Goofing Around with Art Studio

It's been a hectic summer so far. I've been preparing for next semester's teaching duties, getting work done, and helping my sister care for Chloe. I may talk about a recent trip to Nashville soon. However, here's a different type of sketch: purely digital. I've been playing around with the Art Studio app on my iPad, and I decided to try and draw Robin Fox, my female lead from the web comic. So, here's a simple portrait of her. It's not the best, but I'm still trying to get used to digital drawing.

Concept Sketch: Blind T-Bone Fennec

Today features a sketch for an upcoming/recurring idea for the Tales of the Fur & N3rdy web comic: Blind T-Bone Fennec. T-Bone is TK's blues singer alter ego. I'm not certain if I'll do a long story arc each time I bring in the character, but I may. I may also give TK a more medieval/fantasy alter ego who is a bard. But we'll see.

Anyway, this is a pencil-only sketch of the character. He has a white suit with a black shirt, which is the opposite of most blues musicians who wear dark suits. Why? Well, TK has black paws, and I wanted to show where his pants and sleeves ended and his paws began when it becomes necessary. So, that's why he's wearing a white suit. The concept may be updated as I work it into the comic. However, as for right now, he'll be waiting for his first digital world tour, because today I finished up a story focusing on TK.

Back to Normalcy?

So it's been a while. Yeah, the end of the semester always brings with it lovely events that infringe upon my free time: grading, my own work, oh, and the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  I actually planned to blog from there, but for some reason, my laptop refused to connect to the wireless network at WMU. My iPad worked fine, so go figure. And I forgot to bring the charging cable for my iPad's wireless keyboard.

I planned to blog from the conference, because there was an interactive panel on medievalisms in video games (read, Bring Your Own Console and play).  I missed the panel, because I didn't feel like climbing a steep hill on this brown, slushy, muddy drink that officials at WMU tried to convince me was coffee.   I also forgot to take my sketchbook to actually draw while away. But I'm back, and I hope that means a return to normalcy and regularity.  

Anyway, here's a "Before and After" type of thing. I drew this little mourning scene with pencil and pen, and then I colored it using brush pens. Overall, I'm actually fairly happy with how it turned out. I may do some manipulations and digital recolorings later, but right now, I'm happy with this.

To summer. To art. To life. To loss.

Darker Creatures than Fae

I had planned on spending St. Patrick's Day weekend adding to my collection of Faerie sketches, and I will continue with that collection. However, I've spent most of the past week suffering from the flu, specifically Swine Flu, that's been passed around my department. We jokingly called it "The Pig Plague" due to how it made us all feel. And that was horrible.

So, couple that with watching some cheesy paranormal investigation shows, and you get this installment of my drawings. These are a bit darker than faeries; although faeries were traditionally pretty dark. I've named them the Soul Eater and the Soul Collector.

The first, thanks to the uploader's alphabetizing feature, is the Soul Collector. He doesn't look terrible in appearance, and he likely wouldn't come across as evil. He's got a modified jeweler's monocle, which he uses to examine the purity and value of the souls he collects. What he does with them, I haven't decided yet as far as his story is concerned.

The second, the soul eater, is a monstrous little imp with blacked out eyes, claws, and a bloated stomach cursed to eternal hunger.

Other than that, I've been working on a new site for the web comic and a new logo. I'll post more information when I complete the process.

Faeries: Part One

Since St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner, I've decided to draw a series of Faeries. I'm trying to get away from the more contemporary notion of the Fae as cute, happy, helpful sprites and bring back some level of the older, more fearful, somewhat demonic aspect from the Irish legends. My skills aren't fully up to the task, but I'm working on changing that. That said, for this update, I have two pen and ink sketches. The first is a Treant, albeit one who's much younger than the great Ents found in Tolkien's fiction. The second is somewhere between a Goblin and a Leprechaun. It looks more like a Goblin but I gave it a sack filled with leaves, which Fae magic transforms into the mythic Faerie Gold with which they pay humans (and which returns to its leafy state the next morning).

Alien Cartoons

Since watching more Ancient Aliens, I've been on an alien drawing kick. So, here are two sketches in pencil and Faber-Castell pen about aliens.

The first depicts an alien showing off his latest art, which he titles "Shapes Among String Beans." Yes, this is my explanation for crop circles.  The second is an exchange between aliens, one of whom just returned from a vacation on Earth. And you can see my comments on a certain event that has captured headlines in recent weeks.

The Truth is Out There.

Aliens and Angels?

S0o, I've been relaxing this evening by rewatching the "History" Channel series Ancient Aliens on Netflix. This is one wacky series that focuses on the Ancient Alien Hypothesis that articulates that pretty much every major event in human history - from our biological development to our cultures has been the result of extra-terrestrial contact and direction. I'm not going to go into how many crackpots fill this series, but I will say that when they do feature scholars actually presenting logical arguments, they immediately silence them with a loud nutjob misinterpreting the data to "prove" the ancient alien theories. It's special. It also makes me sad, because I can remember when the History Channel had some pretty strong credibility with academia. That's all changed in recent years.

Anyway, the whole discussion they had in one episode about how our ancestors mistook aliens for angels got me drawing. So, I sketched out an alien with a backpack and a wing-shaped parachute. If aliens are angels, and angels have wings, then aliens must have something that resembled wings. Right? So, the following image is what came of that sketching.

I probably should have gone over the quilting I did on the wing design more, because it doesn't really show on the scan. Ah well. That's a basic concept, and it's still a rough pencil sketch. Unless I decide to do something with it, it'll stay that way.

That lovely sound means my coffee is ready.

Norse Notes

For some reason, I spend more time sketching and doodling in my notebook this semester than taking notes. I do pay attention, but I find myself inspired to draw. That has never happened before to this extent. Anyway, here's today's sketch and the accompanying notes on the page.

You can really see how much Norse myth and symbolism factor into my work. That's no surprise given what I do. But, yeah, I've drawn Mjolnir surrounded by lightning bolts, Odin's spear, A single eye, and a noose hanging from a tree surrounded by runes.

If you're looking for some deep meaning, I doubt you'll find it. But you may. I just sketched mindlessly as I listened in class, and this is what came of it.

Reboot Concept Art: Robin Fox

So, I'm contemplating a stylistic reboot for my web comic. I don't have anything major planned, but I want to make a few stylistic changes that will add a little bit of flash to some characters and add distinction to a lot of animals. Most of this will center on the heads and faces.

Part of this stems from me getting a little bit better as an artist. Some stems from me having an idea for a character but realizing that the style of the character doesn't exactly fit with the style of the comic. Some stems from me looking at other, similar, art styles and getting ideas. Specifically, how to handle ears and hair on anthropomorphic animal characters.

So, here are three versions of the head of one of my main characters, Robin Fox. I'm considering a few slight changes to her muzzle, ears, and eyes. Honestly, the eyes right now are my least favorite thing of the current art style in the strip. I'm not happy with them, so I'm working on changing them to a style that I like more.

And I'm open to suggestions and opinions.

Also, I got a web cam today, so I may do some vblogging and/or live drawing sessions eventually.

Moleskine Monsters

As you can tell from the sketch itself, I sketched this on 9 February during my Kenneth Burke seminar. As the name implies, I sketched this in the Moleskine journal I use for taking notes. I used a Faber-Castell artist pen, likely a Superfine or Fine tip.  I do pay attention in class, but I find myself doodling while taking notes. If any of my handwriting is legible, then you'll see the topics of the lecture.