Working out a Painting Design

Here is my process for designing a painting.  I started with a few very rough sketches and tried different angles and points of view that might get the message across.

The last two drawing were done in my sketchbook with a fine point pencil and that's why they look different from the others, which were done on scrap paper using a charcoal pencil

I'll keep thinking about what I want the final painting to look like before I put paint to canvas.  I'll need to do a tonal study and work out the perspective but I'm getting closer to a final decision and that's the whole point of the process.

Life Drawing

The local art groups decided to get together and offer art classes for the local communities of Kings County, N.S. Tonight they sponsored a life drawing class and I got to attend. There was such a good response that they're thinking of making this a regular thing. Let's hope so, I can really use the practice. I did 8 hours a week of life drawing at college and my art skills went down hill quickly when I graduated. I've greatly improved since then and it was a great joy to find that I took to life drawing like a fish to water.

It took a few tries to get back into the swing of things, so I'll spare you the warm-up drawings, but here are the rest of the sketches that I did.

This was a 5 minute pose that I drew too quickly. The waist is too long but overall it's not bad
I switched to a 3B pencil and it adversely affected the line quality. That blob on her shoulder is supose to be her right hand
I switched to a charcoal stick and filled the whole page on this one. There is some distortion caused from scanning the image in two parts and putting them together in Photoshop. The image on the left is a quick sketch I did with a 2B pencil


This time the woman was lying directly opposite me, causing a lot of foreshortening. I just couldn't get the hand right, so I started over again. The second time (on the right) I did the hand first and then fit everything around that. Still not perfect but it looks much better.

We switched to a 10 minute pose and the instructor put a strong light on the subject. This is the best of all the sketches since I had the time to do it right.

The final sketch of the night was a 15 minute pose with a strong light like the last one, but it didn't come out as well. The odd angle of the left leg threw me off a bit. This was also a fill page drawing and combining the two haves in PS once more distorted the image a bit.

I drew a small thumbnail in the corner before drawing the full size image but I should have paid more attention to the anatomy. Getting the pose right in the thumbnail can help you to avoid mistakes in the finished drawing. I'll have to be more careful next time.

Well, that was my first life drawing class in 5 years. Not bad for being so out of practice. I hope they'll keep this going. I'll let you know if and when we have another session.

LBG vs NNN 6

I'm continuing to redefine my art as I do each page. There are many background elements I could have done without for the rough draft, but I felt they added something to the art. Do you like seeing the semi-finished art or should I go back to the very rough blue pencil drawings?

I guess the nun decided it was a better idea to call her friends then to fight alone; unfortunately for the biker girls. However, it will take time for her friends to arrive and the biker girls just need to get through that door. Can she fight them off now that she's thrown away her weapon?

LBG vs NNN 5

I seem to be adding more detail to the characters, but these are still quick sketches. The character designs aren't finalized, so they will likely look different as the comic progresses.

One of the advantages of doing the whole comic rough first is that you can develop your art style and the look of the characters as you go along and then go back to the beginning and use what you learned when putting in more detail. The art will therefore be more consistent throughout instead of changing from beginning to end as it does in my regular webcomic.

LBG vs NNN 4

I though I'd make it easier to see the art by using a black pencil. The lines need to be blue when doing a sketch so you can redraw over the lines easier, but for now you can see my rough sketches.

Up until now the Biker Girls have been dominating the encounter, but that is about to change as they need to deal with the first Ninja Nun. However it is three to one (4 to 1 if you count the traitor) and they're riding motor bikes. All the nun has is a broom.

Check out this video of a Nunja fighting off attackers with just a rake. Maybe the fight is not was one sided as it seems.

LBG vs NNN page 2 & 3

I did two pages today. In page 2 we are introduced to the Mother Superior while on page 3, the abbey is under attack. I wanted to get into the action right away without much exposition. I'm not sure how much exposition you really need but some people like to have some context in which to set the scene.
Let me know what you think of the story so far and if you want more background for the story. Readers of this blog will get more information then anyone else so consider yourself special for reading this.

Sketch of page 1

Here are the pencils for page one. It's in blue-line to make it easier to ink. I can send someone the full-size version if you want to ink it. I'm going to do a bunch of sketches before I finalize anything.

Comment below if you have any suggestions or questions.