Comment For ARW Page 425

The new girl seems to be quick and strong. What evil plan is Lady Elise up to? Keep reading to find out.

Since the characters are fighting in a big empty room, there aren't any backgrounds to speak of. Because of this I spent more time on the characters faces. I'm quite amazed at how realistic that faces look in these panels. Remember, I don't use references. All these drawing came completely out of my head.

A few years ago, I envied people who could draw realistic people and wondered how they could add so much detail so quickly. Now I can do it myself. Wow, imagine what my art would look like if I had an actual model.

Well, you won't have to wonder long because my next project is to paint a picture directly from a reference photo. Note that this doesn't mean the painting will look like the photo. The camera always lies. The lighting is wrong and shapes get distorted. I'm going to just use the figure as the basis of the picture but I'll make adjustments to add my own touch.

In my last picture (see the Comments For ARW Page 423) I indirectly used references for the people (hair from one person, clothes from another), but in the next one I'll try to mimic the form of a single person to see how closely I can render their image (with some artistic license).

I'll sure some people are saying, "That's all backwards, you should learn to copy something first and then learn to mix several images together and draw from your imagination last." True, but in the beginning I never though I could draw and I hated all the time and effort it takes to copy a picture accurately (I mean to look at the picture and copy it. Tracing is always easier but I feel that's cheating). I always liked the freehand style and feel that many technically accurate pictures are too stiff because the artist hasn't taken the time to add any life to the image. I'd prefer a cartoon over photo-realistic art any day.

So I've just been drawing and drawing over and over again until I'm finally at the skill level where I feel I could do a realistic portrait justice. We'll see how it goes. I'll probably post something Friday or Saturday.