with their realistic hair styles and evenly-proportioned faces. They look so unrewarding to draw. Nothing abstract or stylistic about them. Celebrities playing themselves on the show now are the worst. They try to transform them into their simplistic style but without any caricature, so they're just unrecognisable without "Wow, it's _____ ______ from ______ __ ___ ______! What are you doing in Springfield?". Maybe they're afraid of offending their guest stars with any kind of exaggeration in their drawings? It wasn't always this bad.

Then, and now.

Brian

I'm watching some testimonies on The Leveson Inquiry and doodling Brian Leveson. He has a distinctive face which is fun to draw.

Yeah, good luck with your work, I'ma have a snooze

Something I scribbled on a long train journey after the pub on a piece of scrap paper on my lap. I might do a better picture based on this, as I really liked the contrast between these two girls.

Something Dark This Way Dwells

After failing with making a new avatar I just started some frustrated doodles, which quickly became this.